To Tirzah by William Blake

To Tirzah is a poem by William Blake that was published in his collection Songs of Experience. It is often described as the most difficult of the poems because it refers to an oblique character called "Tirzah", whose identity remains obscure. Tirzah is apparently to be rejected as a demonic figure. According to Northrop Frye, Blake identified the name Tirzah with worldliness, because the name appears in the Bible to refer to both a rebellious town and to one of the Daughters of Zelophehad. The latter story was about female inheritance rights which were linked to restrictions on marriage and the maintenance of tribal boundaries. Blake therefore took the name Tirzah to be a symbolic reference to worldly materialism, as opposed to the spiritual realm of Jerusalem.

Blake's illustration to the poem depicts two women holding a naked prostrate male figure who appears to be unconscious or dead. An elderly man prepares to pour liquid from a jug over the figure. On the elderly man's clothing the words "it is raised a spiritual body" are written.

Text
Whate'er is born of mortal birth Must be consumed with the earth, To rise from generation free: Then what have I to do with thee?

The sexes sprung from shame and pride, Blowed in the morn, in evening died; But mercy changed death into sleep; The sexes rose to work and weep.

Thou, mother of my mortal part, With cruelty didst mould my heart, And with false self-deceiving tears Didst blind my nostrils, eyes, and ears,

Didst close my tongue in senseless clay, And me to mortal life betray. The death of Jesus set me free: Then what have I to do with thee?