Thel

The eternal gate' terrific porter lifted the northern bar.
Thel entered in and saw the secrets of the land unknown.

She saw the couches of the dead, and where the fibrous roots

Of every heart on earth infixes deep its restless twists -

A land of sorrows and of tears where never smile was seen.

She wandered in the land of clouds, through valleys dark, listening

Dolours and lamentations; waiting oft beside a dewy grave

She stood in silence, listening to the voices of the ground,

Till to her own grave plot she came.

William Blake

Thel (1789)

(4.1-9)

From

The Gothic. Punter, David and Byron Glennis, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford 2004