THE LAMB OF GOD: IN LUVAH'S ROBES OF BLOOD


separated from the specialized terms of the first line (with which he has
been previously associated) as well as from the action of sinking down
(which is now attributed solely to Luvah). These characteristics of the
passage argue for the narrator's (or, more disturbingly, the Divine Vi-
sion's) ignorance of the presence of Eternal Death since we know that the
narrator has himself already revealed more sides to "Eternal Death" than
he offers here.
 This confusion is re-enacted by the Daughters of Beulah in Night IV,
where the identity of the figure clothed in Luvah's robes is ambiguous:
"The Council of God on high watching over the Body / Of Man clothd in
Luvahs robes of blood" (55:10-11). At first the Daughters perceive this
"Descending" image as "the Divine Vision" (55:12-13). Nearly repeating
Enion's words to Tharmas in Night I (4:23) they say that these garments
allow them to "behold thee / And live" (56:5-6). Yet (as if these words
reintroduce Enion into the poem) they immediately switch from a cry of
supplication to a cry of terror: "Behold Eternal Death is in Beulah Behold /
We perish" (56:6-7). The confusion of their gesture is located at the
period that both separates and connects the two acts of beholding: "that
we may behold thee / And live. Behold Eternal Death is in Beulah." They
request that the "Saviour" disguise himself so they can bear to see him, yet
the form he assumes equally forces them to behold "Eternal Death." The
double form of beholding reveals horrific aspects of the image, which is
initially perceived as redemptive. Despite the Lamb's conspicuous absence
from this scene, prior semantic overlapping of terms implicates the
unconscious presence of the Lamb in "Luvah's robes." The sacrificial
implication of the "robes of blood" appears and disappears mysteriously
-at times almost nightmarishly-in the first four Nights.
 Even when the Lamb appears in VIIa (87:44), where Los seems to be
moving toward "repentance" and "contrition," Los and Enitharmon give
diametrically opposed interpretations of the meaning of the Lamb's de-
scent. Since Los and Enitharmon have both just eaten the "intoxicating"
fruit of the Tree of Mystery and are therefore equally subject to perceptual
distortion, it is impossible to decide between the two accounts of the
Lamb they utter. Blake's text at this point presupposes two radically dif-
ferent readers -one who needs to accept Los's providential reading of the
Lamb's descent and reject Enitharmon's in order to allow the Lamb to
resolve the poem's tensions, and one who recognizes that making such
undialectical decisions severely damages the closely woven fabric of
Blake's transformational narrative. Los says: "but look! behold! take com-
fort! / Turn inwardly thine Eyes & there behold the Lamb of God /Clothed
in Luvahs robes of blood descending to redeem" (87:43-45). Seeing this
strange figure descending, Enitharmon perceives the opposite: "I behold
the Lamb of God descending / To Meet these Spectres of the Dead I
therefore fear that he / Will give us to Eternal Death." Though she makes
no reference to the blood-spattered robes, she concludes: "nor will the Son
of God redeem us but destroy" (87:53-55, 60). Blake had already estab-


The bizarre dimensions
of beholding the figure
in Luvah's robes of
blood










The Lamb's entrance
into Night VIIa in the
conflicting interpreta-
tions of Los and Enithar-
mon