Proverbs of Hell

Heaven: a place of oppression and authoritarian destruction of the self?
Hell: a place of liberation, energy and explosive endless possibilities for the human imagination?

In Jerusalem, Blake says "I must create a system or be enslav'd by another man's." In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Blake has absolutely created his own system to say the least. He has made his own universe within the text, one in which the poet-prophet is born. He plays with the concept of contraries (good and evil, heaven and hell, reason and energy) and reverses their conventional meanings, celebrating the forces that society has deemed evil and satanic.

The Proverbs of Hell seems to be the most controversial poem within the text, boasting some extremely provocative lines.

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom: BE EXCESSIVE!!!!! do too much, feel too much, go too far into this world i'm creating. go so far off the road of this reality society has created. the farther away you stray, the more wisdom you will achieve.

He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence: LISTEN TO YOUR DESIRES!!!! if you nurse but never act upon your desires, it will result in a disgusting, bodily, pestilence. to let the chains of 'heaven' deter you from acting upon what you desire is literally sickly

Dip him in the water who loves water: Do what you want. It's that simple. If you love something immerse yourself in it. Absolutely nothing should stand in the way of that. If you want water, go swimming!

He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star: RADIATE. let energy live within you.

Eternity is in love with the productions of time: Eternity is this endless, romantic, eternal, untouchable concept. Eternity exists in Blake's most explosive, creative zoa; the space where man can accomplish genius. The productions of time are something you can quantify, divide and use logic to diminish into a number; something that exists in the logical world of heaven. By uniting the two in this line, saying that something fueled with the energy of hell (eternity) can be in love with something that belongs to the logistical world of heaven (the productions of time), Blake explains the whole reason for the marriage of the two. Eternity is in love with the productions of time! There can be no eternity without the productions of time, because without one there would be no contrary. If time could not be divided and produced, it could not be eternal. Eternity can be endless because it is not being contained to the notion of time. There would be nothing to fight against without time. There would be no hell without a heaven to fight against. Without heaven's oppressions and shackles, Hell would not be inspired and fueled to explode with genius energy. Here, through the devil's voice Blake is saying that the world of Heaven, with all of its horrible religions and systems, MUST exist because without it there would be no hell. I believe this singular line encapsulates the heart of Marriage of Heaven and Hell as a whole.

All wholsom food is caught without a net or a trap: The most rewarding nourishment to man cannot be contained to a physical space. It cannot be contained period. It is something that exists on a plane beyond nets and traps.

No bird soars too high. if he soars with his own wings: This goes along with the line from Jerusalem, ("I must create my own system or be enslav'd by another man's.") Man's potential is endless, if he creates his own system of thought and truth.

Enough! or Too much: This ties back into the road of excess. Exceed your concept of enough. Blow it up. That is how genius through the energy of Blake's hell is achieved. TOO MUCH!