by William Blake

Edited Text

Do what you will this life's a fiction,

And is made up of contradiction.

MS. Book, p. 98, above stanza C 4 of ' Fayette' (MS. Book, xxxvi), which
appears upside down, written from the reversed end of the book. Printed
here for first time.

Other Versions

Do what you will this Life’s a fiction,

And is made up [o] of Contradiction.

(The Everlasting Gospel, fragment "j" 50-51)

Versions Written Elsewhere in the MS. Book

a)

This corporeal life’s a fiction

And is made up of contradiction.

(The Everlasting Gospel, deleted in fragment "k" )

b)

This corporeal All a fiction

And is made up of Contradiction.

(The Everlasting Gospel, deleted in fragment "k" )

c)

All corporeal life’s a fiction

And is made up of Contradiction.

(The Everlasting Gospel, deleted in fragment "k" )

d)

Reasoning upon its own Dark Fiction

In Doubt which is Self Contradiction.

(The Everlasting Gospel, fragment "k" 91-92)

Colophon

This archival text follows the English Wikisource page Do_what_you_will_this_life%27s_a_fiction, rendered or exported on June 2, 2026. The underlying text is William Blake's public-domain work; the Wikisource transcription layer is preserved here as an archival public source witness.

Source URL: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Do_what_you_will_this_life%27s_a_fiction

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