• English Literature and Linguistics

  William Blake	I have studied English Literature and Linguistics at the Eötvös Lóránd University of Sciences, Faculty of Arts (ELTE BTK), Department of English Literature and Linguistics (DELL) in Budapest. Due to my deep involvement in philosophy I was more attracted to literature and especially mysticism and mystic poetry. Therefore I have specialized on the British mystics, such as John Milton and William Blake.
  Essays
  Course Description

  

  William Blake - The Book of Urizen

  In my thesis I carry out a close-reading of William Blake's The Book of Urizen. My analysis observes the accordance between Blake's work and the hermetic traditions, especially on the philosophical side. In my analyses I draw immediate parallels between Blake's visionary work and the teachings of various mystic and hermetic traditions and outline the obvious correspondences of the two. My aim is not to find immediate historical or referential links between the poem and the mystic teachings, but to reveal the possible meaning of the visionary epic. I wish to show the connections between Blake's visionary poetry as art and formulated philosophies both depicting the same universal truths. My point is to show the universality of the ideas expressed.

  Therefore I draw immediate analogies from the traditions and teachings of Gnosticism, Neoplatonism and Greek mythology, the Sumerian and Persian mythology, Hermetic philosophy, Alchemy and Occultism, the Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism, and some Eastern examples from Hindu, Buddhist and Chinese philosophy. I also draw parallels with the Bible and John Milton's Paradise Lost. Furthermore, I don't only give a complex analyses of Blake's The Book of Urizen, but also William Blake the visionary mystic. That is why chapters I & II are included. Altogether my work is a tribute to the great master of poetry, William Blake himself - the seer of universal truths.

  The Book of Urizen is Blake's Genesis, and the core of his Bible of Hell, re-shaping the Fall and the Creation of the physical universe. It is also the locus for his mythology in 'A Song of Liberty', America, Europe, The Song of Los, The Book of Ahania and The Book of Los, all of which rest on the ideas presented in this poem. Urizen, like Milton's Satan, was an angel enjoying the immoral life, though among democracy of immortals. He is not cast out for rebellion against law, but separates himself by demanding that Law be established. Los, the immortal artist, emerges to define, clarify and make sense of the disaster, by the power of imagination. Blake works in many more allusions. Los becomes Adam, and Enitharmon his Eve. Orc is born to her, like Cain, but also the Serpent.

  The storyline of the poem is as follows: Urizen - a god of Reason who separates himself from other Eternals, demands obedience to his self-proclaimed principles, and falls into Chaos - is an abstract, vain and punitive deity. A body is created for him by , 'the eternal prophet' or Divine Imagination. But Los, exhausted, divides into male (Los) and female (Enitharmon). Their child Orc - who represents Rebellious Energy - is born but immediately chained to a rock. Urizen then explores his deadly world, and mankind shrinks up from Eternity. Finally, some of Urizen's children begin an exodus.

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  Here is the content of my thesis-paper:

  William Blake - The Book of Urizen I. Introducing William Blake II. Major Influences The Romantic period Protestant mysticism Political Radicalism Neoplatonism Freemasonry and Secret Societies The New Church III. The Book of Urizen The Chapters Preludium Chapter I. - Urizen Chapter II. - Prior to Existence Chapter III. - Grasping Subsistence Chapter IV. - Taking form Chapter V. - Foundations of Life Chapter VI. - Generation Chapter VII. - Chains of Being Chapter VIII. - The Material World Chapter IX. - The Human Race Appendix: William Blake - The Book of Urizen Bibliography List of Plates

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