William Blake
The Book of Urizen
[Plate 2.]
Preludium to the First Book of Urizen
Of
the primeval Priest's assum'd power,
When Eternals spurn'd back his religion
And gave him a place in the north,
Obscure, shadowy, void, solitary.
Eternals!
I hear your call gladly.
Dictate swift winged words & fear not
to unfold your dark visions of torment.
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[Plate
3.]
Chapter I.
1. Lo,
a shadow of horror is risen
In Eternity! Unknown, unprolific,
Self-clos'd, all-repelling: what demon
Hath form'd this abominable void,
This soul-shudd'ring vacuum? Some said
"It is Urizen." But unknown, abstracted,
Brooding, secret, the dark power hid.
2. Times
on times he divided and measur'd
Space by space in his ninefold darkness,
Unseen, unknown; changes appear'd
Like desolate mountains, rifted furious
By the black winds of perturbation.
3. For
he strove in battles dire,
In unseen conflictions with shapes
Bred from his forsaken wilderness
Of beast, bird, fish, serpent and element,
Combustion, blast, vapour and cloud.
4. Dark,
revolving in silent activity:
Unseen in tormenting passions:
An activity unknown and horrible,
A self-contemplating shadow,
In enormous labours occupied.
5. But
Eternals beheld his vast forests;
Age on ages he lay, clos'd, unknown,
Brooding shut in the deep; all avoid
The petrific, abominable chaos.
6. His
cold horrors silent, dark Urizen
Prepar'd; his ten thousands of thunders,
Rang'd in gloom'd array, stretch out across
The dread world; and the rolling of wheels,
As of swelling seas, sound in his clouds,
In his hills of stor'd snows, in his mountains
Of hail and ice; voices of terror
Are heard, like thunders of autumn
When the cloud blazes over the harvests.
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[Plate
3.] |
Chapter II.
1. Earth
was not: nor globes of attraction;
The will of the Immortal expanded
Or contracted his all flexible senses;
Death was not, but eternal life sprung.
2. The
sound of a trumpet the heavens
Awoke & vast clouds of blood roll'd
Round the dim rocks of Urizen, so nam'd
That solitary one in Immensity.
3. Shrill
the trumpet: & myriads of Eternity
Muster
around the bleak desarts,
Now fill'd with clouds, darkness, & waters,
that roll'd perplex'd, lab'ring; & utter'd
Words articulate bursting in thunders
that roll'd on the tops of his mountains:
4. "From
the depths of dark solitude, From
The eternal abode in my holiness,
Hidden, set apart, in my stern counsels,
Reserv'd for the days of futurity,
I have sought for a joy without pain,
For a solid without fluctuation.
Why will you die, O Eternals?
Why live in unquenchable burnings?
5. "First
I fought with the fire, consum'd
Inwards into a deep world within:
A void immense, wild, dark & deep,
Where nothing was: Nature's wide womb;
And self balanc'd, stretch'd o'er the void,
I alone, even I! the winds merciless
Bound; but condensing in torrents
They fall & fall; strong I repell'd
The vast waves, & arose on the waters
A wide world of solid obstruction.
6. "Here
alone I, in books form'd of metals,
Have written the secrets of wisdom,
The secrets of dark contemplation,
By fightings and conflicts dire
With terrible monsters Sin-bred
Which the bosoms of all inhabit,
Seven deadly Sins of the soul.
7. "Lo!
I unfold my darkness, and on
This rock place with strong hand the Book
0f eternal brass, written in my solitude:
8. "Laws
of peace, of love, of unity,
Of pity, compassion, forgiveness;
Let each chuse one habitation,
His ancient infinite mansion,
One command, one joy, one desire,
0ne curse, one weight, one measure,
One King, one God, one Law."
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[Plate
4.]
[Plate
4b.] |
Chapter
III.
1. The
voice ended: they saw his pale visage
Emerge from the darkness, his hand
On the rock of eternity unclasping
The Book of brass. Rage siez'd the strong,
2. Rage,
fury, intense indignation,
In cataracts of fire, blood, & gall,
In whirlwinds of sulphurous smoke,
And enormous forms of energy,
All the seven deadly sins of the soul
[Plate 5.]
In living
creations appear'd,
In the flames of eternal fury.
3.
Sund'ring, dark'ning, thund'ring,
Rent away with a terrible crash,
Eternity roll'd wide apart,
Wide asunder rolling;
Mountainous all around
Departing, departing, departing,
Leaving ruinous fragments of life
Hanging, frowning cliffs & all between,
An ocean of voidness unfathomable.
4. The
roaring fires ran o'er the heav'ns
In whirlwinds & cataracts of blood,
And o'er the dark desarts of Urizen
Fires pour thro' the void on all sides
On Urizen's self-begotten armies.
5. But
no light from the fires: all was darkness
In the flames of Eternal fury.
6. In
fierce anguish & quenchless flames
To the desks and rocks he ran raging
To hide; but he could not: combining,
He dug mountains & hills in vast strength,
He piled them in incessant labour,
In howlings & pangs & fierce madness,
Long periods in burning fires labouring
Till hoary, and age-broke, and aged,
In despair and the shadows of death.
7. And
a roof vast, petrific around
On all sides he fram'd, like a womb,
Where thousands of rivers in veins
Of blood pour down the mountains to cool
The eternal fires, beating without
From Eternals; & like a black globe,
View'd by sons of Eternity standing
On the shore of the infinite ocean,
Like a human heart, strugling & beating,
The vast world of Urizen appear'd.
8. And
Los, round the dark globe of Urizen,
Kept watch for Eternals to confine
The obscure separation alone;
For Eternity stood wide apart,
[Plate 6.]
As the
stars are apart from the earth.
9. Los
wept, howling around the dark Demon,
And cursing his lot; for in anguish
Urizen was rent from his side,
And a fathomless void for his feet,
And intense fires for his dwelling.
10. But
Urizen laid in a stony sleep,
Unorganiz'd, rent from Eternity.
11. The
Eternals said: "What is this? Death.
Urizen is a clod of clay."
[Plate 7.]
12.
Los howl'd in a dismal stupor,
Groaning, gnashing, groaning,
Till the wrenching apart was healed.
13. But
the wrenching of Urizen heal'd not.
Cold, featureless, flesh or clay,
Rifted with direful changes,
He lay in a dreamless night,
14. Till
Los rouz'd his fires, affrighted
At the formless, unmeasurable death.
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[Plate 5.]
[Plate 6.]
[Plate 6b.]
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Chapter IV.
[Plate 8.]
1. Los,
smitten with astonishment,
Frighten'd at the hurtling bones
2. And
at the surging, sulphureous,
Perturbed Immortal, mad raging
3. In
whirlwinds & pitch & nitre
Round the furious limbs of Los.
4. And
Los formed nets & gins
And threw the nets round about.
5. He
watch'd in shudd'ring fear
The dark changes, & bound every change
With rivets of iron & brass.
6. And
these were the changes of Urizen.
[Plate 10.]
1. Ages
on ages roll'd over him;
In stony sleep ages roll'd over him,
Like a dark waste stretching, chang'able,
By earthquakes riv'n, belching sullen fires:
On ages roll'd ages in ghastly
Sick torment; around him in whirlwinds
Of darkness the eternal Prophet howl'd,
Beating still on his rivets of iron,
Pouring sodor of iron; dividing
The horrible night into watches.
2. And
Urizen (so his eternal name)
His prolific delight obscur'd more & more
In dark secresy, hiding in surgeing
Sulphureous fluid his phantasies.
The Eternal Prophet heav'd the dark bellows,
And turn'd restless the tongs, and the hammer
Incessant beat, forging chains new & new,
Numb'ring with links hours, days & years,
3. The
Eternal mind, bounded, began to roll
Eddies of wrath ceaseless round & round,
And the sulphureous foam, surgeing thick,
Settled, a lake, bright & shining clear,
White as the snow on the mountains cold.
4. Forgetfulness,
dumbness, necessity,
In chains of the mind locked up,
Like fetters of ice shrinking together,
Disorganiz'd, rent from Eternity,
Los beat on his fetters of iron,
And heated his furnaces, & pour'd
Iron sodor and sodor of brass.
5. Restless
turn'd the Immortal inchain'd,
Heaving dolorous, anguish'd unbearable;
Till a roof, shaggy wild, inclos'd
In an orb his fountain of thought.
6. In
a horrible, dreamful slumber,
Like the linked infernal chain,
A vast Spine writh'd in torment
Upon the winds, shooting pain'd
Ribs, like a bending cavern;
And bones of solidness froze
Over all his nerves of joy.
And a first Age passed over,
And a state of dismal woe.
[Plate 11.]
7. From
the caverns of his jointed Spine
Down sunk with fright a red
Round Globe, hot burning, deep,
Deep down into the Abyss;
Panting, Conglobing, Trembling,
Shooting out ten thousand branches
Around his solid bones.
And a second Age passed over,
And a state of dismal woe.
8. In
harrowing fear rolling round,
His nervous brain shot branches
Round the branches of his heart
On high into two little orbs,
And fixed in two little caves,
Hiding carefully from the wind,
His Eyes beheld the deep.
And a third Age passed over,
And a state of dismal woe.
9. The
pangs of hope began.
In heavy pain, striving, struggling,
Two Ears in close volutions
From beneath his orbs of vision
Shot spiring out and petrified
As they grew. And a fourth Age passed,
And a state of dismal woe.
10. In
ghastly torment sick,
Hanging upon the wind,
[Plate 13.]
Two
Nostrils bend down to the deep.
And a fifth Age passed over,
And a state of dismal woe.
11. In
ghastly torment sick,
Within his ribs bloated round,
A craving Hungry Cavern;
Thence arose his channel'd Throat.
And, like a red flame, a Tongue
Of thirst & of hunger appear'd.
And a sixth Age passed over,
And a state of dismal woe.
12. Enraged & stifled with torment,
He threw his right Arm to the north,
His left Arm to the south
Shooting out in anguish deep,
And his feet stamp'd the nether Abyss
In trembling & howling & dismay.
And a seventh Age passed over,
And a state of dismal woe.
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[Plate
8.]
[Plate
9.]
[Plate
10.]
[Plate
11.]
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Chapter
V.
1. In
terrors Los shrunk from his task:
His great hammer fell from his hand.
His fires beheld, and sickening
Hid their strong limbs in smoke;
For with noises, ruinous, loud,
With hurtlings & clashings & groans,
The Immortal endur'd his chains,
Tho' bound in a deadly sleep.
2. All
the myraids of Eternity
All the wisdom & joy of life
Roll like a sea around him,
Except what his little orbs
Of sight by degrees unfold.
3. And
now his eternal life
Like a dream was obliterated.
4. Shudd'ring
the Eternal Prophet smote
With a stroke from his north to south region.
The bellows & hammer are silent now;
A nerveless silence his prophetic Voice
Siez'd; a cold solitude & dark void
The Eternal Prophet & Urizen clos'd.
5. Ages
on ages roll'd over them,
Cut off from life & light, frozen
Into horrible forms of deformity.
Los suffer'd his fires to decay.
Then he look'd back with anxious desire,
But the space, undivided by existence,
Struck horror into his soul.
6. Los
wept obscur'd with mourning,
His bosom earthquak'd with sighs;
He saw Urizen deadly black
In his chains bound, & Pity began,
7. In
anguish dividing & dividing,
For pity divides the soul
In pangs, eternity on eternity,
Life in cataracts pour'd down his cliffs.
The void shrunk the lymph into Nerves
Wandering wide on the bosom of night
And left a round globe of blood
Trembling upon the Void.
[Plate 15.]
Thus
the Eternal Prophet was divided
Before the death image of Urizen;
For in changeable clouds and darkness,
In a winterly night beneath,
The Abyss of Los stretch'd immense;
And now
seen, now obscur'd, to the eyes
Of Eternals the visions remote
Of the dark separation appear'd:
As glasses discover Worlds
In the endless Abyss of space,
So the expanding eyes of Immortals
Beheld the dark visions of Los
And the globe of life blood trembling.
[Plate 18.]
8. The
globe of life blood trembled
Branching out into roots,
Fibrous, writhing upon the winds,
Fibres of blood, milk and tears,
In pangs; eternity on eternity.
At length in tears & cries imbodied,
A female form, trembling and pale,
Waves before his deathy face.
9. All
Eternity shudder'd at sight
Of the first female now separate,
Pale as a cloud of snow
Waving before the face of Los.
10. Wonder,
awe, fear, astonishment,
Perify the eternal myriads;
At the first female form now separate
[Plate
19.]
They call’d her Pity, and fled.
11. ‘Spread
a Tent, with strong curtains around them!’
‘Let cords & stakes bind in the Void
That Eternals may no longer behold them’
12. They
began to weave curtains of darkness
They erected large pillars around the Void
With golden hooks fastened in the pillars
With infinite labour the Eternals
A woof wove, and called it Science.
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[Plate
15.]
[Plate
17.]
[Plate
18.]
[Plate
19.] |
Chapter
VI.
1. But
Los saw the Female & pitied;
He embraced her; she wept; she refus'd;
In perverse and cruel delight
She fled from his arms, yet he follow'd.
2. Eternity
shudder'd when they saw
Man begetting his likeness On his own divided image.
3. A
time passed over: the Eternals
Began to erect the tent,
When Enitharmon, sick,
Felt a Worm within her Womb.
4. Yet helpless it lay like a Worm
In the trembling womb
To be moulded into existence.
5. All
day the worm lay on her bosom;
All night within her womb
The worm lay till it grew to a serpent,
With dolorous hissings & poisons
Round Enitharmon's loins folding.
6. Coil'd
within Enitharmon's womb
The serpent grew, casting its scales;
With sharp pangs the hissings began
To change to a grating cry:
Many sorrows and dismal throes,
Many forms of fish, bird & beast
Brought forth an Infant form
Where was a worm before.
7. The
Eternals their tent finished
Alarm'd with these gloomy visions,
When Enitharmon groaning
Produc'd a man Child to the light.
8. A
shriek ran thro' Eternity,
And a paralytic stroke,
At the birth of the Human shadow.
9. Delving
earth in his resistless way,
Howling, the Child with fierce flames
Issu'd from Enitharmon.
10. The
Eternals closed the tent;
They beat down the stakes; the cords
[Plate 20.]
Stretched for a work of eternity.
No more Los beheld Eternity.
11. In
his hands he siez'd the infant,
He bathed him in springs of sorrow,
He gave him to Enitharmon.
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[Plate
20.] |
Chapter
VII.
1. They
named the child Orc; he grew,
Fed with milk of Enitharmon.
2. Los awoke her. O sorrow & pain!
A tight'ning girdle grew,
Around his bosom. In sobbings
He burst the girdle in twain;
But still another girdle
Oppress'd his bosom. In sobbings
Again he burst it. Again
Another girdle succeeds.
The girdle was form'd by day,
By night was burst in twain.
3. These
falling down on the rock
Into an iron Chain
In each other link by link lock'd.
4. They
took Orc to the top of a mountain.
O how Enitharmon wept!
They chain'd his young limbs to the rock
With the Chain of Jealousy
Beneath Urizenes deathful shadow.
5. The
dead heard the voice of the child
And began to awake from sleep;
All things heard the voice of the child
And began to awake to life.
6. And
Urizen, craving with hunger,
Stung with the odours of Nature,
Explored his dens around.
7. He
form'd a line & a plummet
To divide the Abyss beneath;
He form'd a dividing rule;
8. He
formed scales to weigh,
He formed massy weights;
He formed a brazen quadrant;
He formed golden compasses;
And began to explore the Abyss;
And he planted a garden of fruits.
9. But
Los encircled Enitharmon
With fires of Prophecy
From the sight of Urizen & Orc.
10. And
she bore an enormous race.
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[Plate
21.]
[Plate
23.] |
Chapter
VIII.
1. Urizen
explor'd his dens,
Mountain, moor & wilderness,
With a globe of fire lighting his journey,
A fearful journey, annoy'd
By cruel enormities, forms
[Plate 23.]
Of life on his forsaken mountains.
2. And
his world teem'd vast enormities,
Fright'ning, faithless, fawning
Portions of life, similitudes
Of a foot, or a hand, or a head,
Or a heart, or an eye; they swarm mischevous,
Dread terrors, delighting in blood.
3. Most
Urizen sicken'd to see
His eternal creations appear,
Sons & daughters of sorrow on mountains
Weeping, wailing. First Thiriel appeared,
Astonish'd at his own existence
Like a man from a cloud born; & Utha,
From the waters emerging laments!
Grodna rent the deep earth howling
Amaz’d! his heavens immense cracks
Like the ground parch’d with heat; then Fuzon
Flam’d out! First begotten, last born.
All his eternal sons in like manner
His daughters from green herbs & cattle
From monsters, & worms of the pit.
4. He
in darkness clos'd view'd all his race,
And his soul sicken'd! he curs'd
Both sons & daughters; for he saw
That no flesh nor spirit could keep
His iron laws one moment.
5. For
he saw that life liv'd upon death:
[Plate
25.]
The
Ox in the slaughter house moans,
The Dog at the wintry door;
And he wept & he called it Pity,
And his tears flowed down on the winds.
6. Cold
he wander'd on high, over their cities
In weeping & pain & Woe;
And wherever he wander'd, in sorrows
Upon the aged heavens,
A cold shadow follow'd behind him
Like a spider's web, moist, cold & dim,
Drawing out from his sorrowing soul,
The dungeon-like heaven dividing,
Where ever the footsteps of Urizen
Walked over the cities in sorrow ;
7. Till
a Web, dark & cold, throughout all
The tormented element stretch'd
From the sorrows of Urizen's soul.
And the Web is a Female in embrio.
None could break the Web, no wings of fire,
8. So
twisted the cords, & so knotted
The meshes, twisted like to the human brain.
9. And
all call'd it The Net of Religion.
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[Plate
23b.]
[Plate
24.]
[Plate
25.] |
Chapter
IX.
1. Then
the Inhabitants of those Cities
Felt their Nerves change into Marrow,
And hardening Bones began
In swift diseases and torments,
In throbbings & shootings & grindings
Thro' all the coasts; till weaken'd
The Senses inward rush'd, shrinking
Beneath the dark net of infection;
2. Till
the shrunken eyes, clouded over,
Discern'd not the woven hipocrisy.
But the streaky slime in their heavens,
Brought together by narrowing perceptions,
Appear'd transparent air; for their eyes
Grew small like the eyes of a man,
And in reptile forms shrinking together,
Of seven feet stature they remain'd.
3. Six
days they shrunk up from existence,
And on the seventh day they rested,
And they bless'd the seventh day, in sick hope,
And forgot their eternal life.
4. And
their thirty cities divided
In form of a human heart.
No more could they rise at will
In the infinite void, but bound down
To earth by their narrowing perceptions
[Plate
28.]
They
lived a period of years;
Then left a noisom body
To the jaws of devouring darkness.
5. And
their children wept, & built
Tombs in the desolate places,
And form'd laws of prudence, and call'd them
The eternal laws of God.
6. And
the thirty cities remain'd,
Surrounded by salt floods, now call'd
Africa: its name was then Egypt.
7. The
remaining sons of Urizen
Beheld their brethren shrink together
Beneath the Net of Urizen.
Perswasion was in vain;
For the ears of the inhabitants
Were wither'd & deafen'd & cold,
And their eyes could not discern
Their brethren of other cities.
8. So
Fuzon call'd all together
The remaining children of Urizen,
And they left the pendulous earth.
They called it Egypt, & left it.
9. And
the salt Ocean rolled englob'd.
THE END OF THE
FIRST BOOK OF URIZEN
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[Plate
26.]
[Plate
28.] |
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