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Authors: William Blake
The Portable William Blake (35 page)
THE END OF THE FIRST BOOK OF URIZEN
THE BOOK OF AHANIA
(1795)
I1.Fuzon on a chariot iron-wing’d
On spiked flames rose; his hot visage
Flam’d furious; sparkles his hair & beard
Shot down his wide bosom and shoulders.
On clouds of smoke rages his chariot
And his right hand burns red in its cloud
Moulding into a vast Globe his wrath,
As the thunder-stone is moulded.
Son of Urizen’s silent burnings:
On spiked flames rose; his hot visage
Flam’d furious; sparkles his hair & beard
Shot down his wide bosom and shoulders.
On clouds of smoke rages his chariot
And his right hand burns red in its cloud
Moulding into a vast Globe his wrath,
As the thunder-stone is moulded.
Son of Urizen’s silent burnings:
2.“Shall we worship this Demon of smoke,’
Said Fuzon, ”this abstract non-entity,
“This cloudy God seated on waters,
”Now seen, now obscur’d, King of sorrow?’
Said Fuzon, ”this abstract non-entity,
“This cloudy God seated on waters,
”Now seen, now obscur’d, King of sorrow?’
3.So he spoke in a fiery flame,
On Urizen frowning indignant,
The Globe of wrath shaking on high;
Roaring with fury he threw
The howling Globe; burning it flew
Length‘ning into a hungry beam. Swiftly
On Urizen frowning indignant,
The Globe of wrath shaking on high;
Roaring with fury he threw
The howling Globe; burning it flew
Length‘ning into a hungry beam. Swiftly
4.Oppos’d to the exulting flam’d beam,
The broad Disk of Urizen upheav’d
Across the Void many a mile.
The broad Disk of Urizen upheav’d
Across the Void many a mile.
5.It was forg’d in mills where the winter
Beats incessant: ten winters the disk
Unremitting endur’d the cold hammer.
Beats incessant: ten winters the disk
Unremitting endur’d the cold hammer.
6.But the strong arm that sent it remember’d
The sounding beam: laughing, it tore through
That beaten mass, keeping its direction,
The cold loins of Urizen dividing.
The sounding beam: laughing, it tore through
That beaten mass, keeping its direction,
The cold loins of Urizen dividing.
7.Dire shriek’d his invisible Lust;
Deep groan’d Urizen! stretching his awful hand,
Ahania (so name his parted soul)
He siez’d on his mountains of Jealousy.
He groan’d anguish’d, & called her Sin,
Kissing her and weeping over her;
Then hid her in darkness, in silence,
Jealous, tho’ she was invisible.
Deep groan’d Urizen! stretching his awful hand,
Ahania (so name his parted soul)
He siez’d on his mountains of Jealousy.
He groan’d anguish’d, & called her Sin,
Kissing her and weeping over her;
Then hid her in darkness, in silence,
Jealous, tho’ she was invisible.
8.She fell down a faint shadow wand‘ring
In chaos and circling dark Urizen,
As the moon anguish’d circles the earth,
Hopeless! abhorr’d! a death-shadow,
Unseen, unbodied, unknown,
The mother of Pestilence.
In chaos and circling dark Urizen,
As the moon anguish’d circles the earth,
Hopeless! abhorr’d! a death-shadow,
Unseen, unbodied, unknown,
The mother of Pestilence.
9.But the fiery beam of Fuzon
Was a pillar of fire to Egypt
Five hundred years wand‘ring on earth,
Till Los siez’d it and beat in a mass
With the body of the sun.
Was a pillar of fire to Egypt
Five hundred years wand‘ring on earth,
Till Los siez’d it and beat in a mass
With the body of the sun.
1.But the forehead of Urizen gathering,
And his eyes pale with anguish, his lips
And his eyes pale with anguish, his lips
Blue & changing, in tears and bitter
Contrition he prepar’d his Bow,
Contrition he prepar’d his Bow,
2.Form’d of Ribs, that in his dark solitude,
When obscur’d in his forests, fell monsters
Arose. For his dire Contemplations
Rush’d down like floods from his mountains,
In torrents of mud settling thick,
With Eggs of unnatural production:
Forthwith hatching, some howl’d on his hills,
Some in vales, some aloft flew in air.
When obscur’d in his forests, fell monsters
Arose. For his dire Contemplations
Rush’d down like floods from his mountains,
In torrents of mud settling thick,
With Eggs of unnatural production:
Forthwith hatching, some howl’d on his hills,
Some in vales, some aloft flew in air.
3.Of these, an enormous dread Serpent,
Scaled and poisonous horned,
Approach’d Urizen, even to his knees,
As he sat on his dark rooted Oak.
Scaled and poisonous horned,
Approach’d Urizen, even to his knees,
As he sat on his dark rooted Oak.
4.With his horns he push’d furious:
Great the conflict & great the jealousy
In cold poisons, but Urizen smote him.
Great the conflict & great the jealousy
In cold poisons, but Urizen smote him.
5.First he poison’d the rocks with his blood,
Then polish’d his ribs, and his sinews
Dried, laid them apart till winter;
Then a Bow black prepar’d: on this Bow
A poisoned rock plac’d in silence.
He utter’d these words to the Bow:
Then polish’d his ribs, and his sinews
Dried, laid them apart till winter;
Then a Bow black prepar’d: on this Bow
A poisoned rock plac’d in silence.
He utter’d these words to the Bow:
6.”0 Bow of the clouds of secresy!
O nerve of that lust-form’d monster!
Send this rock swift, invisible thro’
The black clouds on the bosom of Fuzon.”
O nerve of that lust-form’d monster!
Send this rock swift, invisible thro’
The black clouds on the bosom of Fuzon.”
7.So saying, In torment of his wounds
He bent the enormous ribs slowly, A circle of darkness! then fixed
The sinew in its rest; then the Rock,
Poisonous source, plac’d with art, lifting difficult
Its weighty bulk; silent the rock lay,
He bent the enormous ribs slowly, A circle of darkness! then fixed
The sinew in its rest; then the Rock,
Poisonous source, plac’d with art, lifting difficult
Its weighty bulk; silent the rock lay,
8.While Fuzon, his tygers unloosing,
Thought Urizen slain by his wrath.
”I am God!” said he, ”eldest of things.”
Thought Urizen slain by his wrath.
”I am God!” said he, ”eldest of things.”
9.Sudden sings the rock; swift & invisible
On Fuzon flew, enter’d his bosom;
His beautiful visage, his tresses
That gave light to the mornings of heaven,
Were smitten with darkness, deform’d
And outstretch’d on the edge of the forest.
On Fuzon flew, enter’d his bosom;
His beautiful visage, his tresses
That gave light to the mornings of heaven,
Were smitten with darkness, deform’d
And outstretch’d on the edge of the forest.
10.But the Rock fell upon the Earth,
Mount Sinai in Arabia.
Mount Sinai in Arabia.
1.The Globe shook, and Urizen seated
On black clouds his sore wound anointed;
The ointment flow’d down on the void
Mix’d with blood—here the snake gets her poison.
On black clouds his sore wound anointed;
The ointment flow’d down on the void
Mix’d with blood—here the snake gets her poison.
2.With difficulty & great pain Urizen
Lifted on high the dead corse:
On his shoulders he bore it to where
A Tree hung over the Immensity.
Lifted on high the dead corse:
On his shoulders he bore it to where
A Tree hung over the Immensity.
3.For when Urizen shrunk away
From Eternals, he sat on a rock
Barren: a rock which himself
From redounding fancies had petrified.
Many tears fell on the rock,
Many sparks of vegetation.
Soon shot the pained root
Of Mystery under his heel:
It grew a thick tree: he wrote
In silence his book of iron,
Till the horrid plant bending its boughs
Grew to roots when it felt the earth,
And again sprung to many a tree.
From Eternals, he sat on a rock
Barren: a rock which himself
From redounding fancies had petrified.
Many tears fell on the rock,
Many sparks of vegetation.
Soon shot the pained root
Of Mystery under his heel:
It grew a thick tree: he wrote
In silence his book of iron,
Till the horrid plant bending its boughs
Grew to roots when it felt the earth,
And again sprung to many a tree.
4.Amaz’d started Urizen, when
He beheld himself compassed round
And high roofed over with trees.
He arose, but the stems stood so thick
He with difficulty and great pain
Brought his Books, all but the Book
Of iron, from the dismal shade.
He beheld himself compassed round
And high roofed over with trees.
He arose, but the stems stood so thick
He with difficulty and great pain
Brought his Books, all but the Book
Of iron, from the dismal shade.
5.The Tree still grows over the Void
Enrooting itself all around,
An endless labyrinth of woe!
Enrooting itself all around,
An endless labyrinth of woe!
6.The corse of his first begotten
On the accursed Tree of Mystery,
On the topmost stem of this Tree,
Urizen nail’d Fuzon’s corse.
On the accursed Tree of Mystery,
On the topmost stem of this Tree,
Urizen nail’d Fuzon’s corse.
1.Forth flew the arrows of pestilence
Round the pale living Corse on the tree.
Round the pale living Corse on the tree.
2.For in Urizen’s slumbers of abstraction
In the infinite ages of Eternity,
When his Nerves of Joy melted & flow’d,
A white Lake on the dark blue air
In perturb’d pain and dismal torment
Now stretching out, now swift conglobing,
In the infinite ages of Eternity,
When his Nerves of Joy melted & flow’d,
A white Lake on the dark blue air
In perturb’d pain and dismal torment
Now stretching out, now swift conglobing,
3.Effluvia vapor’d above
In noxious clouds; these hover’d thick
Over the disorganiz’d Immortal,
Till petrific pain scurf’d o’er the Lakes
As the bones of man, solid & dark.
In noxious clouds; these hover’d thick
Over the disorganiz’d Immortal,
Till petrific pain scurf’d o’er the Lakes
As the bones of man, solid & dark.
4.The clouds of disease hover’d wide
Around the Immortal in torment,
Perching around the hurtling bones,
Disease on disease, shape on shape
Winged screaming in blood & torment.
Around the Immortal in torment,
Perching around the hurtling bones,
Disease on disease, shape on shape
Winged screaming in blood & torment.
5.The Eternal Prophet beat on his anvils;
Enrag’d in the desolate darkness
He forg’d nets of iron around
And Los threw them around the bones.
Enrag’d in the desolate darkness
He forg’d nets of iron around
And Los threw them around the bones.
6.The shapes screaming flutter’d vain:
Some combin’d into muscles & glands,
Some organs for craving and lust;
Most remain’d on the tormented void,
Urizen’s army of horrors.
Some combin’d into muscles & glands,
Some organs for craving and lust;
Most remain’d on the tormented void,
Urizen’s army of horrors.
7.Round the pale living Corse on the Tree
Forty years flew the arrows of pestilence.
Forty years flew the arrows of pestilence.
8.Wailing and terror and woe
Ran thro’ all his dismal world; Forty years all his sons & daughters
Felt their skulls harden; then Asia
Arose in the pendulous deep.
Ran thro’ all his dismal world; Forty years all his sons & daughters
Felt their skulls harden; then Asia
Arose in the pendulous deep.
1.The lamenting voice of Ahania
Weeping upon the void!
And round the Tree of Fuzon,
Distant in solitary night,
Her voice was heard, but no form
Had she; but her tears from clouds
Eternal fell round the Tree.
Weeping upon the void!
And round the Tree of Fuzon,
Distant in solitary night,
Her voice was heard, but no form
Had she; but her tears from clouds
Eternal fell round the Tree.
2.And the voice cried: ”Ah, Urizen! Love!
Flower of morning! I weep on the verge
Of Non-entity; how wide the Abyss
Between Ahania and thee!
Flower of morning! I weep on the verge
Of Non-entity; how wide the Abyss
Between Ahania and thee!
3.“I lie on the verge of the deep;
I see thy dark clouds ascend;
I see thy black forests and floods,
A horrible waste to my eyes!
I see thy dark clouds ascend;
I see thy black forests and floods,
A horrible waste to my eyes!
4.”Weeping I walk over rocks,
Over dens & thro’ valleys of death.
Why didst thou despise Ahania
To cast me from thy bright presence
Into the World of Loneness?
Over dens & thro’ valleys of death.
Why didst thou despise Ahania
To cast me from thy bright presence
Into the World of Loneness?
5.“I cannot touch his hand,
Nor weep on his knees, nor hear
His voice & bow, nor see his eyes
And joy, nor hear his footsteps and
My heart leap at the lovely sound!
I cannot kiss the place
Whereon his bright feet have trod,
But I wander on the rocks
With hard necessity.
Nor weep on his knees, nor hear
His voice & bow, nor see his eyes
And joy, nor hear his footsteps and
My heart leap at the lovely sound!
I cannot kiss the place
Whereon his bright feet have trod,
But I wander on the rocks
With hard necessity.
6.”Where is my golden palace?
Where my ivory bed?
Where the joy of my morning hour?
Where the sons of eternity singing
Where my ivory bed?
Where the joy of my morning hour?
Where the sons of eternity singing
7.“To awake bright Urizen, my king,
To arise to the mountain sport,
To the bliss of eternal valleys;
To arise to the mountain sport,
To the bliss of eternal valleys;
8.”To awake my king in the morn,
To embrace Ahania’s joy
On the bredth of his open bosom?
From my soft cloud of dew to fall
In showers of life on his harvests,
To embrace Ahania’s joy
On the bredth of his open bosom?
From my soft cloud of dew to fall
In showers of life on his harvests,
9.“When he gave my happy soul
To the sons of eternal joy,
When he took the daughters of life
Into my chambers of love,
To the sons of eternal joy,
When he took the daughters of life
Into my chambers of love,
10.”When I found babes of bliss on my beds
And bosoms of milk in my chambers
Fill’d with eternal seed.
O eternal births sung round Ahania
In interchange sweet of their joys!
And bosoms of milk in my chambers
Fill’d with eternal seed.
O eternal births sung round Ahania
In interchange sweet of their joys!
11.“Swell’d with ripeness & fat with fatness,
Bursting on winds, my odors,
My ripe figs and rich pomegranates
In infant joy at thy feet,
0 Urizen, sported and sang.
Bursting on winds, my odors,
My ripe figs and rich pomegranates
In infant joy at thy feet,
0 Urizen, sported and sang.
12.”Then thou with thy lap full of seed,
With thy hand full of generous fire
Walked forth from the clouds of morning,
On the virgins of springing joy,
On the human soul to cast
The seed of eternal science.
With thy hand full of generous fire
Walked forth from the clouds of morning,
On the virgins of springing joy,
On the human soul to cast
The seed of eternal science.
13.“The sweat poured down thy temples;
To Ahania return’d in evening,
The moisture awoke to birth
My mothers-joys, sleeping in bliss
.To Ahania return’d in evening,
The moisture awoke to birth
My mothers-joys, sleeping in bliss
14.”But now alone over rocks, mountains,
Cast out from thy lovely bosom,
Cruel jealousy! selfish fear!
Self-destroying, how can delight
Renew in these chains of darkness,
Where bones of beasts are strown
On the bleak and snowy mountains,
Where bones from the birth are buried
Before they see the light?”
Cast out from thy lovely bosom,
Cruel jealousy! selfish fear!
Self-destroying, how can delight
Renew in these chains of darkness,
Where bones of beasts are strown
On the bleak and snowy mountains,
Where bones from the birth are buried
Before they see the light?”
FINIS
THE BOOK OF LOS
(1795)
I1.Eno, aged Mother,
Who the chariot of Leutha guides
Since the day of thunders in old time,
Who the chariot of Leutha guides
Since the day of thunders in old time,
2.Sitting beneath the eternal Oak
Trembled and shook the steadfast Earth,
And thus her speech broke forth:
Trembled and shook the steadfast Earth,
And thus her speech broke forth:
3.“0 Times remote!
When Love & Joy were adoration,
And none impure were deem’d:
Not Eyeless Covet,
Nor Thin-lip’d Envy,
Nor Bristled Wrath,
Nor Curled Wantonness;
When Love & Joy were adoration,
And none impure were deem’d:
Not Eyeless Covet,
Nor Thin-lip’d Envy,
Nor Bristled Wrath,
Nor Curled Wantonness;
4.”But Covet was poured full,
Envy fed with fat of lambs,
Wrath with lion’s gore,
Wantonness lull’d to sleep
With the virgin’s lute
Or sated with her love;
Envy fed with fat of lambs,
Wrath with lion’s gore,
Wantonness lull’d to sleep
With the virgin’s lute
Or sated with her love;
5.“Till Covet broke his locks 6: ban
And slept with open doors; Envy sung at the rich man’s feast;
Wrath was follow’d up and down
By a little ewe lamb,
And Wantonness on his own true love
Begot a giant race.”
And slept with open doors; Envy sung at the rich man’s feast;
Wrath was follow’d up and down
By a little ewe lamb,
And Wantonness on his own true love
Begot a giant race.”
6.Raging furious, the flames of desire
Ran thro’ heaven & earth, living flames
Intelligent, organix‘d, arm’d
With destruction & plagues. In the midst
The Eternal Prophet, bound in a chain,
Compell’d to watch Urizen’s shadow,
Ran thro’ heaven & earth, living flames
Intelligent, organix‘d, arm’d
With destruction & plagues. In the midst
The Eternal Prophet, bound in a chain,
Compell’d to watch Urizen’s shadow,
7.Rag’d with curses & sparkles of fury:
Round the flames roll, as Los hurls his chains,
Mounting up from his fury, condens’d,
Rolling round & round, mounting on high
Into vacuum, into non-entity
Where nothing was; dashed wide apart,
His feet stamp the eternal fierce-raging
Rivers of wide flame; they roll round
And round on all sides, making their way
Into darkness and shadowy obscurity.
Round the flames roll, as Los hurls his chains,
Mounting up from his fury, condens’d,
Rolling round & round, mounting on high
Into vacuum, into non-entity
Where nothing was; dashed wide apart,
His feet stamp the eternal fierce-raging
Rivers of wide flame; they roll round
And round on all sides, making their way
Into darkness and shadowy obscurity.
8.Wide apart stood the fires: Los remain’d
In the void between fire and fire:
In trembling and horror they beheld him;
They stood wide apart, driv’n by his hands
And his feet, which the nether abyss
Stamp’d in fury and hot indignation.
In the void between fire and fire:
In trembling and horror they beheld him;
They stood wide apart, driv’n by his hands
And his feet, which the nether abyss
Stamp’d in fury and hot indignation.
9.But no light from the fires! all was
Darkness round Los: heat was not; for bound up
Into fiery spheres from his fury,
The gigantic flames trembled and hid.
Darkness round Los: heat was not; for bound up
Into fiery spheres from his fury,
The gigantic flames trembled and hid.
10.Coldness, darkness, obstruction, a Solid
Without fluctuation, hard as adamant,
Black as marble of Egypt, impenetrable,
Bound in the fierce raging Immortal;
And the seperated fires froze in:
A vast solid without fluctuation
Bound in his expanding clear senses.
Without fluctuation, hard as adamant,
Black as marble of Egypt, impenetrable,
Bound in the fierce raging Immortal;
And the seperated fires froze in:
A vast solid without fluctuation
Bound in his expanding clear senses.
1.The Immortal stood frozen amidst The vast rock of eternity times And times, a night of vast durance, Impatient, stifled, stiffen‘d, hard’ned;
2.Till impatience no longer could bear
The hard bondage: rent, rent, the vast solid,
With a crash from immense to immense,
The hard bondage: rent, rent, the vast solid,
With a crash from immense to immense,
3.Cracked across into numberless fragments.
The Prophetic wrath, strugling for vent,
Hurls apart, stamping furious to dust
And crumbling with bursting sobs, heaves
The black marble on high into fragments.
The Prophetic wrath, strugling for vent,
Hurls apart, stamping furious to dust
And crumbling with bursting sobs, heaves
The black marble on high into fragments.
4.Hurl’d apart on all sides as a falling
Rock, the innumerable fragments away
Fell asunder; and horrible vacuum
Beneath him, & on all sides round,
Rock, the innumerable fragments away
Fell asunder; and horrible vacuum
Beneath him, & on all sides round,
5.Falling, falling, Los fell & fell,
Sunk precipitant, heavy, down, down,
Times on times, night on night, day on day—
Truth has bounds, Error none—falling, falling,
Years on years, and ages on ages
Still he fell thro’ the void, still a void
Found for falling, day & night without end;
For tho’ day or night was not, their spaces
Were measur’d by his incessant whirls
In the horrid vacuity bottomless.
Sunk precipitant, heavy, down, down,
Times on times, night on night, day on day—
Truth has bounds, Error none—falling, falling,
Years on years, and ages on ages
Still he fell thro’ the void, still a void
Found for falling, day & night without end;
For tho’ day or night was not, their spaces
Were measur’d by his incessant whirls
In the horrid vacuity bottomless.
6.The Immortal revolving, indignant,
First in wrath threw his limbs like the babe
New born into our world: wrath subsided,
And contemplative thoughts first arose;
Then aloft his head rear’d in the Abyss
And his downward-borne fall chang’d oblique
First in wrath threw his limbs like the babe
New born into our world: wrath subsided,
And contemplative thoughts first arose;
Then aloft his head rear’d in the Abyss
And his downward-borne fall chang’d oblique
7.Many ages of groans, till there grew
Branchy forms organizing the Human
Into finite inflexible organs;
Branchy forms organizing the Human
Into finite inflexible organs;
8.Till in process from falling he bore
Sidelong on the purple air, wafting
The weak breeze in efforts o‘erwearied.
Sidelong on the purple air, wafting
The weak breeze in efforts o‘erwearied.
9.Incessant the falling Mind labour’d,
Organizing itself, till the Vacuum
Became element, pliant to rise
Or to fall or to swim or to fly,
With ease searching the dire vacuity.
Organizing itself, till the Vacuum
Became element, pliant to rise
Or to fall or to swim or to fly,
With ease searching the dire vacuity.
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