And all the rest a desart;
Till, like a dream, Eternity was obliterated & erased.
Since that dread day when Har and Heva fled
Because their brethren & sisters liv’d in War & Lust;
And as they fled they shrunk
Into two narrow doleful forms
Creeping in reptile flesh upon
The bosom of the ground;
And all the vast of Nature shrunk
Before their shrunken eyes.
Thus the terrible race of Los & Enitharmon gave
Laws & Religions to the sons of Har, binding them more And more to Earth, closing and restraining,
Till a Philosophy of Five Senses was complete.
Urizen wept & gave it into the hands of Newton & Locke.
Clouds roll heavy upon the Alps round Rousseau & Voltaire,
And on the mountains of Lebanon round the deceased Gods
Of Asia, & on the desarts of Africa round the Fallen Angels
The Guardian Prince of Albion burns in his nightly tent.
ASIA
The Kings of Asia heard
The howl rise up from Europe,
And each ran out from his Web,
From his ancient woven Den;
For the darkness of Asia was startled
At the thick-flaming, thought-creating fires of Orc.
And the Kings of Asia stood
And cried in bitterness of soul:
“Shall not the King call for Famine from the heath,
Nor the Priest for Pestilence from the fen,
To restrain, to dismay, to thin
The inhabitants of mountain and plain,
In the day of full-feeding prosperity
And the night of delicious songs?
“Shall not the Councellor throw his curb
Of Poverty on the laborious,
To fix the price of labour,
To invent allegoric riches?
“And the privy admonishers of men
Call for fires in the City,
For heaps of smoking ruins
In the night of prosperity & wantonness?
“To turn man from his path,
To restrain the child from the womb,
To cut off the bread from the city,
That the remnant may learn to obey,
“That the pride of the heart may fail,
That the lust of the eyes may be quench‘d,
That the delicate ear in its infancy
May be dull’d, and the nostrils clos’d up,
To teach mortal worms the path
That leads from the gates of the Grave?”
Urizen heard them cry,
And his shudd’ring, waving wings
Went enormous above the red flames,
Drawing clouds of despair thro’ the heavens
Of Europe as he went.
And his Books of brass, iron & gold
Melted over the land as he flew,
Heavy-waving, howling, weeping.
And he stood over Judea,
And stay’d in his ancient place,
And stretch’d his clouds over Jerusalem;
For Adam, a mouldering skeleton,
Lay bleach’d on the garden of Eden;
And Noah, as white as snow,
On the mountains of Ararat.
Then the thunders of Urizen bellow’d aloud
From his woven darkness above.
Ore, raging in European darkness,
Arose like a pillar of fire above the Alps,
Like a serpent of fiery flame!
The sullen Earth
Shrunk!
Forth from the dead dust, rattling bones to bones
Join; shaking convuls‘d, the shiv’ring clay breathes,
And all flesh naked stands: Fathers and Friends,
Mothers & Infants, Kings & Warriors.
The Grave shrieks with delight & shakes
Her hollow womb & clasps the solid stem:
Her bosom swells with wild desire,
And milk & blood & glandous wine
In rivers rush & shout & dance,
On mountain, dale and plain.
The SONG of LOS is Ended.
Urizen Wept.
From THE FOUR ZOAS
(1797)
THE TORMENTS OF LOVE & JEALOUSY IN
THE DEATH AND JUDGEMENT
OF ALBION THE ANCIENT MAN
VALA
[INTRODUCTION TO NIGHT THE FIRST]
The Song of the Aged Mother which shook the heavens with wrath,
Hearing the march of long resounding, strong heroic Verse
Marshall’d in order for the day of Intellectual Battle.
The heavens quake, the earth was moved & shudder’d, & the mountains
With all their woods, the streams & valleys wail’d in dismal fear.
Four Mighty Ones are in every Man; a Perfect Unity
Cannot Exist but from the Universal Brotherhood of Eden,
The Universal Man, To Whom be Glory Evermore. Amen.
What are the Natures of those Living Creatures the Heav’nly Father only
Knoweth. No Individual knoweth, nor can know in all Eternity.
[ENION AND THARMAS]
Enion said: “Thy fear has made me tremble, thy terrors have surrounded me.
All Love is lost: Terror succeeds, & Hatred instead of Love,
And stern demands of Right & Duty instead of Liberty.
Once thou wast to Me the loveliest son of heaven—But now
Why art thou Terrible? and yet I love thee in thy terror till
I am almost Extinct & soon shall be a shadow in Oblivion,
(Unless some way can be found that I may look upon thee & live.
Hide me some shadowy semblance, secret whisp’ring in my Ear,
In secret of soft wings, in mazes of delusive beauty.
I have look’d into the secret soul of him I lov’d,
And in the Dark recesses found Sin & cannot return.”
Trembling & pale sat Tharmas, weeping in his clouds.
“Why wilt thou Examine every little fibre of my soul,
Spreading them out before the sun like stalks of flax to dry?
The infant joy is beautiful, but its anatomy
Horrible, Ghast & Deadly; nought shalt thou find in it
But Death, Despair & Everlasting brooding Melancholy.
Thou wilt go mad with horror if thou dost Examine thus
Every moment of my secret hours. Yea, I know
That I have sinn’d, & that my Emanations are become harlots.
I am already distracted at their deeds. & if I look
Upon them more, Despair will bring self-murder on my soul.
O Enion, thou art thyself a root growing in hell,
Tho’ thus heavenly beautiful to draw me to destruction.”
[THE SOLITARY WANDERER]
Enion brooded o’er the rocks; the rough rocks groaning vegetate.
Such power was given to the Solitary wanderer:
The barked Oak. the long limb’d Beech, the Chestnut tree, the Pine,
The Pear tree mild, the frowning Walnut, the sharp Crab, & Apple sweet,
The rough bark opens; twittering peep forth little beaks & wings,
The Nightingale, the Goldfinch, Robin, Lark, Linnet & Thrush.
The Coat leap’d from the craggy cliff, the Sheep awoke from the mould,
Upon its green stalk rose the Corn, waving innumerable,
Infolding the bright Infants from the desolating winds.
[URIZEN THE GOD]
Los answer’d furious: “Art thou one of those who when most complacent
Mean mischief most? If you are such, Lo! I am also such.
One must be master. Try thy Arts. I also will try mine,
For I percieve thou hast Abundance which I claim as mine.”
Urizen startled stood, but not Long; Soon he cried:
“Obey my voice, young Demon; I am God from Eternity t
o Eternity.
Art thou a visionary of Jesus, the soft delusion of Eternity?
Lo I am God, the terrible destroyer, & not the Saviour.
Why should the Divine Vision compell the sons of Eden
To forego each his own delight, to war against his spectre?
The Spectre is the Man. The rest is only delusion & fancy.”
Thus Urizen spoke, collected in himself in awful pride.
Ten thousand thousand were his hosts of spirits on the wind,
Ten thousand thousand glittering Chariots shining in the sky.
They pour upon the golden shore beside the silent ocean,
Rejoicing in the Victory, & the heavens were fill’d with blood.
The Earth spread forth her table wide; the Night, a silver cup
Fill’d with the wine of anguish, waited at the golden feast.
But the bright Sun was not as yet; he, filling all the expanse,
Slept as a bird in the blue shell that soon shall burst away.
[THE SONG SUNG AT THE FEAST OF LOS AND ENITHARMON]
And This is the Song sung at The Feast of Los & Enitharmon :
“Ephraim call’d out to Zion: ‘Awake, O Brother Mountainl
Let us refuse the Plow & Spade, the heavy Roller & spiked
Harrow; bum all these Corn fields, throw down all these fences!
Fatten’d on Human blood & drunk with wine of life is better far
Than all these labours of the harvest & the vintage. See the river,
Red with the blood of Men, swells lustful round my rocky knees;
My clouds are not the clouds of verdant fields & groves of fruit,
But Clouds of Human Souls: my nostrils drink the lives of Men.’
“The Villages lament: they faint, outstretch’d upon the plain.
Wailing runs round the Valleys from the Mill & from the Barn.
But most the polish’d Palaces, dark, silent, bow with dread,
Hiding their books & pictures underneath the dens of Earth.
“The Cities send to one another saying: ‘My sons are Mad
With wine of cruelty. Let us plat a scourge, 0 Sister City.
Children are nourish’d for the Slaughter; once the Child was fed
With Milk, but wherefore now are Children fed with blood?
“The Horse is of more value than the Man. The Tyger fierce
Laughs at the Human form; the Lion mocks & thirsts for blood.
They cry, ‘O Spider, spread thy web! Enlarge thy bones &, fill’d
With marrow, sinews & flesh, Exalt thyself, attain a voice.
“ ‘Call to thy dark arm’d hosts; for all the sons of Men muster together
To desolate their cities! Man shall be no morel Awake, O Hostsl’
The bow string sang upon the hills, ‘Luvah & Vala ride
Triumphant in the bloody sky, & the Human form is no more.’
“The list’ning Stars heard, & the first beam of the morning started back:
He cried out to his Father ‘depart ! depart!’ but sudden Siez’d,
And clad in steel, & his Horse proudly neigh’d; he smelt the battle
Afar off. Rushing back, redd’ning with rage, the Mighty Father
Siez’d his bright sheephook studded with gems & gold; he swung it round
His head, shrill sounding in the sky; down rush’d the Sun with noise
Of war; the Mountains fled away; they sought a place beneath.”
[THE MUNDANE SHELL]
Urizen rose from the bright Feast like a star thro’ the evening sky,
Exulting at the voice that call’d him from the Feast of envy.
First he beheld the body of Man, pale, cold; the horrors of death
Beneath his feet shot thro’ him as he stood in the Human Brain,
And all its golden porches grew pale with his sickening light,
No more exulting, for he saw Eternal Death beneath.
Pale, he beheld futurity: pale, he beheld the Abyss
Where Enion, blind & age bent, wept in direful hunger craving,
All rav’ning like the hungry worm & like the silent grave.
Mighty was the draught of Voidness to draw Existence in.
Terrific Urizen strode above in fear & pale dismay.
He saw the indefinite space beneath & his soul shrunk with horror,
His feet upon the verge of Non Existence; his voice went forth:
Luvah & Vala trembling & shrinking beheld the great Work master
And heard his Word: “Divide, ye bands, influence by influence.
Build we a Bower for heaven’s darling in the grizly deep:
Build we the Mundane Shell around the Rock of Albion.”
The Bands of Heaven flew thro’ the air singing & shouting to Urizen.
Some fix’d the anvil, some the loom erected, some the plow
And harrow form’d & fram’d the harness of silver & ivory,
The golden compasses, the quadrant, & the rule & balance.
They erected the furnaces, they form’d the anvils of gold beaten in mills
Where winter beats incessant, fixing them firm on then base.
The bellows began to blow, & the Lions of Urizen stood round the anvil
And the leopards cover’d with skins of beasts tended the roaring fires,
Sublime, distinct, their lineaments divine of human beauty.
The tygers of wrath called the horses of instruction from their mangers,
They unloos’d them & put on the harness of gold & silver & ivory,
In human forms distinct they stood round Urizen, prince of Light,
Petrifying all the Human Imagination into rock & sand.
Groans ran along Tyburn’s brook and along the River of Oxford
Among the Druid Temples. Albion groan’d on Tyburn’s brook:
Albion gave his loud death groan. The Atlantic Mountains trembled.
Aloft the Moon fled with a cry: the Sun with streams of blood.
From Albion’s Loins fled all Peoples and Nations of the Earth,
Fled with the noise of Slaughter, & the stars of heaven fled.
Jerusalem came down in a dire ruin over all the Earth, She fell cold from Lambeth’s Vales in groans & dewy death—
The dew of anxious souls, the death-sweat of the dying—
In every pillar’d hall & arched roof of Albion’s skies.
The brother & the brother bathe in blood upon the Severn,
The Maiden weeping by. The father & the mother with
The Maiden’s father & her mother fainting over the body,
And the Young Man, the Murderer, fleeing over the mountains.
[URIZEN’S WORK]
With trembling horror pale, aghast the Children of Man
Stood on the infinite Earth & saw these visions in the air,
In waters & in earth beneath; they cried to one another,
“What! are we terrors to one another? Come, O brethren, wherefore
Was this wide Earth spread all abroad? not. for wild beasts to roam.”
But many stood silent, & busied in their families.
And many said, “We see no Visions in the darksom air.
Measure the course of that sulphur orb that lights the darksom day;
Set stations on this breeding Earth & let us buy & sell.”
Others arose & schools erected, forming Instruments
To measure out the course of heaven. Stem Urizen beheld
In woe his brethren & his sons, in dark’ning woe lamenting
Upon the winds in clouds involv’d, Uttering his voice in thunders,
Commanding all the work with care & power & severity.
Then seiz’d the Lions of Urizen their work, & heated in the forge
Roar the bright masses; thund’ring beat the hammers, many a pyramid
Is form’d & thrown down thund’ring into the deeps of Non Entity.
Heated red hot they, hizzing, rend their way down many a league
&nbs
p; Till resting, each his basement finds; suspended there they stand
Casting their sparkles dire abroad into the dismal deep.
For, measur’d out in order’d spaces, the Sons of Urizen
With compasses divide the deep; they the strong scales erect
That Luvah rent from the faint Heart of the Fallen Man,
And weigh the massy Cubes, then fix them in their awful stations.
And all the time, in Caverns shut, the golden Looms erected
First spun, then wove the Atmospheres; there the Spider & Worm
Plied the wing’d shuttle, piping shrill thro’ all the list’n-ing threads;
Beneath the Caverns roll the weights of lead & spindles of iron,
The enormous warp & woof rage direful in the affrighted deep.
While far into the vast unknown the strong wing’d Eagles bend
Their venturous flight in Human forms distinct; thro’ darkness deep
They bear the woven draperies; on golden hooks they hang abroad
The universal curtains & spread out from Sun to Sun
The vehicles of light; they separate the furious particles
Into mild currents as the water mingles with the wine.
While thus the Spirits of strongest wing enlighten the dark deep,
The threads are spun & the cords twisted & drawn out; then the weak
Begin their work, & many a net is netted, many a net
The Portable William Blake Page 28
