The Complete Poems

by William Blake

  15 Conways Vale The setting of Gray’s ‘The Bard’, also in Wales.

  16 The Eternal Man wept The messengers here give B.’s ‘Authorized Version’ of Albion’s Fall. While Man is passive, Urizen and Luvah contend for dominance over him; Urthona in shock falls, dividing into Los, Enitharmon and the Spectre; the jealousy between Tharmas and Enion takes place; all the Zoas fall together; this also constitutes the ‘ruin’ of Jerusalem, Albion’s emanation.

  19 & thus conferrd Details of the Urizen–Luvah belligerencies may derive from English–French negotiations and mutual demands of 1796–7, and Napoleon’s assumption of power (Erdman, 284–6).

  23 deep in the North Urizen’s proper realm in Eternity is the South. His plan to usurp the North follows the account of Satan in Paradise Lost v.689 and Isaiah 14:13.

  P. 22.25–6 such thing was never known… revivd Repeated with alterations in f 80.23–4.

  P. 19.9–10 Seven/Eyes of God… lamps These are guardians of fallen mankind, each presiding over a historic cycle. The imagery derives from Zachariah 4:10 and Revelations 4:5. The idea is systematically developed in Night VIII and in M 13.14–27, f 55.31–8.

  13 mount Ephraim… a Sepulcher The region of Ephraim, in north central Palestine, revolted against Solomon and formed, with Israel, the northern kingdom. In Psalm 78 God is praised for his persistent forgiveness despite the persistent rebellion of the people, and Ephraim is singled out as a ringleader of apostasy. Another possible reference may be to Jesus’ flight to Ephraim after the raising of Lazarus. Ironically, Albion ‘wanders’ – the term implies ‘strayed’ – in Ephraim seeking death.

  P. 20.1 The Daughters of Beulah beheld the Emanation Albion’s emanation, Jerusalem, has fallen with him.

  4 Three gates within Enitharmon has perversely closed the gates of her heart, brain and loins against Los. These gates lead to Beulah and thence to Eternity. A turning point in the poem therefore will be the bursting of her heart gate, beginning in v.63.11–12.

  12–13 the Eternal Wheels… living creatures The vision of the heavenly wheels of four living creatures is in Ezekiel 1.

  NIGHT THE SECOND

  The rule of Reason; creation of the Mundane Shell.

  Albion surrenders all his power to Urizen. Urizen creates the MUNDANE SHELL (the heavens), while Man degenerates. The nations of the world become geographically separated from Albion, in whom they were one, and Jerusalem falls in ruins. Luvah is melted in the furnaces of affliction. The stars and skies are geometrically created. Urizen’s palace is built to house his emanation AHANIA, but cannot heal their separation. Urizen is troubled by visions of futurity. Meanwhile, Enitharmon continues to elude and mock Los. The conclusion of this Night is a second lament of Enion which now reaches Ahania.

  P. 23.5 Take thou possession! The weakened Albion relinquishes his power to Reason alone.

  12–13 The Human Brain… its golden porches Albion’s brain and senses.

  14 No more Exulting Urizen now has the power he wanted, but perceives it – too late – as a void. All his ‘creative’ deeds hereafter are compensatory.

  P. 24.5 the great Work master A phrase used by Bacon (The Advancement of Learning) and Milton (Paradise Lost 111.696) for the god of Reason, creator of the stars. A commonplace of rationalist philosophy is that the orderly courses of the stars perfectly represent the Godhead of Reason. In the following account of Reason building the Mundane Shell, there are echoes of Plato’s Timaeus, Milton’s Paradise Lost VIII, and gnostic tradition, in which the demiurge who creates this inferior material world is identified, as here, with the Jehovah of the Hebrews.

  P. 25 The symbolism of this page is that developed in f. The basic ideas are as follows: Mankind’s rule by Reason is a ‘petrifying’ of the human imagination. Hence ‘Albion’ as a geographical location suffers, and is separated from the ‘Nations of the Earth’ which in Eternity were one with him. Reuben and Levi (1. 21), two sons of the Patriarch Jacob, represent the natural man and priestcraft in this world. In Eternity they are Albion’s sons (and Albion and Jacob are one). Now they become remote from him. The Daughters of Albion here listed (11. 29–30) are enemies of Jerusalem – his true Liberty – and Jerusalem goes into Babylonian captivity. Nimrod (1. 32) is the first hunter of men, and Mankind’s first king. The druid stones are sacrificial.

  40 Luvah was cast into the Furnaces of affliction Reason casts Passion into Hell. In Isaiah 48:10 ‘the furnace of Affliction’ is God’s instrument for refining transgressing Israel. This episode also appears in f 7.30–37.

  41 Vala fed Here and hereafter, Vala is Nature. She feeds the fires whereby Passion suffers.

  P. 26.4 Hear ye the voice of Luvah The lament of Passion when repressed by Reason. Luvah’s perceptions are in part reliable, in part distorted by his sufferings.

  P. 27.9–10 Lamb/Of God clothed in Luvahs garments Christ shall experience the ‘Passion’ and become the dying God of which Luvah is here the archetype.

  19 Urizen… thy stern ambition Luvah recognizes Urizen’s error, but not his own.

  P.28.11–21 A parenthetical passage. Individual human beings retain the imagination to be appalled at the sufferings imposed by Urizen. But the rest, closed off from brotherhood, occupy themselves domestically (self-contained family life is selfishness) or deny vision and instead engage in pursuit of rational but barren Science or Commerce.

  25 Then siezd the Lions of Urizen their work Urizen’s creation of the Mundane Shell continues: Luvah’s molten substance becomes stars; the golden looms weave the atmosphere; nets trap souls into material forms. A heavenly palace of Reason (the Zodiac) is built with Vala’s ashes and slave labour.

  32 the strong scales The constellation Libra.

  P. 29.3 Caverns… Looms The loom within a cave is a neo-Platonic symbol of Generation.

  4 First spun, then wove the Atmospheres From Paradise Lost VII.241: ‘between spun out the Air’.

  P. 30.8 the Architect divine A common eighteenth-century Deist epithet for God.

  10 Quadrangular the building rose the heaven squared by a line This is a palace or temple of Reason; the line is the horizon. Compare ‘Behold, the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded’ (1 Kings 8:27).

  15 Twelve halls… twelve sons The twelve signs of the zodiac form the Palace of Reason.

  17 three daughters These resemble the Fates. They reappear in Nights VI, VII and IX.

  23 His Shadowy Feminine Semblance Urizen’s emanation, Ahania – his Idealism, now separate from him.

  P. 31.9–10 I see not Luvah… pillars of fire God’s glory took the form of a pillar of fire and a pillar of smoke to guide the Israelites through the wilderness.

  P. 32.14 The Saviour takes on the body of Luvah.

  P. 33.6 the World of Tharmas Beyond Reason’s constructed realm is Chaos, here identified with the ‘sea’ of incoherence into which Tharmas collapsed in Night 1.5.13. This follows Milton’s cosmology in Paradise Lost 11.895ff., and VII.212, where Chaos is seen outside the gates of Heaven, ‘Outrageous as a Sea, dark, wasteful, wild’.

  16 a golden chain From Paradise Lost 11.1052, where it sustains this ‘pendant world’. Urizen’s chain both sustains and imprisons Man.

  P. 34.5 Urizen… envied Urizen’s rational but rigid heaven, now complete, brings him not joy but anxiety. He envies the greater flexibility of Los and Enitharmon.

  9–10 For Los & Enitharmon… Contracting or expanding The ability to contract or expand the senses voluntarily, perceiving with a free imagination, is a divine attribute in Blake. Hence Los and Enitharmon have not fallen so far as the rigid Urizen, the passive Luvah or the chaotic Tharmas.

  16–47 Torments of love and jealousy between Los and Enitharmon, as she frustrates his desires and is jealously possessive. The relationship here is sexual, but is also that of the Muse to her Poet: she will not obey him, yet she will not allow him any other mistress.

  24–30 If the God enrapturd… the bright God U
rizen here seen as Apollo. Inspiration, which should properly give itself to the Prophet, surrenders instead to Reason.

  40 the flocks of Tharmas In Eden Tharmas is a shepherd.

  57 But thus she sang Enitharmon’s song of female will triumphant; see her two comparable songs in Europe Pls. 6–8, 13–14, pp. 229, 233–6 above.

  62 nine…spheres of harmony The harmony of the spheres (sun, moon and seven known planets) is a symbol of cosmic order from Pythagoras and Plato to Dante and Milton; but here it is under female control.

  78–80 Arise… holy These lines quote Oothoon in VDA, 8.9–10. But where Oothoon’s motive was generosity, Enitharmon’s is power.

  93 Rapturous delusive trance Enitharmon enraptures and deludes herself as well as Los.

  98 Vortex A Cartesian term (see M 15.21, n., p. 972 below) which B. adapts to mean a system of thinking or feeling which attracts other things into itself. By driving Ahania into Enion’s vortex of sorrow, Los will divide her from Urizen. This occurs, with disastrous effects for Urizen’s rational ‘heaven’ – which cannot allow for sorrow – in Night 111.

  P. 35.3–4 Taken from VDA 5.8–9, p. 202 above.

  9 My heavens are brass my earth is iron From Deuteronomy 28:23: ‘thy heaven… shall be brass, and the earth… shall be iron’.

  11 What is the price of Experience From Job 28:12–13: ‘Where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding? Man knoweth not the price thereof.’

  P. 36.4 Taken from BU 25.1–2, p. 256 above.

  13 it is not so with me! From the cry in Job 9:34–5: ‘Let him take his rod away… Then would I speak, and not fear him; but it is not so with me.’

  NIGHT THE THIRD

  The Flood.

  Urizen enthroned is rebuked by Ahania (his idealism). Unable to suffer this, he casts her out – and inadvertently produces a cataclysm which destroys the Circle of Destiny and unlooses the Flood of Tharmas hitherto (since Night 1) contained by it. In this cataclysm, Urizen himself falls with all his hosts, and is dashed to pieces.

  P. 38.2 Los (the Prophet) was born from Tharmas (Ocean) in Night 1. Reason sees this and fears to yield his tyranny – like Pharaoh in Exodus 1, Herod in Matthew 2 and Zeus in the myth of Prometheus.

  8–10 Vala… Luvah Urizen predicts the descent to birth in the fallen world of LUVAH and VALA as the lower forms ORC and the SHADOWY FEMALE. Orc’s birth occurs in Night v, the Shadowy Female’s in Night VIII.

  P. 39.4 Why didst thou listen… Luvah Ahania’s version of the Fall begins here. It is accurate, except that it places entire blame on Passion, seeing Reason as merely passive. The account in Night 1 (Pp. 21–2) blames both, and Urizen’s self-condemning soliloquy in Night V (Pp. 64–5) will show that he too knows better.

  8 the wine presses of Luvah Love and War.

  10 They Urizen’s horses, now disobedient and perverse.

  12 but O how unlike From Paradise Lost 1.84: ‘But O how fallen! how changed.’

  15 The vision of Ahania In Ahania’s vision, Albion – being intellectually asleep – worships his own shadow as a god, is smitten with boils by Luvah, then rejects Luvah. This follows the Job story backwards; for Job is initially virtuous (B. would interpret this as a rejection of Luvah–Passion), then is smitten, and concludes by worshipping. The episode recurs in f 43.33–82.

  P. 41.16 ‘Satan… smote Job with sore boils’ (Job 2:7), and B. here is identifying the biblical Satan with Luvah.

  17 the Fallen Man… presence This is the rejection of Passion, or Desire, complained of in MHH Pl 5, p. 182 above.

  P. 42.18–19 A pencil addition, possibly made only in connection with B.’s intended transfer of the passage to f where it fits better.

  we alone are escaped The messengers of disaster to Job each say ‘I only am escaped alone to tell thee.’

  22 Do I not stretch the heavens God ‘alone spreadeth out the Heavens’, Job 9:8.

  P. 43.14 A cavern shaggd with horrid shades ‘By grots and caverns shagg’d with horrid shades,’ Milton, Comus 429.

  27 The bounds of Destiny were broken Tharmas set the Circle of Destiny in motion in Night 1. Its destruction wrecks Urizen’s world, and unlooses the Flood. This is B.’s version of Genesis 7. Tharmas–Chaos–Flood emerges, struggles to assume Man’s image, but remains a watery incoherence.

  NIGHT THE FOURTH

  The post-deluvian world; the binding of Urizen.

  This Night opens with Tharmas–Chaos–Flood triumphant yet despairing. He commands Los to rebuild the ruined world, and when Los defies him, he rips Los and Enitharmon apart. At this, the crippled Spectre of Urthona (Urthona was the unfallen Los) appears, and gives his version of the Fall. Tharmas confides in the spectre, and forces Los to rebuild the ruined furnaces of Urizen. Los does so, then proceeds to the ‘binding of Urizen’ into a solid bodily form – of which the miserably limited anatomy is our own – in seven ages of woe.

  At this low point in the action, B. adds a passage of specifically Christian import, based on the story of Lazarus. The Daughters of Beulah worship the Saviour while Albion’s corpse becomes like a polypus beaten by the sea of time and space. The Saviour promises regeneration and finds the lower limits of Opacity and Contraction in Albion. Following this interpolation, Los, terrified by the results of his labours, ‘becomes what he beholds’ – that is, his body too becomes solid.

  P. 48.3–4 But thou My Son… Rebuild this Universe Tharmas gives Los the task of reconstruction.

  12 Los becomes God’s voice to the sea in Job 38:11: ‘Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed.’

  21 Doubting stood Tharmas The pun on ‘doubting Thomas’ reflects Tharmas’s condition as the physical ‘sea’ of perpetual flux and destructiveness. The Apostle Thomas could not believe in the risen Christ until he had touched him physically.

  P. 49.8 griding Piercing, wounding, cutting painfully; from Milton’s ‘griding sword’ (Paradise Lost VI.329).

  11 the Dark Spectre Urthona has now divided into Los, Enitharmon and the Spectre of Urthona. Unlike Los, the Spectre of Urthona remembers the goodness of life in Eternity, and wills to restore it.

  P. 50.1 I well remember The Spectre of Urthona recounts his own fall into division.

  10–17 A similar version of the birth of Enitharmon is in BU 18, p. 252 above.

  31 O I could tell thee tales From Hamlet 1.v.15–16: ‘I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word/Would harrow up thy soul.’

  P. 51.2–3 this Son/Of Enion Los must now ‘bind the fallen King’ Urizen. The Eternal Prophet’s task is to embody, and thus at once define and limit, in artistic form, fallen Reason.

  7 the terror… drave… the tide The Spectre parts the waves to permit Enitharmon’s return, as an engraver digs a channel in metal.

  P. 52.2 From Deuteronomy 30:19: ‘I have set before you life and death… therefore choose life.’

  P. 52.28-P. 53.3 the thundering/Hammer… pulsative furor Los’s hammer, by its regular beat, produces (1) periodic clock time; (2) the metre of poetry.

  24 he became what he beheld Repeated 55.22. According to B., all beings are defined by their perceptions. Thus the Prophet embodies his age, and is also limited by it. Los, binding Urizen, also binds himself.

  P. 54.1-P. 55.9 The binding of Urizen, which parodies the seven days of creation, is also told in BU IV [b], p. 247 above.

  P. 55.10-P. 56.27 The Council of God passage is a later interpolation in the text.

  P. 55.14 a Double female form Mary and Martha in the story of Lazarus.

  P. 56.1–3 if thou hadst been here… thee From the story of Lazarus, John 11:21–2, ‘Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.’ Albion, like Lazarus, will be raised from death. This is repeated in f 50.11.

  8–10 In which… we shall consume Repeated in M 30.25–7.

  8 hidden under the Shadow of wings From Ps
alm 17:8, ‘hide me under the shadow of thy wings’.

  18 If ye will Believe your Brother shall rise again From the words of Jesus to Martha, John 11:23–6, ‘Thy brother shall rise again… he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live… Believest thou this?’

  19 the Limit of Opacity… Satan Opacity is impermeable to the Divine Light. SATAN represents the greatest possible ‘hardness’ of heart and mind which can still sustain life.

  21 the Limit of Contraction… Adam Contraction is shrinkage from infinity. ADAM represents the greatest possible ‘smallness’ or ‘narrowness’ of heart and mind which can still sustain life. Humankind as we know it is as ‘hard’ and ‘narrow’ as it can be without lapsing into an inorganic state. SATAN and ADAM in this context are labels, not characters.

  23 the Starry Wheels The orbiting stars of Urizen’s purely rational universe.

  25 the Seventh furnace Los has reconstructed Urizen’s ruined furnaces. The seventh and last corresponds to the Seventh Eye of God, Jesus; Divine Mercy points to salvation. Compare J 48.45.

  P. 55 (second pt.) The exhaustion of Los repeats BU v, p. 250 above.

  NIGHT THE FIFTH

  Rebellion is generated: The birth of Orc.

  Los and Enitharmon stiffen into huge but rock-like forms, as the fires of creation fade. Enitharmon gives birth to ORC (the ‘terrible child’ who represents Rebellious Energy and is the fallen form of Luvah). When Orc reaches the age of fourteen, Los binds him to a mountain with the chain of Jealousy. Despite his chains Orc is fiery and spiritually free. Los and Enitharmon repent their deed but find they cannot undo it, and Enitharmon’s previously closed heart begins to break. Finally, Urizen hears Orc struggling and resolves to explore his dens in hope of finding him.

  P. 57.1 Infected Mad he dancd The dance of Los suggests that of a shaman, who in primitive societies is at once priest, prophet and healer, curing diseases by absorbing them into himself during fits of hallucinatory ecstatic dancing.