Read The Portable William Blake Online
Authors: William Blake
The Portable William Blake (33 page)
Plac’d in the order of the stars, when the five senses whelm’d
In deluge o’er the earth-born man; then turn’d the fluxile eyes
Into two stationary orbs, concentrating all things:
The ever-varying spiral ascents to the heavens of heavens
Were bended downward, and the nostrils’ golden gates shut,
Turn’d outward, barr’d and petrify’d against the infinite.
Thought chang’d the infinite to a serpent, that which pitieth
To a devouring flame; and man fled from its face and hid
In forests of night: then all the eternal forests were divided
Into earths rolling in circles of space, that like an ocean rush’d
And overwhelmed all except this finite wall of flesh.
Then was the serpent temple form’d, image of infinite
Shut up in finite revolutions, and man became an Angel,
Heaven a mighty circle turning, God a tyrant crown’d.
Now arriv’d the ancient Guardian at the southern porch
That planted thick with trees of blackest leaf & in a vale
Obscure enclos’d the Stone of Night; oblique it stood, o’erhung
With purple flowers and berries red, image of that sweet south
Once open to the heavens, and elevated on the human neck,
Now overgrown with hair and cover’d with a stony roof.
Downward ’tis sunk beneath th’ attractive north, that round the feet,
A raging whirlpool, draws the dizzy enquirer to his grave.
Albion’s Angel rose upon the Stone of Night.
He saw Urizen on the Atlantic;
And his brazen Book
That Kings & Priests had copied on Earth,
Expanded from North to South.
He saw Urizen on the Atlantic;
And his brazen Book
That Kings & Priests had copied on Earth,
Expanded from North to South.
And the clouds & fires pale roll’d round in the night of Enitharmon,
Round Albion’s cliffs & London’s walls: still Enitharmon slept.
Rolling volumes of grey mist involve Churches, Palaces, Towers;
For Urizen unclasp’d his Book, feeding his soul with pity.
The youth of England, hid in gloom, curse the pain’d heavens, compell’d
Into the deadly night to see the form of Albion’s Angel.
Their parents brought them forth, & aged ignorance preaches, canting,
On a vast rock, perciev’d by those senses that are clos’d from thought:
Bleak, dark, abrupt it stands & overshadows London city.
They saw his boney feet on the rock, the flesh consum’d in flames;
They saw the Serpent temple lifted above, shadowing the Island white;
They heard the voice of Albion’s Angel howling in flames of Orc,
Seeking the trump of the last doom.
Above the rest the howl was heard from Westminster louder & louder:
The Guardian of the secret codes forsook his ancient mansion,
Driven out by the flames of Ore; his furr’d robes & false locks
Adhered and grew one with his flesh, and nerves & veins shot thro’ them.
With dismal torment sick, hanging upon the wind, he fled
Groveling along Great George Street thro’ the Park gate: all the soldiers
Fled from his sight: he drag’d his torments to the wilderness.
Thus was the howl thro’ Europe!
For Orc rejoic’d to hear the howling shadows;
But Palamabron shot his lightnings, trenching down his wide back;
And Rintrah hung with all his legions in the nether deep.
Enitharmon laugh’d in her sleep to see (O woman’s triumph!)
Every house a den, every man bound: the shadows are fill’d
With spectres, and the windows wove over with curses of iron:
Over the doors “Thou shalt not,” & over the chimneys “Fear” is written:
With bands of iron round their necks fasten’d into the walls
The citizens, in leaden gyves the inhabitants of suburbs Walk heavy; soft and bent are the bones of villagers.
Between the clouds of Urizen the flames of Orc roll heavy
Around the limbs of Albion’s Guardian, his flesh consuming :
Howlings & hissings, shrieks & groans, & voices of despair
Arise around him in the cloudy heavens of Albion. Furious,
The red limb’d Angel siez’d in horror and torment
The Trump of the last doom; but he could not blow the iron tube!
Thrice he assay’d presumptuous to awake the dead to judgment.
A mighty Spirit leap’d from the land of Albion,
Nam’d Newton: he siez’d the trump & blow’d the enormous blast!
Yellow as leaves of Autumn, the myriads of Angelic hosts
Fell thro’ the wintry skies seeking their graves, Rattling their hollow bones in howling and lamentation.
Then Enitharmon woke, nor knew that she had slept;
And eighteen hundred years were fled
As if they had not been.
She call’d her sons & daughters
To the sports of night
Within her crystal house,
And thus her song proceeds:
And eighteen hundred years were fled
As if they had not been.
She call’d her sons & daughters
To the sports of night
Within her crystal house,
And thus her song proceeds:
“Arise, Ethinthus! tho’ the earth-worm call,
Let him call in vain,
Till the night of holy shadows
And human solitude is past!
Let him call in vain,
Till the night of holy shadows
And human solitude is past!
“Ethinthus, queen of waters, how thou shinest in the sky!
My daughter, how do I rejoice! for thy children flock around
Like the gay fishes on the wave, when the cold moon drinks the dew.
Ethinthus! thou art sweet as comforts to my fainting soul,
For now thy waters warble round the feet of Enitharmon.
“Manathu-Varcyon! I behold thee flaming in my halls,
Light of thy mother’s soul! I see thy lovely eagles round;
Thy golden wings are my delight, & thy flames of soft delusion.
“Where is my lureing bird of Eden? Leutha, silent love!
Leutha, the many colour’d bow delights upon thy wings:
Soft soul of flowers, Leutha!
Sweet smiling pestilence! I see thy blushing light;
Thy daughters, many changing,
Revolve like sweet perfumes ascending, O Leutha, silken queen!
“Where is the youthful Antamon, prince of the pearly dew?
O Antamon! why wilt thou leave thy mother Enitharmon?
Alone I see thee, crystal form,
Floating upon the bosom’d air
With lineaments of gratified desire.
My Antamon, the seven churches of Leutha seek thy love.
“I hear the soft Oothoon in Enitharmon’s tents;
Why wilt thou give up woman’s secrecy, my melancholy child?
Between two moments bliss is ripe.
O Theotormon! robb’d of joy, I see thy salt tears flow
Down the steps of my crystal house.
“Sotha & Thiralathal secret dwellers of dreamful caves,
Arise and please the horrent fiend with your melodious songs;
Still all your thunders, golden-hoof’d, & bind your horses black.
Ore! smile upon my children!
Smile, son of my afflictions.
Arise, 0 Ore, and give our mountains joy of thy red light!”
She ceas’d; for All were forth at sport beneath the solemn moon
Waking the stars of Urizen with their immortal songs,
That nature felt thro’ all her pores the enormous revelry
Till morning oped the eastern gate;
Then every one fled to his station, & Enitharmon wept.
But terrible Ore, when he beheld the morning in the east,
Shot from the heights of Enitharmon,
And in the vineyards of red France appear’d the light of his fury.
The sun glow’d fiery red!
The furious terrors flew around
On golden chariots raging with red wheels dropping with blood!
The Lions lash their wrathful tails!
The Tigers couch upon the prey & suck the ruddy tide, And Enitharmon groans & cries in anguish and dismay.
Then Los arose: his head he rear’d in snaky thunders clad;
And with a cry that shook all nature to the utmost pole, Call’d all his sons to the strife of blood.
THE FIRST BOOK OF URIZEN
(1794)
PRELUDIUM TO THE FIRST BOOK OF URIZENOf 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.
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.
Dictate swift winged words & fear not
To unfold your dark visions of torment.
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.’
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 & 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.
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 & element,
Combustion, blast, vapour and cloud.
In unseen conflictions with shapes
Bred from his forsaken wilderness
Of beast, bird, fish, serpent & 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.
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.
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; & the rolling of wheels,
As of swelling seas, sound in his clouds,
In his hills of stor’d snows, in his mountains
Of hail & ice; voices of terror
Are heard, like thunders of autumn
When the cloud blazes over the harvests.
Prepar’d; his ten thousands of thunders,
Rang’d in gloom’d array, stretch out across
The dread world; & the rolling of wheels,
As of swelling seas, sound in his clouds,
In his hills of stor’d snows, in his mountains
Of hail & ice; voices of terror
Are heard, like thunders of autumn
When the cloud blazes over the harvests.
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.
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.
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:
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 stem 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, 0 Eternals?
Why live in unquenchable burnings?
The eternal abode in my holiness,
Hidden, set apart, in my stem 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, 0 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.
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.
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
Of eternal brass, written in my solitude:
This rock place with strong hand the Book
Of 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,
One curse, one weight, one measure,
One King, one God, one Law.”
Of pity, compassion, forgiveness;
Let each chuse one habitation,
His ancient infinite mansion,
One command, one joy, one desire,
One curse, one weight, one measure,
One King, one God, one Law.”
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,
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
In living creations appear’d,
In the flames of eternal fury.
In cataracts of fire, blood, & gall,
In whirlwinds of sulphurous smoke,
And enormous forms of energy,
All the seven deadly sins of the soul
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.
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.
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.
In the flames of Eternal fury.
6. In fierce anguish & quenchless flames
To the desarts 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.
To the desarts 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.
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,
As the stars are apart from the earth.
Kept watch for Eternals to confine
The obscure separation alone;
For Eternity stood wide apart,
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.
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.
Unorganiz’d, rent from Eternity.
11. The Eternals said: “What is this? Death.
Urizen is a clod of clay.”
Urizen is a clod of clay.”
12. Los howl’d in a dismal stupor,
Groaning, gnashing, groaning,
Till the wrenching apart was healed.
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,
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.
At the formless, unmeasurable death.
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