| Plate 1
LAMBETH. Printed by Will Blake 1794. |
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Plate 2
Of the primeval Priests assum'd power, When Eternals spurn'd back his religion; And gave him 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. |
| Plate 3
Chap: I 1. Lo, a shadow of horror is risen In Eternity! Unknown, unprolific! Self-closed, all-repelling: what Demon Hath form'd this abominable void This soul-shudd'ring vacuum? – Some said 'lt 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 appeard In his 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. 4. Dark revolving in silent activity: Unseen in tormenting passions; An activity unknown and horrible; A self-contemplating shadow, In enormons 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, & 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 Chap: II
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[Plate 4a]
Muster around the bleak desarts Now fill'd with clouds, darkness & waters That roll'd perplex'd labring & 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; Natures 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 formd 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 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. Chap: 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 enormons forms of energy; All the seven deadly sins of the soul |
| Plate 4
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 Urizens 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 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. 8. And Los round the dark globe of Urizen, Kept watch for Eternals to confine, The obscure separation alone; For Eternity stood wide apart, |
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Plate 5
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 6
12: Los howld 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 7
Chap: IV[a] 1: Los smitten with astonishment Frightend at the hurding bones 2: And at the surging sulphureons 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 shuddring fear The dark changes & bound every change With rivets of iron & brass; 6. And these were the changes of Urizen. |
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