The Poetry and Prose of William Blake Edited by David V. Erdman: Commentary by Harold Bloom |
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THE BOOK of LOS |
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The Poetry and Prose of William Blake | ||
THE BOOK of LOS
LAMBETH Printed by W Blake 1795
PLATE 3
Chap. I
1
Eno aged Mother,Who the chariot of Leutha guides,
Since the day of thunders in old time
2
Sitting beneath the eternal OakTrembled and shook the stedfast Earth
And thus her speech broke forth.
3
O 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
4
But Covet was poured full:Envy fed with fat of lambs:
Wrath with lions gore:
Wantonness lulld to sleep
With the virgins lute,
Or sated with her love.
90
5
Till Covet broke his locks & bars,And slept with open doors:
Envy sung at the rich mans 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 desireRan thro' heaven & earth, living flames
Intelligent, organiz'd: arm'd
With destruction & plagues. In the midst
The Eternal Prophet bound in a chain
Compell'd to watch Urizens shadow
7
Rag'd with curses & sparkles of furyRound 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! dash'd 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'dIn 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 wasDarkness round Los: heat was not; for bound up
Into fiery spheres from his fury
The gigantic flames trembled and hid
PLATE 4
10
Coldness, darkness, obstruction, a SolidWithout 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
91
Chap: II
1
The Immortal stood frozen amidstThe vast rock of eternity; times
And times; a night of vast durance:
Impatient, stifled, stiffend, hardned.
2
Till impatience no longer could bearThe hard bondage, rent: rent, the vast solid
With a crash from immense to immense
3
Crack'd across into numberless fragments[.]The Prophetic wrath, strug'ling 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 fallingRock: the innumerable fragments away
Fell asunder; and horrible vacuum
Beneath him & on all sides round.
5
Falling, falling! Los fell & fellSunk 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 measurd by his incessant whirls
In the horrid vacuity bottomless.
6
The Immortal revolving; indignantFirst 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 grewBranchy forms: organizing the Human
Into finite inflexible organs.
8
Till in process from falling he boreSidelong on the purple air, wafting
The weak breeze in efforts oerwearied
92
9
Incessant the falling Mind labour'dOrganizing itself: till the Vacuum
Became element, pliant to rise,
Or to fall, or to swim, or to fly:
With ease searching the dire vacuity
Chap: III
1
The Lungs heave incessant, dull and heavyFor as yet were all other parts formless
Shiv'ring: clinging around like a cloud
Dim & glutinous as the white Polypus
Driv'n by waves & englob'd on the tide.
2
And the unformed part crav'd reposeSleep began: the Lungs heave on the wave
Weary overweigh'd, sinking beneath
In a stifling black fluid he woke
3
He arose on the waters, but soonHeavy falling his organs like roots
Shooting out from the seed, shot beneath,
And a vast world of waters around him
In furious torrents began.
4
Then he sunk, & around his spent LungsBegan intricate pipes that drew in
The spawn of the waters. Outbranching
An immense Fibrous form, stretching out
Thro' the bottoms of immensity raging.
PLATE 5
5
He rose on the floods: then he smoteThe wild deep with his terrible wrath,
Seperating the heavy and thin.
6
Down the heavy sunk; cleaving aroundTo the fragments of solid: up rose
The thin, flowing round the fierce fires
That glow'd furious in the expanse.
Chap: IV
1
Then Light first began; from the firesBeams, conducted by fluid so pure
Flow'd around the Immense: Los beheld
Forthwith, writhing upon the dark void
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Hurtling upon the wind
Like a serpent! like an iron chain
Whirling about in the Deep.
2
Upfolding his Fibres togetherTo a Form of impregnable strength
Los astonish'd and terrified, built
Furnaces; he formed an Anvil
A Hammer of adamant then began
The binding of Urizen day and night
3
Circling round the dark Demon, with howlingsDismay & sharp blightings; the Prophet
Of Eternity beat on his iron links.
4
And first from those infinite firesThe light that flow'd down on the winds
He siez'd; beating incessant, condensing
The subtil particles in an Orb.
5
Roaring indignant the bright sparksEndur'd the vast Hammer; but unwearied
Los beat on the Anvil; till glorious
An immense Orb of fire he fram'd
6
Oft he quench'd it beneath in the DeepsThen survey'd the all-bright mass. Again
Siezing fires from the terrific Orbs
He heated the round Globe, then beat[,]
While roaring his Furnaces endur'd
The chaind Orb in their infinite wombs
7
Nine ages completed their circlesWhen Los heated the glowing mass, casting
It down into the Deeps: the Deeps fled
Away in redounding smoke; the Sun
Stood self-balanc'd. And Los smild with joy.
He the vast Spine of Urizen siez'd
And bound down to the glowing illusion
8
But no light, for the Deep fled awayOn all sides, and left an unform'd
Dark vacuity: here Urizen lay
In fierce torments on his glowing bed
94
9
Till his Brain in a rock, & his HeartIn a fleshy slough formed four rivers
Obscuring the immense Orb of fire
Flowing down into night: till a Form
Was completed, a Human Illusion
In darkness and deep clouds involvd.
The End of the Book of LOS
The Poetry and Prose of William Blake | ||