The Book of Urizen: Chapter 1

1. Lo, a shadow of horror is risen In Eternity! Unknown, unprolific! Self-closd, 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 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 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 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