William Blake

The Book Of Urizen: Chapter 4

a 1. Los smitten with astonishment Frightend at the hurtling bones 2. And at the surging sulphureous 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. b. 1. Ages on ages roll'd over him! In stony sleep ages roll'd over him! Like a dark waste stretching chang'able By earthquakes riv'n, belching sullen fires On ages roll'd ages in ghastly Sick torment; around him in whirlwinds Of darkness the eternal Prophet howl'd Beating still on his rivets of iron Pouring sodor of iron; dividing The horrible night into watches. 2. And Urizen (so his eternal name) His prolific delight obscurd more & more In dark secresy hiding in surgeing Sulphureous fluid his phantasies. The Eternal Prophet heavd the dark bellows, And turn'd restless the tongs; and the hammer Incessant beat; forging chains new & new Numb'ring with links. hours, days & years 3. The eternal mind bounded began to roll Eddies of wrath ceaseless round & round, And the sulphureous foam surgeing thick Settled, a lake, bright, & shining clear: White as the snow on the mountains cold. 4. Forgetfulness, dumbness, necessity! In chains of the mind locked up, Like fetters of ice shrinking together Disorganiz'd, rent from Eternity, Los beat on his fetters of iron; And heated his furnaces & pour'd Iron sodor and sodor of brass 5. Restless turnd the immortal inchain'd Heaving dolorous! anguish'd! unbearable Till a roof shaggy wild inclos'd In an orb, his fountain of thought. 6. In a horrible dreamful slumber; Like the linked infernal chain; A vast Spine writh'd in torment Upon the winds; shooting pain'd Ribs, like a bending cavern And bones of solidness, froze Over all his nerves of joy. And a first Age passed over, And a state of dismal woe. 7. From the caverns of his jointed Spine, Down sunk with fright a red Round globe hot burning deep Deep down into the Abyss: Panting: Conglobing, Trembling Shooting out ten thousand branches Around his solid bones. And a second Age passed over, And a state of dismal woe. 8. In harrowing fear rolling round; His nervous brain shot branches Round the branches of his heart. On high into two little orbs And fixed in two little caves Hiding carefully from the wind, His Eyes beheld the deep, And a third Age passed over: And a state of dismal woe. 9. The pangs of hope began, In heavy pain striving, struggling. Two Ears in close volutions. From beneath his orbs of vision Shot spiring out and petrified As they grew. And a fourth Age passed And a state of dismal woe. 10. In ghastly torment sick; Hanging upon the wind; Two Nostrils bent down to the deep. And a fifth Age passed over; And a state of dismal woe. 11. In ghastly torment sick; Within his ribs bloated round, A craving Hungry Cavern; Thence arose his channeld Throat, And like a red flame a Tongue Of thirst & of hunger appeard. And a sixth Age passed over: And a state of dismal woe. 12. Enraged & stifled with torment He threw his right Arm to the north His left Arm to the south Shooting out in anguish deep, And his Feet stampd the nether Abyss In trembling & howling & dismay. And a seventh Age passed over: And a state of dismal woe.

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