The Book of Los
Lines:181Movement:Romanticism
__TOC__}}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 EarthAnd thus her speech broke forth. 3: O Times remote!When Love & joy were adoration:And none impure were deem’d.Not Eyeless CovetNor Thin-lip’d EnvyNor Bristled WrathNor Curled Wantonness 4: But Covet was poured full:Envy fed with fat of lambs:Wrath with lions gore:Wantonness lulld to sleepWith the virgins lute,Or sated with her love. 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 downBy a little ewe lambAnd Wantoness on his own true loveBegot a giant race: 6: Raging furious the flames of desireRan thro' heaven & earth, living flamesIntelligent, organiz’d: arm’dWith destruction & plagues. In the midstThe Eternal Prophet bound in a chainCompell'd to watch Urizens shadow 7: Rag'd with curses & sparkles of furyRound the flames roll as Los hurls his chainsMounting up from his fury, condens’dRolling round & round, mounting on highInto vacuum: into non-entity.Where nothing was! dash'd wide apartHis feet stamp the eternal fierce-ragingRivers of wide flame; they roll roundAnd round on all sides making their wayInto 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 himThey stood wide apart, driv’n by his handsAnd his feet which the nether abyssStamp’d in fury and hot indignation 9: But no light from the fires all wasDarkness round Los: heat was not; for bound upInto fiery spheres from his furyThe gigantic flames trembled and hid 10: Coldness, darkness, obstruction, a SolidWithout fluctuation, hard as adamantBlack as marble of Egypt; impenetrableBound in the fierce raging Immortal.And the seperated fires froze inA vast solid without fluctuation,Bound in his expanding clear senses }}1: The Immortal stood frozen amidstThe vast rock of eternity; timesAnd times; a night of vast durance:Impatient, stifled, stiffend, hardned. 2: Till impatience no longer could bearThe hard bondage, rent: rent, the vast solidWith a crash from immense to immense 3: Crack’d across into numberless fragmentsThe Prophetic wrath, strug’ling for ventHurls apart, stamping furious to dustAnd crumbling with bursting sobs; heavesThe black marble on high into fragments 4: Hurl’d apart on all sides, as a fallingRock: the innumerable fragments awayFell asunder; and horrible vacuumBeneath him & on all sides round. 5: Falling, falling! Los fell & fellSunk precipitant heavy down downTimes on times, night on night, day on dayTruth has bounds. Error none: falling, falling:Years on years, and ages on agesStill he fell thro' the void, still a voidFound for falling day & night without end.For tho’ day or night was not; their spacesWere measur’d by his incessant whirlsIn the horrid vacuity bottomless. 6: The Immortal revolving; indignantFirst in wrath threw his limbs, like the babeNew born into our world: wrath subsidedAnd contemplative thoughts first aroseThen aloft his head rear’d in the AbyssAnd his downward-borne fall. Chang’d oblique 7: Many ages of groans: till there grewBranchy forms. organizing the HumanInto finite inflexible organs. 8: Till in process from falling he boreSidelong on the purple air, waftingThe weak breeze in efforts o’erwearied 9: Incessant the falling Mind labour’dOrganizing itself: till the VacuumBecame element, pliant to rise,Or to fall, or to swim, or to fly:With ease searching the dire vacuity }}1: The Lungs heave incessant, dull and heavyFor as yet were all other parts formlessShiv’ring: clinging around like a cloudDim & glutinous as the white PolypusDriv’n by waves & englob’d on the tide. 2: And the unformed part crav’d reposeSleep began: the Lungs heave on the waveWeary overweigh’d, sinking beneathIn a stifling black fluid he woke 3: He arose on the waters, but soonHeavy falling his organs like rootsShooting out from the seed, shot beneath,And a vast world of waters around himIn furious torrents began. 4: Then he sunk, & around his spent LungsBegan intricate pipes that drew inThe spawn of the waters. OutbranchingAn immense Fibrous form, stretching outThro' the bottoms of immensity raging. 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 roseThe thin, flowing round the fierce firesThat glow’d furious in the expanse. }}1: Then Light first began; from the firesBeams, conducted by fluid so pure.Flow’d around the Immense: Los beheldForthwith writhing upon the dark voidThe Back bone of Urizen appearHurtling upon the windLike a serpent! like an iron chainWhirling about in the Deep. 2: Upfolding his Fibres togetherTo a Form of impregnable strengthLos astonish’d and terrified, builtFurnaces; he formed an AnvilA Hammer of adamant then beganThe binding of Urizen day and night 3: Circling round the dark Demon, with howlingsDismay & sharp blightings; the ProphetOf Eternity beat on his iron links 4: And first from those infinite firesThe light that flow’d down on the windsHe siez’d; beating incessant, condensingThe subtil particles in an Orb. 5: Roaring indignant the bright sparksEndur’d the vast Hammer; but unweariedLos beat on the Anvil; till gloriousAn immense Orb of fire he fram’d 6: Oft he quench’d it beneath in the DeepsThen survey’d the all bright mass. AgainSiezing fires from the terrific OrbsHe heated the round Globe, then beat,While roaring his Furnaces endur’dThe chain’d Orb in their infinite wombs 7: Nine ages completed their circlesWhen Los heated the glowing mass, castingIt down into the Deeps: the Deeps fledAway in redounding smoke; the SunStood self-balanc’d. And Los smild with joy.He the vast Spine of Urizen siez’dAnd bound down to the glowing illusion 8: But no light, for the Deep fled awayOn all sides, and left an unform’dDark vacuity: here Urizen layIn fierce torments on his glowing bed 9: Till his Brain in a rock, & his HeartIn a fleshy slough formed four riversObscuring the immense Orb of fireFlowing down into night: till a FormWas completed, a Human IllusionIn darkness and deep clouds involvd.