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The Book of Urizen
The richly illuminated works of William Blake — poet, prophet, and artist — have fascinated readers since the late eighteenth century. In majestic verse illustrated with his own hand-colored plates, the poet explored profound and mystical themes, including the relationship between God and man and the concept of life as a journey toward spiritual self-knowledge.
One of Blake's most interesting and powerful creations, The Book of Urizen represents a parody of the book of Genesis, in which the righteous figure of God is replaced by that of Urizen, the "dark power" and obstacle to spiritual life. With "the voice of honest indignation," Blake compels readers to recognize and overcome their inner adversary in order to rise to higher levels of perception.
Incredibly beautiful in its combination of words and pictures, The Book of Urizen boasts some of Blake's most magnificent designs, rich in energy and monumental grandeur. For any lover of Blake, this edition represents an inexpensive opportunity to enjoy one of his finest works, including full-color reproductions of the poet's distinctive hand-colored plates and a printed transcription of the poem.
One of Blake's most interesting and powerful creations, The Book of Urizen represents a parody of the book of Genesis, in which the righteous figure of God is replaced by that of Urizen, the "dark power" and obstacle to spiritual life. With "the voice of honest indignation," Blake compels readers to recognize and overcome their inner adversary in order to rise to higher levels of perception.
Incredibly beautiful in its combination of words and pictures, The Book of Urizen boasts some of Blake's most magnificent designs, rich in energy and monumental grandeur. For any lover of Blake, this edition represents an inexpensive opportunity to enjoy one of his finest works, including full-color reproductions of the poet's distinctive hand-colored plates and a printed transcription of the poem.
48 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1794
34 people are currently reading
752 people want to read
About the author
William Blake
1,263 books3,164 followersWilliam Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake's work is today considered seminal and significant in the history of both poetry and the visual arts.
Blake's prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the language". His visual artistry has led one modern critic to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced." Although he only once travelled any further than a day's walk outside London over the course of his life, his creative vision engendered a diverse and symbolically rich corpus, which embraced 'imagination' as "the body of God", or "Human existence itself".
Once considered mad for his idiosyncratic views, Blake is highly regarded today for his expressiveness and creativity, and the philosophical and mystical currents that underlie his work. His work has been characterized as part of the Romantic movement, or even "Pre-Romantic", for its largely having appeared in the 18th century. Reverent of the Bible but hostile to the established Church, Blake was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of the French and American revolutions, as well as by such thinkers as Emanuel Swedenborg.
Despite these known influences, the originality and singularity of Blake's work make it difficult to classify. One 19th century scholar characterised Blake as a "glorious luminary", "a man not forestalled by predecessors, nor to be classed with contemporaries, nor to be replaced by known or readily surmisable successors."
Blake's prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the language". His visual artistry has led one modern critic to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced." Although he only once travelled any further than a day's walk outside London over the course of his life, his creative vision engendered a diverse and symbolically rich corpus, which embraced 'imagination' as "the body of God", or "Human existence itself".
Once considered mad for his idiosyncratic views, Blake is highly regarded today for his expressiveness and creativity, and the philosophical and mystical currents that underlie his work. His work has been characterized as part of the Romantic movement, or even "Pre-Romantic", for its largely having appeared in the 18th century. Reverent of the Bible but hostile to the established Church, Blake was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of the French and American revolutions, as well as by such thinkers as Emanuel Swedenborg.
Despite these known influences, the originality and singularity of Blake's work make it difficult to classify. One 19th century scholar characterised Blake as a "glorious luminary", "a man not forestalled by predecessors, nor to be classed with contemporaries, nor to be replaced by known or readily surmisable successors."
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July 4, 2024This early work (1794) by Blake, in fact one long poem, starts off in a dazzling and powerful way. Blake offers a kind of creation story here, in which order is created from chaos. It's his quirky version of the book of Genesis, with all his intuitive convictions incorporated into it. The verses are short, the vocabulary is very visual, it all emphasizes the vitality and violence of the beginning of the world. Then the focus shifts to Urizen, the first 'high priest' who stands for ordering reason, both here as in the rest of Blake's oeuvre. And with Blake this is not really a positive force, on the contrary: in the own universe that Urizen creates, alienation and enslavement are central , not least through the introduction of (organized) religion and the obedience it demands, restricting human freedom and imagination. Mind you, with Blake nothing is black and white: so Urizen (by extension rationalism in general) isn't just the bad guy, but a necessary 'dialectical' pole, inherent to the development of humanity. The story breaks off suddenly, but Blake would later complete it with The Book of Los and The book of Athania, both in 1795. To the unprepared reader: braze yourself for a trip in a dazzling mythological universe, where verbal fireworks illustrate the clash of things, both material and spiritual. Best to read with some accompanying explication.
July 11, 2024
In this epic poem, Blake gives us his own twisted version of Genesis (the book from the Bible, not the prog rock band) and it's batshit crazy... although, no moreso than the original, I suppose.
Mama
I can't see you mama
But I can hardly wait
Ooh to touch and to feel you mama
Oh I just can't keep away
In the heat and the steam of the city
Oh its got me running and I just can't brake
So say you'll help me mama
'Cause its getting so hard - ohhh!
Sorry!
Preludium to the First Book of Urizen
Of the primeval Priests assum'd power,
When Eternals spurn'd back his religion;
And gave him a 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.
I can't see you mama
But I can hardly wait
Ooh to touch and to feel you mama
Oh I just can't keep away
In the heat and the steam of the city
Oh its got me running and I just can't brake
So say you'll help me mama
'Cause its getting so hard - ohhh!
Sorry!
Preludium to the First Book of Urizen
Of the primeval Priests assum'd power,
When Eternals spurn'd back his religion;
And gave him a 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.
February 1, 2023
i read this and the book of los and the book of ahania but i'm not going to do three entries for three 20 ish pages poems, and i didn't read enough to justify tagging the full illustrated collection. anyway i always liked blake as an artist but i can never remember which of his poems i read, haven't read, or thought i remembered but actually just dreamed up or confabulated out of whole cloth, which i think is a all you need right there from that kind of poet
July 13, 2016
"The sound of a trumpet the heavens
Awoke & vast clouds of blood roll'd
Round the dim rocks of Urizen, so nam'd
That solitary one in Immensity"
I read this book aloud, had a quasi-mystical experience in the process. I wrote down some notes for this review, and then re-read it to get some more insight. This was a helpful resource: http://facstaff.uww.edu/hoganj/conten...
The book was absolute brilliance.
I picked it up because Urizen initially impressed me via the painting depicting him called Ancient of Days: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia...
He is the divine architect. He measured forth our local universe from void, and in this sense retains a trace of the creative impulse. The Eternals think of him as a "black globe", in that he is firmly committed to the Earthly rather than the Eternal and thus cut off from them, but also in that he is an isolated, atomistic individual. He is an egoist, confident in his own mind. He has the control of Yaweh and the cleverness of Satan. He needs no external justification. I admire Urizen because he reflects what I admire about myself.
Additionally, many of his flaws and limitations are ones I see in myself:
"I have sought for a joy without pain,
For a solid without fluctuation
Why will you die O Eternals?
Why live in unquenchable burnings?"
Urizen seeks to constrain the emotional range to eliminate negatives. He sees the ever-changing Eternals as dying, because to him life is stability and The Discrete (of course the Eternals feel the reverse about him: life is spontaneity and change and therefore Urizen is death) While I identify with his impulses, they are futile. Urizen pursues them anyway and in this sense drowns in futility. He despises death and desire, but is incapable of getting rid of them. In fact, he is sort of subjugated by his own Wills. When he takes on a corporeal form, his body seems to be composed of desires without passion, i.e. Will. Rent from the side of Los (the Creative Spirit), he is fundamentally incomplete without the full creative range afforded by Los
"Lo! I unfold my darkness: and on
This rock, place with strong hand the Book
Of eternal brass, written in my solitude.
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."
A Rational God is bound by the chains of reason. He lays down the One Law, born out of his axiomatic, solitary reasoning, and his repression of the non-rational. He is the One King. The One God. The Cosmic Fascist. He is too self obsessed to be truly creative in an artistic sense. He measures and maps more than he creates. What creative power he has denies, and isn't happy in his own creation. He is the counterrevolutionary spirit. The reactionary chained to his syllogisms which obscure as much as they reveal. He inscribes his will on plates dead brass only for them to be ignored by mankind, which increases his angst.
I love Urizen, because what is lovely in me is lovelier in him, and what pains me puts him into the throes of agony.
That said, there are some things about Urizen which go beyond the edge of reason for me. He hates animals for being foreign, stupid, and incapable of worshipping him. He takes egoism to its narcissistic conclusion. Disagreement he sees as combat. Ambiguity causes him pain.
I think the Eternals get off easy in this story. They never stop any of the negative events in the story from happening. I actually find their hypocrisy in opposing Urizens rationality, while erecting a Tent roofed by Science to more disgusting than Urizen's rationalist dogmatism. They also erect this tent to protect them from having to see Woman, and to keep Woman (along with Urizen) out of Eternity, which is pretty misogynistic.
Los gets off a bit easy as well. Creative spirit has its drawbacks too if taken to an archetypical extreme. He is after all the one who chains up Urizen and gives him form without consent. He also kills his son (unsuccessfully?). Ok maybe he doesn't get off easy.
I obviously loved this.
You should also check out the illustrations. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Boo... Blake was an artist as much as he was a poet.
Awoke & vast clouds of blood roll'd
Round the dim rocks of Urizen, so nam'd
That solitary one in Immensity"
I read this book aloud, had a quasi-mystical experience in the process. I wrote down some notes for this review, and then re-read it to get some more insight. This was a helpful resource: http://facstaff.uww.edu/hoganj/conten...
The book was absolute brilliance.
I picked it up because Urizen initially impressed me via the painting depicting him called Ancient of Days: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia...
He is the divine architect. He measured forth our local universe from void, and in this sense retains a trace of the creative impulse. The Eternals think of him as a "black globe", in that he is firmly committed to the Earthly rather than the Eternal and thus cut off from them, but also in that he is an isolated, atomistic individual. He is an egoist, confident in his own mind. He has the control of Yaweh and the cleverness of Satan. He needs no external justification. I admire Urizen because he reflects what I admire about myself.
Additionally, many of his flaws and limitations are ones I see in myself:
"I have sought for a joy without pain,
For a solid without fluctuation
Why will you die O Eternals?
Why live in unquenchable burnings?"
Urizen seeks to constrain the emotional range to eliminate negatives. He sees the ever-changing Eternals as dying, because to him life is stability and The Discrete (of course the Eternals feel the reverse about him: life is spontaneity and change and therefore Urizen is death) While I identify with his impulses, they are futile. Urizen pursues them anyway and in this sense drowns in futility. He despises death and desire, but is incapable of getting rid of them. In fact, he is sort of subjugated by his own Wills. When he takes on a corporeal form, his body seems to be composed of desires without passion, i.e. Will. Rent from the side of Los (the Creative Spirit), he is fundamentally incomplete without the full creative range afforded by Los
"Lo! I unfold my darkness: and on
This rock, place with strong hand the Book
Of eternal brass, written in my solitude.
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."
A Rational God is bound by the chains of reason. He lays down the One Law, born out of his axiomatic, solitary reasoning, and his repression of the non-rational. He is the One King. The One God. The Cosmic Fascist. He is too self obsessed to be truly creative in an artistic sense. He measures and maps more than he creates. What creative power he has denies, and isn't happy in his own creation. He is the counterrevolutionary spirit. The reactionary chained to his syllogisms which obscure as much as they reveal. He inscribes his will on plates dead brass only for them to be ignored by mankind, which increases his angst.
I love Urizen, because what is lovely in me is lovelier in him, and what pains me puts him into the throes of agony.
That said, there are some things about Urizen which go beyond the edge of reason for me. He hates animals for being foreign, stupid, and incapable of worshipping him. He takes egoism to its narcissistic conclusion. Disagreement he sees as combat. Ambiguity causes him pain.
I think the Eternals get off easy in this story. They never stop any of the negative events in the story from happening. I actually find their hypocrisy in opposing Urizens rationality, while erecting a Tent roofed by Science to more disgusting than Urizen's rationalist dogmatism. They also erect this tent to protect them from having to see Woman, and to keep Woman (along with Urizen) out of Eternity, which is pretty misogynistic.
Los gets off a bit easy as well. Creative spirit has its drawbacks too if taken to an archetypical extreme. He is after all the one who chains up Urizen and gives him form without consent. He also kills his son (unsuccessfully?). Ok maybe he doesn't get off easy.
I obviously loved this.
You should also check out the illustrations. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Boo... Blake was an artist as much as he was a poet.
June 11, 2023
Penned and illustrated with fire and bile. Creation as fall, sex and gender as body horror, law as chain, existence as chaos. The formation of flesh -- Blake's description of the heart and the bloodstream like the creation of stars and galaxies -- all pukes up upon itself to create chaos and unhappiness. Orc is born and immediately shackled. A Prometheus born to a world in which fire in nigh inconceivable. Infant humanity, immediately distressed and helpless, succumb to a horrifically stifling and rigid, oppressive system as a way to avoid the insurmountable madness of this new world. This desperation doesn't save them from deluge. Blake at his best has much the same energy as Goya at his best. Tormented images and prophetic yet blinded staggering in the darkening confines of a shrinking room. Erupting asphyxiated magnificence onto the flicker-lit walls of solitary caverns.
April 2, 2018
In short, The Book of Urizen is an allegory for the drawbacks of logic and empiricism in relation to spiritual thought. Urizen is a rational, immortal creator that systematically causes the narrowing of perception in the human mind in order for us to experience fewer forms of misery and suffering.
I always have a soft spot for Blake, even if he likes to repeat "Manacles" or "delight" at any given point...
I always have a soft spot for Blake, even if he likes to repeat "Manacles" or "delight" at any given point...
December 30, 2016
Os Eternos disseram: «Que será isto? A Morte,
Um pedaço de barro - Urizen é isso.»
Um pedaço de barro - Urizen é isso.»
July 11, 2024
Don't, man. Just don't.
I had to study William Blake in-depth in college. This was one of the books I had to get through. It's just a fucked-up twisting of Judeo-Christian mythology, without any explanation as to this being substituted for that. I really got tired of playing the "guess what this means" game. Yes, I got all As on my William Blake term papers, but they were exhausting.
And I wound up never making a penny off of my knowledge of Blake, so my eventual degree wound up being nothing more than a piece of paper costing thousands of dollars.
It's books like this that make people hate poetry ... or make them think, "Shit, I can do better than that" and crank out their own volume of tree-wasting nonsense.
The only reason this gets a star is because of the artwork. Blake had a unique style. It was haunting and terrifying, despite his use of predominantly soft colors.
I can't remember what edition I read. Goodreads just picked this one at random.
I had to study William Blake in-depth in college. This was one of the books I had to get through. It's just a fucked-up twisting of Judeo-Christian mythology, without any explanation as to this being substituted for that. I really got tired of playing the "guess what this means" game. Yes, I got all As on my William Blake term papers, but they were exhausting.
And I wound up never making a penny off of my knowledge of Blake, so my eventual degree wound up being nothing more than a piece of paper costing thousands of dollars.
It's books like this that make people hate poetry ... or make them think, "Shit, I can do better than that" and crank out their own volume of tree-wasting nonsense.
The only reason this gets a star is because of the artwork. Blake had a unique style. It was haunting and terrifying, despite his use of predominantly soft colors.
I can't remember what edition I read. Goodreads just picked this one at random.
March 19, 2017
Fascinating, enigmatic, visionary, this would probably be incomprehensible without the commentary that takes up almost half the book--and even with the commentary, it is hard to wrap one's head around what Blake is trying to achieve with this revisionist take on the creation myth. Densely allusive, and furthermore intensely interested in challenging the very notion of the book, according to the commentary, this account of the birth and struggles of various godlike figures--invoking classical mythology, the bible, and Milton's Paradise Lost--is more suggestive than assertive. The images (produced from copy G, one of the handful of surviving copies--all of which differ substantially from each other) especially have an inexplicable power and reward careful attention. Blake without the pictures loses a lot, so most anthology selections really don't give one a sense of what he is doing.
January 3, 2025
Books/Authors to read before/after or during "The First Book of Urizen":
"The Book of Genesis"
"Paradise Lost" by John Milton
Jakob Böhme
"Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake" by Northrop Frye
"A Blake Dictionary: The Ideas and Symbols of William Blake" by S. Foster Damon
"The Stranger from Paradise: A Biography of William Blake" by G.E. Bentley Jr
"The Visionary Company: A Reading of English Romantic Poetry" by Harold Bloom
"The Book of Genesis"
"Paradise Lost" by John Milton
Jakob Böhme
"Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake" by Northrop Frye
"A Blake Dictionary: The Ideas and Symbols of William Blake" by S. Foster Damon
"The Stranger from Paradise: A Biography of William Blake" by G.E. Bentley Jr
"The Visionary Company: A Reading of English Romantic Poetry" by Harold Bloom
February 9, 2024
Definitely one to reread
July 31, 2024
I’ve encountered with William Blake within illustrated edition The Drawings for Dante's Divine Comedy. In that time I thought that he was just another illustrator as Doré, but soon I realised that I was wrong discovering, by chance, “The Book of Urizen“.
Blake is a mere revelation to me and an adamant proof that Britain DID have its own invented mythology before Tolkien, yet it neglected it as a work of a lunatic – as Blake’s contemporaries labelled him. Blake’s literary expression is quite simple, yet dense and arid, satiated with myriad allegories and terms which require further scrutinisation (which I do revere in literature) and deliberation. Thus my faithful chaperon on this and all further journeys through Blake's mythology is and will be marvellous A Blake Dictionary. I often cannot follow his train of thoughts, thus now and again ought to turn back a few pages as would re-read some parts in order to acquaint with the matter.
“The Book of Urizen“ is Blake’s The Book of Genesis where he explained Urizen’s separation from the Eternals, as well as the embodiment of Los, Enitharmon and Orc. Marvellous and sublime tone of the stanzas gave the song special dark and thrilling atmosphere.
Blake is a mere revelation to me and an adamant proof that Britain DID have its own invented mythology before Tolkien, yet it neglected it as a work of a lunatic – as Blake’s contemporaries labelled him. Blake’s literary expression is quite simple, yet dense and arid, satiated with myriad allegories and terms which require further scrutinisation (which I do revere in literature) and deliberation. Thus my faithful chaperon on this and all further journeys through Blake's mythology is and will be marvellous A Blake Dictionary. I often cannot follow his train of thoughts, thus now and again ought to turn back a few pages as would re-read some parts in order to acquaint with the matter.
“The Book of Urizen“ is Blake’s The Book of Genesis where he explained Urizen’s separation from the Eternals, as well as the embodiment of Los, Enitharmon and Orc. Marvellous and sublime tone of the stanzas gave the song special dark and thrilling atmosphere.
July 28, 2017
Una de las copias originales de este libro está entre los 20 libros más caros que se han comprado en la historia.
Por encima de los USD $2.5 MM que se pagaron por este libro hay 3 copias de Birds Of America de John James Audabon, 1 Biblia de Gutenberg, Los Cuentos de Canterbury de Chaucer (y yo vi estos 3 en Huntington Library *goosebumps*), 4 libros de evangelios y salmos, 1 de Shakespeare, cartas originales, un comic y las reglas del basketball (¿?), pero despertó suficiente interés en mí como para investigar al respecto y cuando vi que la versión de Kindle cuesta USD $0.69 dlls me dije ¿por qué no?
No soy fanático de la poesía. Menos en inglés y MENOS en inglés de 1794, pero con mucha ayuda de internet y el diccionario de Kindle, pude leerlo y entenderlo.
Más que escribir de qué se trata (lo cual pueden ver aquí: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boo...), quiero compartir que me pareció un libro oscuro, tétrico y lúgubre para hablar de la creación del mundo y del hombre. En una parte, Urizen se da cuenta que sus hijos, carne y espíritu no son capaces de seguir sus leyes y en el siguiente acto, crea una red de metal, tan enredada y pesada que atrapa a la mente y a esa red le llama religión. Y caray, me pareció bastante intenso para tener solo 24 páginas.
Los grabados son impresionantes y creo que ahí reside el valor de la copia de USD $2.5 MM y la edición de Kindle los reproduce todos, lo cual es un plus. Vale la pena darle una ojeada y creo que definitivamente, cuando ejercite más mi músculo poético, tendré que regresar a él.
Por encima de los USD $2.5 MM que se pagaron por este libro hay 3 copias de Birds Of America de John James Audabon, 1 Biblia de Gutenberg, Los Cuentos de Canterbury de Chaucer (y yo vi estos 3 en Huntington Library *goosebumps*), 4 libros de evangelios y salmos, 1 de Shakespeare, cartas originales, un comic y las reglas del basketball (¿?), pero despertó suficiente interés en mí como para investigar al respecto y cuando vi que la versión de Kindle cuesta USD $0.69 dlls me dije ¿por qué no?
No soy fanático de la poesía. Menos en inglés y MENOS en inglés de 1794, pero con mucha ayuda de internet y el diccionario de Kindle, pude leerlo y entenderlo.
Más que escribir de qué se trata (lo cual pueden ver aquí: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boo...), quiero compartir que me pareció un libro oscuro, tétrico y lúgubre para hablar de la creación del mundo y del hombre. En una parte, Urizen se da cuenta que sus hijos, carne y espíritu no son capaces de seguir sus leyes y en el siguiente acto, crea una red de metal, tan enredada y pesada que atrapa a la mente y a esa red le llama religión. Y caray, me pareció bastante intenso para tener solo 24 páginas.
Los grabados son impresionantes y creo que ahí reside el valor de la copia de USD $2.5 MM y la edición de Kindle los reproduce todos, lo cual es un plus. Vale la pena darle una ojeada y creo que definitivamente, cuando ejercite más mi músculo poético, tendré que regresar a él.
June 4, 2024
“And his world teem'd vast enormities
Fright'ning, faithless, fawning.
Portions of life, similitudes
Of a foot, or a hand, or a head,
Or a heart, or an eye, they swam, mischevous
Dread terrors, delighting in blood.
He, in darkness clos'd, view'd all his race,
And his soul sicken'd! He curs'd
Both sons & daughters, for he saw
That no flesh nor spirit could keep
His iron laws one moment.
For he saw that life liv'd upon death:
The Ox in the slaughter house moans,
The Dog at the wintry door.
And he wept, & he called it Pity,
And his tears flowed down on the winds.”
—
“Till the shrunken eyes, clouded over,
Discern'd not the woven hipocricy,
But the streaky slime in their heavens,
Brought together by narrowing perceptions,
Appear'd transparent air; for their eyes
Grew small like the eyes of a man,
And in reptile forms shrinking together
Of seven feet stature they remain'd.
Six days they shrunk up from existence,
And on the seventh day they rested.
And they bless'd the seventh day, in sick hope,
And forgot their eternal life.
And their thirty cities divided
In form of a human heart.
No more could they rise at will
In the infinite void but, bound down
To earth by their narrowing perceptions,
They lived a period of years,
Then left a noisom body
To the jaws of devouring darkness.
And their children wept, & built
Tombs in the desolate places,
And form'd laws of prudence, and call'd them
The eternal laws of God.”
Fright'ning, faithless, fawning.
Portions of life, similitudes
Of a foot, or a hand, or a head,
Or a heart, or an eye, they swam, mischevous
Dread terrors, delighting in blood.
He, in darkness clos'd, view'd all his race,
And his soul sicken'd! He curs'd
Both sons & daughters, for he saw
That no flesh nor spirit could keep
His iron laws one moment.
For he saw that life liv'd upon death:
The Ox in the slaughter house moans,
The Dog at the wintry door.
And he wept, & he called it Pity,
And his tears flowed down on the winds.”
—
“Till the shrunken eyes, clouded over,
Discern'd not the woven hipocricy,
But the streaky slime in their heavens,
Brought together by narrowing perceptions,
Appear'd transparent air; for their eyes
Grew small like the eyes of a man,
And in reptile forms shrinking together
Of seven feet stature they remain'd.
Six days they shrunk up from existence,
And on the seventh day they rested.
And they bless'd the seventh day, in sick hope,
And forgot their eternal life.
And their thirty cities divided
In form of a human heart.
No more could they rise at will
In the infinite void but, bound down
To earth by their narrowing perceptions,
They lived a period of years,
Then left a noisom body
To the jaws of devouring darkness.
And their children wept, & built
Tombs in the desolate places,
And form'd laws of prudence, and call'd them
The eternal laws of God.”
February 10, 2024
A word on Blake’s conception of God and religion … William Blake censures any religion that constricts its reign on the unrestricted flow of human instincts and natural impulses.
Blake holds the idea of a loving God. Blake sees God not as an abstraction in the void, or at heaven, dwelling apart from man. He is within us: it is the sum total of all the divine qualities, which we call God. For Blake, ‘Imagination’ is that aptitude in man which can hear the instigations of God, intuition or ‘Spiritual Sensation.’
Thus, he speaks of Christ as ‘Divine Imagination’ which is also represented by Los.
This tome is Blake’s ironic version of the biblical Book of Genesis. It is also the locus for his mythology in ‘A Song of Liberty.’
The story is as follows: Urizen, a god of Reason who separates himself from the other Eternals, demands obedience to his self-proclaimed principles, and falls into chaos - -is an abstract, vain and punitive deity. A body is created for him by Los, the Eternal Prophet or Divine Imagination. Nevertheless, Los, fatigued, divides into male (Los) and female (Enitharmon). Their child Orc (Rebellious Energy) is born but is immediately chained to a rock. Urizen then explores his deadly world, and humankind shrinks up from Eternity. Finally, some of Urizen’s children begin an exodus.
A true work of art!!
Blake holds the idea of a loving God. Blake sees God not as an abstraction in the void, or at heaven, dwelling apart from man. He is within us: it is the sum total of all the divine qualities, which we call God. For Blake, ‘Imagination’ is that aptitude in man which can hear the instigations of God, intuition or ‘Spiritual Sensation.’
Thus, he speaks of Christ as ‘Divine Imagination’ which is also represented by Los.
This tome is Blake’s ironic version of the biblical Book of Genesis. It is also the locus for his mythology in ‘A Song of Liberty.’
The story is as follows: Urizen, a god of Reason who separates himself from the other Eternals, demands obedience to his self-proclaimed principles, and falls into chaos - -is an abstract, vain and punitive deity. A body is created for him by Los, the Eternal Prophet or Divine Imagination. Nevertheless, Los, fatigued, divides into male (Los) and female (Enitharmon). Their child Orc (Rebellious Energy) is born but is immediately chained to a rock. Urizen then explores his deadly world, and humankind shrinks up from Eternity. Finally, some of Urizen’s children begin an exodus.
A true work of art!!
April 8, 2024
El libro me recordó a los Eternos de Sandman. Evidentemente, que Blake ha inspirado a muchos creadores contemporáneos y creo que la razón se debe a que su poesía ( incluiría sus cuadros) tiende a reinterpretar los temas de la creación del universo, en contraposición a algunas ideas que la religión ha infundido por siglos. De todas formas, utiliza esa cosmogonía y la traslada a nuestras pasiones y como estas se enraizaron en nuestra cultura.
February 22, 2018
A grandiose, confident fantasy version of the creation of the world. I enjoyed it, although it really is mostly poetry. It doesn't contain the philosophy of other creation myths, and doesn't contain the drama of, say, th eGreek pantheon. It is, however, a great source of beautifully written scripture.
December 31, 2019
Blake's actual poem is a firm 5/5, but the particular edition edited by Kay and Roger Easson has some minor issues. Color on the illuminated plates is a bit washed-out (the Blake Trust volumes do this a lot better,) and the editorial Commentary makes some weird stretches in its interpretation. Still, solid stuff.
August 14, 2020
If you enjoy that black and white shirt film on Netflix with David Lynch in lengthy dialogue arguing with a monkey, you will appreciate the poetry of William Blake. If you did not care for that or are appalled by the prospect, this is almost assuredly not going to be your cup of tea or for you. But for receptive readers with open minds... Stupendously captivating!
June 24, 2024
I first discovered this book when it was referenced on Khan Academy, in the article 'READ: The Enlightenment', in Unit 6, in the course 'World History Project - Origins to the Present'. The article displays Plate 12 from this book.
November 9, 2017
Coming back to this again and again, even though I disagree with Blake slightly, I think it is my failing to not grasp this work in a holistic way.
January 1, 2019
Great Blake prophetic poetry, great for someone looking to beyond his work in Songs of Innocence and Experience
March 15, 2020
Apparently part of a trilogy, knowing Los is in two others. Urizen seems like a satan figure. And of course, since it’s Blake, it has to announce its atheism with a sledgehammer.
April 16, 2020
Mythic, prophetic. Great stuff!
April 30, 2021
I will think about this poem for years, trying to puzzle it out. I loved it and the commentary.
September 30, 2021
Murder of the Universe by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.
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November 23, 2021my professor said to not worry if we dont understand this...... anyway i loved it twas kinda complex and fucked up and so weird. what a masterpiece
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February 14, 2023William Blake kinda slayed with this one not even gonna lie
February 15, 2023
My new go-to book for when I forget to take my meds
March 20, 2023
wow such an interesting way to mythify creation. I liked the use of nets.
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