Book Of Urizen, The ( Excerpts )

William Blake

CHAPTER 1 

   Lo, a shadow of horror is risen 
   In Eternity! Unknown, unprolific,
   Self-clos'd, 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. 

CHAPTER 2 

   Times on times he divided and measur'd
   Space by space in his ninefold darkness,
   Unseen, unknown; changes appear'd
   Like desolate mountains, rifted furious
   By the black winds of perturbation. 

CHAPTER 3 

   For he strove in battles dire,
   In unseen conflictions with shapes
   Bred from his forsaken wilderness
   Of beast, bird, fish, serpent and element,
   Combustion, blast, vapour and cloud. 

CHAPTER 4 

   Dark, revolving in silent activity:
   Unseen in tormenting passions:
   An activity unknown and horrible,
   A self-contemplating shadow,
   In enormous labours occupied. 

CHAPTER 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; and the rolling of wheels,
   As of swelling seas, sound in his clouds,
   In his hills of stor'd snows, in his mountains
   Of hail and ice; voices of terror
   Are heard, like thunders of autumn
   When the cloud blazes over the harvests.

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