William Blake: Book of Urizen Reader's Guide

1. The Book of Urizen
Reader’s Guide

2. If The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is Blake’s
mythos to rethink the way the Bible has been
controlled by authority, his prophetic books
can be read as books in the “Bible of Hell.”
The Book of Urizen is like his Genesis – it’s an
origin story, but it precedes the creation of
the physical world. In this way, it’s similar to
the Greek myths about Uranus and Gaia,
Cronus and Zeus and the Titans.
Blake takes from all myths, including occult
ones. Yet it speaks with authority. There’s a
sense that the narrative voice wants to say
“this happened!”
Here, Urizen is a scribe blindly copying
accounts. Behind him are tablets of the
law. Urizen means “limit.” It also sounds
like (and comes from a Greek word
meaning) “Horizon” – or the line that
separates.

3. Of the primeval Priest’s 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.
The flying woman guiding a child hovers over the
prelude. In another version, Blake had captioned
this “Teach these souls to fly.”
The book opens with conflict and exile, similar to
Paradise Lost.
And the book says it will be itself conflicted – dark
visions of torment.
(Because these are hard to read, I’ve
included the text out to the side).

4. These images suggest torment
and pain, but the visions seem to
be of higher creations as well.
Urizen chained. A division
between worlds.

5. 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
1. Here, Blake is imagining a creation that seems
generated from “dark power” – though it’s
attributed to Urizen
2. Note the logical behavior. As he “Divides” and
“measures.” He’s organizing an compartmentalizing.
He’s like a mad scientist.
3. Conflict and exile again. Plotting in separation.
4. “Enormous labours occupied,” more plotting.
5. As he’s separated, he’s ignored, alone.
6. He’s “prepar’d.” He would kind of have to be.
Note the language her – it emphasizes isolation,
knowledge (or lack thereof), shapes and shadows,
noise and silence.

6. 1. Earth was not: nor globes of attraction
The will of the Immortal expanded
Or contracted his all flexible senses.
Death was not, but eternal life sprung
2. 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
3. Shrill the trumpet: & myriads of Eternity,
Muster around the bleak desarts
Now fill'd with clouds, darkness & waters
That roll'd perplex'd labring & utter'd
Words articulate, bursting in thunders
That roll'd on the tops of his mountains
4: From the depths of dark solitude. From
The eternal abode in my holiness,
Hidden set apart in my stern counsels
Reserv'd for the days of futurity,
I have sought for a joy without pain,
For a solid without fluctuation
Why will you die O Eternals?
Why live in unquenchable burnings?
5 First I fought with the fire; consum'd
Inwards, into a deep world within:
A void immense, wild dark & deep,
Where nothing was: Natures wide womb
And self balanc'd stretch'd o'er the void
I alone, even I! the winds merciless
Bound; but condensing, in torrents
They fall & fall; strong I repell'd
The vast waves, & arose on the waters
A wide world of solid obstruction
6. Here alone I in books formd of metals
Have written the secrets of wisdom
The secrets of dark contemplation
By fightings and conflicts dire,
With terrible monsters Sin-bred:
Which the bosoms of all inhabit;
Seven deadly Sins of the soul.
7. Lo! I unfold my darkness: and on
This rock, place with strong hand the Book
Of eternal brass, written in my solitude.
8. 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.
Urizen speaks. He’s separating.
Urizen wants a separate unchanging
identity. So he separates things (joy
from pain). He’s been measuring
things, remember, and he wants a
world that he can control. A world
full of “laws” [of peace, of love, of
unity].

7. Remember Margaret Cavendish?
In The Blazing World, Cavendish joins with her fictional surrogate, the
Empress, to create a “world of her own”:
At last, when the Duchess saw that no patterns would do her any good in the
framing of her World; she was resolved to make a World of her own Invention,
and this World was composed of sensitive and rational self-moving Matter;
indeed, it was composed onely of the Rational, which is the subtilest and
purest degree of Matter; for as the Sensitive did move and act both to the
perceptions and consistency of the body, so this degree of Matter at the same
point of time (for though the degrees are mixt, yet the several parts may move
several ways at one time) did move to the Creation of the Imaginary World;
which World after it was made, appear'd so curious and full of variety, so well
order'd and wisely govern'd, that it cannot possibly be expressed by words, nor
the delight and pleasure which the Duchess took in making this World-of-her-
own.
Cavendish wants a world that is full of “rational” and “sensitive”
matter. What is Urizen doing? Is he severing the rational from the
sensitive? Thinking from feeling? Joy from pain?

8. Urizen does his thing. What does these lines
mean? Are they being created or dissolved?
Are they the representation of speech?

9. 1. The voice ended, they saw his pale visage
Emerge from the darkness; his hand
On the rock of eternity unclasping
The Book of brass. Rage siez'd the strong
2. Rage, fury, intense indignation
In cataracts of fire blood & gall
In whirlwinds of sulphurous smoke:
And enormous forms of energy;
All the seven deadly sins of the soul
In living creations appear'd
In the flames of eternal fury.
3. Sund'ring, dark'ning, thund'ring!
Rent away with a terrible crash
Eternity roll'd wide apart
Wide asunder rolling
Mountainous all around
Departing; departing; departing:
Leaving ruinous fragments of life
Hanging frowning cliffs & all between
An ocean of voidness unfathomable.
4. The roaring fires ran o'er the heav'ns
In whirlwinds & cataracts of blood
And o'er the dark desarts of Urizen
Fires pour thro' the void on all sides
On Urizens self-begotten armies.
5. But no light from the fires. all was darkness
In the flames of Eternal fury
6. In fierce anguish & quenchless flames
To the desarts and rocks He ran raging
To hide, but He could not: combining
He dug mountains & hills in vast strength,
He piled them in incessant labour,
In howlings & pangs & fierce madness
Long periods in burning fires labouring
Till hoary, and age-broke, and aged,
In despair and the shadows of death.
7. And a roof, vast petrific around,
On all sides He fram'd: like a womb;
Where thousands of rivers in veins
Of blood pour down the mountains to cool
The eternal fires beating without
From Eternals; & like a black globe
View'd by sons of Eternity, standing
On the shore of the infinite ocean
Like a human heart strugling & beating
The vast world of Urizen appear'd.
Urizen’s creation is “fram’d: like a womb.” It’s
full of power. All around him the creation
erupts: it’s violent. This isn’t usually the way
we see, for instance, the creation in Genesis,
which seems almost like someone is turning
on the light and things just appear.
What’s striking is that creation causes pain for
the creator (“He ran raging”) and it’s difficult
“labour” and loud. Urizen wants enclosures,
rooms, but it keeps getting away from him.
It’s controlled by his consciousness, or at least
attempts to be, and it takes everything from
him.

10. Remember The Tyger?
What immortal hand or eye / Could frame thy fearful
symmetry?
In this scenario, we see the immortal “hand or eye” –
Urizen - but we don’t exactly see “symmetry.” It is
powerful chaos:
The roaring fires ran o'er the heav’ns In
whirlwinds & cataracts of blood

11. Think about our archetypes for artistic creation.
On the one hand, we have good ol’ Bob
Ross – friendly, encouraging, suggesting
that painting can be fun or easy. And if
you don’t come out with anything
revolutionary or terribly original, at least
you have something nice to hang up in
the guest bathroom.
And then there’s Jackson Pollock: Here’s
a description of him:
His technique focused on the formation of the art,
which incorporated the movement of his body; the
pouring, dripping, or splattering of paint; and the
force of gravity. He didn’t use typical painter’s tools
like brushes and easels in his process. Pollock would
re-work his canvases to create webs of patterns, and
his dynamic approach allowed him to simulate the
chaotic patterns prevalent in nature.

12. 8. And Los round the dark globe of Urizen,
Kept watch for Eternals to confine,
The obscure separation alone;
For Eternity stood wide apart,
As the stars are apart from the earth
9. Los wept howling around the dark
Demon:
And cursing his lot; for in anguish,
Urizen was rent from his side;
And a fathomless void for his feet;
And intense fires for his dwelling.
10. But Urizen laid in a stony sleep
Unorganiz'd, rent from Eternity
11. The Eternals said: What is this? Death
Urizen is a clod of clay.
12: Los howld in a dismal stupor,
Groaning! gnashing! groaning!
Till the wrenching apart was healed
13: But the wrenching of Urizen heal'd not
Cold, featureless, flesh or clay,
Rifted with direful changes
He lay in a dreamless night
14: Till Los rouz'd his fires, affrighted
At the formless unmeasurable death.
Now Los enters.
And Urizen dies “in a stony sleep / a
clod of clay.”
Los is torn from him (“rent from his
side?” what does that mean?). Urizen
has separated himself from eternity (in
death?).
Los will take action – Urizen has
created chaos, his plan hasn’t worked to
provide “Laws of peace, of love, of
unity.”
Notice the use of “measure”ment at the
end again – this is a key repetition for
Blake.
Urizen was supposed to organize a
world around reason, but in so doing
he’s created even more chaos. It is
“rifted with direful changes.”

13. Los From here, we have Los’ story:
it’s one of fixing the problems of
this world that has been
separated from the eternal,
giving it meaning – meaning
through art, which will order and
substantiate, which will divide
through rational organization.
Los’ goal, we’ll see, is futile, and
this becomes a metaphor for –
Blake thinks – our own world.