Chap: IV.[a]
- 1: Los smitten with astonishment
- Frightend at the hurtling bones
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- 2: And at the surging sulphureous
- Perturbed Immortal mad raging
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- 3: In whirlwinds & pitch & nitre
- Round the furious limbs of Los
-
- 4: And Los formed nets & gins
- And threw the nets round about
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- 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.
Chap: IV.[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.
- --oOo-- -