Read The Complete Poems Page 29

  O Fool to think that I could hide from his all piercing eyes

  The gold & silver & costly stones his holy workmanship

  O Fool could I forget the light that filled my bright spheres

  20 Was a reflection of his face who calld me from the deep

  I well remember for I heard the mild & holy voice

  Saying O light spring up & shine & I sprang up from the deep

  He gave to me a silver scepter & crownd me with a golden crown

  [Saying] & said Go forth & guide my Son who wanders on the ocean

  I went not forth. I hid myself in black clouds of my wrath

  I calld the stars around my feet in the night of councils dark

  The stars threw down their spears & fled naked away

  We fell. I siezd thee dark Urthona In my left hand falling

  I siezd thee beauteous Luvah thou art faded like a flower

  30 And like a lilly is thy wife Vala witherd by winds

  When thou didst bear the golden cup at the immortal tables

  Thy children smote their fiery wings crownd with the gold of heaven

  PAGE 65

  Thy pure feet stepd on the steps divine. too pure for other feet

  And thy fair locks shadowd thine eyes from the divine effulgence

  Then thou didst keep with Strong Urthona the living gates of heaven

  But now thou art bound down with him even to the gates of hell

  Because thou gavest Urizen the wine of the Almighty

  For steeds of Light that they might run in thy golden chariot of pride

  I gave to thee the Steeds I pourd the stolen wine

  And drunken with the immortal draught fell from my throne sublime

  I will arise Explore these dens & find that deep pulsation

  10 That shakes my caverns with strong shudders. perhaps this is the night

  Of Prophecy & Luvah hath burst his way from Enitharmon

  When Thought is closd in Caves. Then love shall shew its root in deepest Hell

  End of the Fifth [Book] Night

  PAGE 67

  VALA

  NIGHT THE SIXTH

  So Urizen arose & leaning on his Spear explord his dens

  He threw his flight thro the dark air to where a river flowd

  And taking off his silver helmet filled it & drank

  But when unsatiated his thirst he assayd to gather more

  Lo three terrific women at the verge of the bright flood

  Who would not suffer him to approach. but drove him back with storms

  Urizen knew them not & thus addressd the spirits of darkness

  Who art thou Eldest Woman sitting in thy clouds

  What is that name written on thy forehead? what art thou?

  10 And wherefore dost thou pour this water forth in sighs & care

  She answerd not but filld her urn & pourd it forth abroad

  Answerest thou not said Urizen. then thou maist answer me

  Thou terrible woman clad in blue whose strong attractive power

  Draws all into a fountain at the rock of thy attraction

  With frowning brow thou sittest mistress of these mighty waters

  She answerd not but stretchd her arms & threw her limbs abroad

  Or wilt thou answer youngest Woman clad in shining green

  With labour & care thou dost divide the [river] current into four

  Queen of these dreadful rivers speak & let me hear thy voice

  PAGE 68

  [but] They reard up a wall of rocks [then] and Urizen raisd his spear.

  They gave a scream, they knew their father Urizen knew his daughters

  They shrunk into their channels. dry the rocky strand beneath his feet

  Hiding themselves in rocky forms from the Eyes of Urizen

  Then Urizen wept & thus his lamentation poured forth

  O horrible O dreadful state! those whom I loved best

  On whom I pourd the beauties of my light adorning them

  With jewels & precious ornament labourd with art divine

  Vests of the radiant colours of heaven & crowns of golden fire

  10 I gave sweet lillies to their breasts & roses to their hair

  I taught them songs of sweet delight. I gave their tender voices

  Into the blue expanse & I invented with laborious art

  Sweet instruments of sound. in pride encompassing my Knees

  They pourd their radiance above all. the daughters of Luvah Envied

  At their exceeding brightness & the sons of eternity sent them gifts

  Now will I pour my fury on them & I will reverse

  The precious benediction. for their colours of loveliness

  I will give blackness for jewels hoary frost for ornament deformity

  For crowns wreathd Serpents for sweet odors stinking corruptibility

  20 For voices of delight hoarse croakings inarticulate thro frost

  For labourd fatherly care & sweet instruction. I will give

  Chains of dark ignorance & cords of twisted self conceit

  And whips of stern repentance & food of stubborn obstinacy

  That they may curse Tharmas their God & Los his adopted son

  That they may curse & worship the obscure Demon of destruction

  That they may worship terrors & obey the violent

  Go forth sons of my curse Go forth daughters of my abhorrence

  Tharmas heard the deadly scream across his watry world

  And Urizens loud sounding voice lamenting on the wind

  30 And he came riding in his fury. froze to solid were his waves

  PAGE 69

  Silent in ridges he beheld them stand round Urizen

  A dreary waste of solid waters for the King of Light

  Darkend his brows with his cold helmet & his gloomy spear

  Darkend before him. Silent on the ridgy waves he took

  His gloomy way before him Tharmas fled & flying fought

  Crying. What & who art thou Cold Demon. art thou Urizen

  Art thou like me risen again from death or art thou deathless

  If thou art he my desperate purpose hear & give me death

  For death to me is better far than life. death my desire

  10 That I in vain in various paths have sought but still I live

  The Body of Man is given to me I seek in vain to destroy

  For still it surges forth in fish & monsters of the deeps

  And in these monstrous forms I Live in an Eternal woe

  And thou O Urizen art falln never to be deliverd

  Withhold thy light from me for ever & I will withhold

  From thee thy food so shall we cease to be & all our sorrows

  [Cease] End & the Eternal Man no more renew beneath our power

  If thou refusest in eternal flight thy beams in vain

  Shall pursue Tharmas & in vain shalt crave for food I will

  20 Pour down my flight thro dark immensity Eternal falling

  Thou shalt pursue me but in vain till starvd upon the void

  Thou hangst a dried skin shrunk up weak wailing in the wind

  So Tharmas spoke but Urizen replied not. On his way

  He took. high bounding over hills & desarts floods & horrible chasms

  Infinite was his labour without end his travel he strove

  In vain for hideous monsters of the deeps annoyd him sore

  Scaled & finnd with iron & brass they devourd the path before him

  Incessant was the conflict. On he bent his weary steps

  Making a path toward the dark world of Urthona. he rose

  30 With pain upon the [dismal] dreary mountains & with pain descended

  And saw their grizly fears & his eyes sickend at the sight

  The howlings gnashings groanings shriekings shudderings sobbings burstings

  Mingle together to create a world for Los. In cruel delight

  PAGE 70 (FIRST PORTION)

  Los brooded on the darkness nor saw Urizen
with a Globe of fire

  Lighting his dismal journey thro the pathless world of death

  Writing in bitter tears & groans in books of iron & brass

  The enormous wonders of the Abysses once his brightest joy

  For Urizen beheld the terrors of the Abyss wandring among

  The ruind spirits once his children & the children of Luvah

  Scard at the sound of their own sigh that seems to shake the immense

  They wander Moping in their heart a Sun a Dreary moon

  A Universe of fiery constellations in their brain

  10 An Earth of wintry woe beneath their feet & round their loins

  Waters or winds or clouds or brooding lightnings & pestilential plagues

  Beyond the bounds of their own self their senses cannot penetrate

  As the tree knows not what is outside of its leaves & bark

  And yet it drinks the summer joy & fears the winter sorrow

  So in the regions of the grave none knows his dark compeer

  Tho he partakes of his dire woes & mutual returns the pang

  The throb the dolor the convulsion in soul sickening woes

  [Not so closd up the Prince of Light now darkend wandring among

  For Urizen beheld the terrors of the Abyss wandring among

  20 The Ruind Spirits once his Children & the Children of Luvah]

  The horrid shapes & sights of torment in burning dungeons & in

  Fetters of red hot iron some with crowns of serpents & some

  With monsters girding round their bosoms. Some lying on beds of sulphur

  On racks & wheels he beheld women marching oer burning wastes

  Of Sand in bands of hundreds & of fifties & of thousands strucken with

  Lightnings which blazed after them upon their shoulders in their march

  In successive vollies with loud thunders swift flew the King of Light

  Over the burning desarts Then the desarts passd. involvd in clouds

  Of smoke with myriads moping in the stifling vapours. Swift

  30 Flew the King tho flagd his powers labring. till over rocks

  And Mountains faint weary he wanderd. where multitudes were shut

  Up in the solid mountains & in rocks which heaved with their torments

  Then came he among fiery cities & castles built of burning steel

  Then he beheld the forms of tygers & of Lions dishumanizd men

  Many in serpents & in worms stretchd out enormous length

  Over the sullen mould & slimy tracks obstruct his way

  Drawn out from deep to deep woven by ribbd

  And scaled monsters or armd in iron shell or shell of brass

  Or gold a glittering torment shining & hissing in eternal pain

  40 Some [as] columns of fire or of water sometimes stretchd out in [length] heighth

  Sometimes in [breadth] length sometimes englobing wandering in vain seeking for ease

  His voice to them was but an inarticulate thunder for their Ears

  Were heavy & dull & their eyes & nostrils closed up

  Oft he stood by a howling victim Questioning in words

  Soothing or Furious no one answerd every one wrapd up

  In his own sorrow howld regardless of his words, nor voice

  Of sweet response could he obtain tho oft assayd with tears

  He knew they were his Children ruind in his ruind world

  PAGE 71 (FIRST PORTION)

  Oft would he stand & question a fierce scorpion glowing with gold

  In vain the terror heard not. then a lion he would Sieze

  By the fierce mane staying [their] his howling course in vain the voice

  Of Urizen in vain the Eloquent tongue. A Rock a Cloud a Mountain

  Were now not Vocal as in Climes of happy Eternity

  Where the lamb replies to the infant voice & the lion to the man of years

  Giving them sweet instructions Where the Cloud the River & the Field

  Talk with the husbandman & shepherd. But these attackd him sore

  Siezing upon his feet & rending the Sinews that in Caves

  10 He hid to recure his obstructed powers with rest & oblivion

  PAGE 70 (SECOND PORTION)

  Here he had time enough to repent of his rashly threatend curse

  He saw them cursd beyond his Curse his soul melted with fear

  PAGE 71 (SECOND PORTION)

  He could not take their fetters off for they grew from the soul

  Nor could he quench the fires for they flamd out from the heart

  Nor could he calm the Elements because himself was Subject

  So he threw his flight in terror & pain & in repentant tears

  When he had passd these southern terrors he approachd the East

  Void pathless beaten with [eternal] iron sleet & eternal hail & [snow] rain

  No form was there no living thing & yet his way lay thro

  This dismal world. he stood a while & lookd back oer his former

  Terrific voyage. Hills & Vales of torment & despair

  20 Sighing & wiping a fresh tear. then turning round he threw

  Himself into the dismal void, falling he fell & fell

  Whirling in unresistible revolutions down & down

  In the horrid bottomless vacuity falling falling falling

  Into the Eastern vacuity the empty world of Luvah

  The ever pitying one who seeth all things saw his fall

  And in the dark vacuity created a bosom of [slime] clay

  When wearied dead he fell his limbs reposd in the bosom of slime

  As the seed falls from the sowers hand so Urizen fell & death

  Shut up his powers in oblivion. then as the seed shoots forth

  30 In pain & sorrow. So the slimy bed his limbs renewd

  At first an infant weakness. periods passd he gatherd strength

  But still in solitude he sat then rising threw his flight

  Onward tho falling thro the waste of night & ending in death

  And in another resurrection to sorrow & weary travel

  But still his books he bore in his strong hands & his iron pen

  For when he died they lay beside his grave & when he rose

  He siezd them with a [dismal] gloomy smile for wrapd in his death clothes

  He hid them when he slept in death when he revivd the clothes

  Were rotted by the winds the books remaind still unconsumd

  40 Still to be written & interleavd with brass & iron & gold

  Time after time for such a journey none but iron pens

  Can write And adamantine leaves recieve nor can the man who goes

  PAGE 72

  The journey obstinate refuse to write time after time

  Endless had been his travel but the Divine hand him led

  For infinite the distance & obscurd by Combustions dire

  By rocky masses frowning in the abysses revolving erratic

  Round Lakes of fire in the dark deep the ruins of Urizens world

  Oft would he sit in a dark rift & regulate his books

  Or sleep such sleep as spirits eternal wearied in his dark

  Tearful & sorrowful state. then rise look out & ponder

  His dismal voyage eyeing the next sphere tho far remote

  10 Then darting into the Abyss of night his venturous limbs

  Thro lightnings thunders earthquakes & concussions fires & floods

  Stemming his downward fall labouring up against futurity

  Creating many a Vortex fixing many a Science in the deep

  And thence throwing his venturous limbs into the Vast unknown

  Swift swift from Chaos to chaos from void to void a road immense

  For when he came to where a Vortex ceasd to operate

  Nor down nor up remaind then if he turnd & lookd back

  From whence he came twas upward all. & if he turnd and viewd

  The unpassd void upward was still his mighty wandring

  20 The midst be
tween an Equilibrium grey of air serene

  Where he might live in peace & where his life might meet repose

  But Urizen said Can I not leave this world of Cumbrous wheels

  Circle oer Circle nor on high attain a void

  Where self sustaining I may view all things beneath my feet

  Or sinking thro these Elemental wonders swift to fall

  I thought perhaps to find an End a world beneath of voidness

  Whence I might travel round the outside of this Dark confusion

  When I bend downward bending my head downward into the deep

  Tis upward all which way soever I my course begin

  30 But when A Vortex formd on high by labour & sorrow & care

  And weariness begins on all my limbs then sleep revives

  My wearied spirits waking then tis downward all which way

  So ever I my spirits turn no end I find of all

  O what a world is here unlike those climes of bliss

  Where my sons gatherd round my knees O thou poor ruind world

  Thou horrible ruin once like me thou wast all glorious

  And now like me partaking desolate thy masters lot

  Art thou O ruin the once glorious heaven are these thy rocks

  Where joy sang in the trees & pleasure sported on the rivers

  PAGE 73

  And laughter sat beneath the Oaks & innocence sported round

  Upon the green plains & sweet friendship met in palaces

  And books & instruments of song & pictures of delight

  Where are they whelmd beneath these ruins in horrible [confusion] destruction

  And if Eternal falling I repose on the dark bosom

  Of winds & waters or thence fall into a Void where air

  Is not down falling thro immensity ever & ever

  I lose my powers weakend every revolution till a death

  Shuts up my powers then a seed in the vast womb of darkness

  10 I dwell in dim oblivion. brooding over me the Enormous worlds

  Reorganize me shooting forth in bones & flesh & blood

  I am regenerated to fall or rise at will or to remain

  A labourer of ages a dire discontent a living woe

  Wandring in vain. Here will I fix my foot & here rebuild

  Here Mountains of Brass promise much riches in their dreadful [bowels] bosoms

  So [saying] he began to form/dig of gold silver & [brass] iron

  And brass vast instruments to measure out the immense & fix

  The whole into another world better suited to obey

  His will where none should dare oppose his will himself being King

  20 Of All & all futurity be bound in his vast chain

  And the Sciences were fixd & the Vortexes began to operate