William Blake - The Book of Los lyrics

The Book of Los (Engraved 1795) CHAP. I 1. ENO, agèd Mother, Who the chariot of Leutha guides, Since the day of thunders in old time, 2. Sitting beneath the eternal Oak, Trembled and shook the steadfast Earth, 5 And thus her speech broke forth:— 3. ‘O Times remote! When Love and Joy were adoration, And none impure were deem'd, Not eyeless Covet, 10 Nor thin-lipp'd Envy, Nor bristled Wrath, Nor Curlèd Wantonness; 4. ‘But Covet was pourèd full, Envy fed with fat of lambs, 15 Wrath with lion's gore, Wantonness lull'd to sleep With the virgin's lute, Or sated with her love; 5. ‘Till Covet broke his locks and bars, 20 And slept with open doors; Envy sung at the rich man's feast; Wrath was follow'd up and down By a little ewe lamb; And Wantonness on his own true love 25 Begot a giant race. 6. Raging furious, the flames of desire Ran thro' heaven and earth, living flames, Intelligent, organiz'd, arm'd With destruction and plagues. In the midst 30 The Eternal Prophet, bound in a chain, Compell'd to watch Urizen's shadow, 7. Rag'd with curses and sparkles of fury: Round the flames roll, as Los hurls his chains, Mounting up from his fury, condens'd, 35 Rolling round and round, mounting on high Into Vacuum, into nonentity, Where nothing was; dash'd wide apart, His feet stamp the eternal fierce-raging Rivers of wide flame; they roll round 40 And round on all sides, making their way Into darkness and shadowy obscurity. 8. Wide apart stood the fires: Los remain'd In the Void between fire and fire: In trembling and horror they beheld him; 45 They stood wide apart, driv'n by his hands And his feet, which the nether Abyss Stamp'd in fury and hot indignation. 9. But no light from the fires! all was Darkness round Los: heat was not; for bound up 50 Into fiery spheres from his fury, The gigantic flames trembled and hid. 10. Coldness, darkness, obstruction, a Solid Without fluctuation, hard as adamant, Black as marble of Egypt, impenetrable, 55 Bound in the fierce raging Immortal; And the separated fires, froze in A vast Solid, without fluctuation, Bound in his expanding clear senses. CHAP. II 1. The Immortal stood frozen amidst 60 The vast Rock of Eternity, times And times, a night of vast durance, Impatient, stifled, stiffen'd, hard'ned; 2. Till impatience no longer could bear The hard bondage: rent, rent, the vast Solid, 65 With a crash from Immense to Immense, 3. Crack'd across into numberless fragments. The Prophetic wrath, struggling for vent, Hurls apart, stamping furious to dust, And crumbling with bursting sobs, heaves 70 The black marble on high into fragments. 4. Hurl'd apart on all sides as a falling Rock, the innumerable fragments away Fell asunder; and horrible Vacuum Beneath him, and on all sides round, 75 5. ‘Falling! falling! Los fell and fell, Sunk precipitant, heavy, down! down! Times on times, night on night, day on day— Truth has bounds, Error none—falling, falling, Years on years, and ages on ages; 80 Still he fell thro' the Void, still a Void Found for falling, day and night without end; For tho' day or night was not, their spaces Were measur'd by his incessant whirls In the horrid Vacuity bottomless. 85 6. The Immortal revolving, indignant, First in wrath threw his limbs, like the babe New-born into our world: wrath subsided, And contemplative thoughts first arose; Then aloft his head rear'd in the Abyss, 90 And his downward-borne fall chang'd oblique. 7. Many ages of groans! till there grew Branchy forms, organizing the Human Into finite inflexible organs; 8. Till in process from falling he bore 95 Sidelong on the purple air, wafting The weak breeze in efforts o'erwearièd: 9. Incessant the falling Mind labour'd, Organizing itself, till the Vacuum Became Element, pliant to rise, 100 Or to fall, or to swim, or to fly, With ease searching the dire Vacuity. CHAP. III 1. The Lungs heave incessant, dull, and heavy; For as yet were all other parts formless, Shiv'ring, clinging around like a cloud, 105 Dim and glutinous as the white Polypus, Driv'n by waves and englob'd on the tide. 2. And the unformèd part crav'd repose; Sleep began; the Lungs heave on the wave: Weary, overweigh'd, sinking beneath 110 In a stifling black fluid, he woke. 3. He arose on the waters; but soon Heavy falling, his organs like roots Shooting out from the seed, shot beneath, And a vast World of Waters around him 115 In furious torrents began. 4. Then he sunk, and around his spent Lungs Began intricate pipes that drew in The spawn of the waters, outbranching An immense Fibrous Form, stretching out 120 Thro' the bottoms of Immensity: raging. 5. He rose on the floods; then he smote The wild deep with his terrible wrath, Separating the heavy and thin. 6. Down the heavy sunk, cleaving around 125 To the fragments of Solid: uprose The thin, flowing round the fierce fires That glow'd furious in the Expanse. CHAP. IV 1. Then Light first began: from the fires, Beams, conducted by fluid so pure, 130 Flow'd around the Immense. Los beheld Forthwith, writhing upon the dark Void, The Backbone of Urizen appear, Hurtling upon the wind, Like a serpent, like an iron chain, 135 Whirling about in the Deep. 2. Upfolding his Fibres together To a Form of impregnable strength, Los, astonish'd and terrifièd, built Furnaces; he formed an Anvil, 140 A Hammer of adamant: then began The binding of Urizen day and night. 3. Circling round the dark Demon with howlings, Dismay, and sharp blightings, the Prophet Of Eternity beat on his iron links. 145 4. And first from those Infinite fires, The light that flow'd down on the winds He seiz'd, beating incessant, condensing The subtil particles in an Orb. 5. Roaring indignant, the bright sparks 150 Endur'd the vast Hammer; but unwearièd Los beat on the Anvil, till glorious An immense Orb of fire he fram'd. 6. Oft he quench'd it beneath in the Deeps; Then survey'd the all-bright ma**. Again 155 Seizing fires from the terrific Orbs, He heated the round Globe, then beat; While, roaring, his Furnaces endur'd The chain'd Orb in their infinite wombs. 7. Nine ages completed their circles, 160 When Los heated the glowing ma**, casting It down into the Deeps: the Deeps fled Away in redounding smoke: the Sun Stood self-balanc'd. And Los smil'd with joy: He the vast Spine of Urizen seiz'd, 165 And bound down to the glowing Illusion. 8. But no light! for the Deep fled away On all sides, and left an unform'd Dark Vacuity: here Urizen lay In fierce torments on his glowing bed; 170 9. Till his Brain in a rock, and his Heart In a fleshy slough, formèd four rivers, Obscuring the immense Orb of fire, Flowing down into night; till a Form Was completed, a Human Illusion, 175 In darkness and deep clouds involv'd. THE END OF THE BOOK OF LOS