William Blake - The Book of LOS - Illustrated Original

8/13/2019 William Blake - The Book of LOS - Illustrated Original

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THE BOOK of LOS Text

LAMBETH Printed by William Blake 1795

LOS

Chap. I1: Eno aged Mother,Who the chariot of Leutha guides,Since the day of thunders in old time2: Sitting beneath the eternal OakTrembled and shook the stedfast EarthAnd thus her speech broke forth.3: O Times remote!

When Love & joy were adoration:And none impure were deem'd.Not Eyeless CovetNor Thin-lip'd EnvyNor Bristled WrathNor Curled Wantonness

4: But Covet was poured full:Envy fed with fat of lambs:Wrath with lions gore:Wantonness lulld to sleepWith the virgins lute,Or sated with her love.

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5: Till Covet broke his locks & bars,And slept with open doors:Envy sung at the rich mans feast:Wrath was follow'd up and downBy a little ewe lambAnd Wantoness on his own true loveBegot a giant race:

6: Raging furious the flames of desireRan thro' heaven & earth, living flames

Intelligent, organiz'd: arm'dWith destruction & plagues. In the midstThe Eternal Prophet bound in a chainCompell'd to watch Urizens shadow

7: Rag'd with curses & sparkles of furyRound the flames roll as Los hurls his chainsMounting up from his fury, condens'dRolling round & round, mounting on highInto vacuum: into non-entity.Where nothing was! dash'd wide apartHis feet stamp the eternal fierce-ragingRivers of wide flame; they roll round

And round on all sides making their wayInto darkness and shadowy obscurity

8: Wide apart stood the fires: Los remain'd


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In the void between fire and fire[.]In trembling and horror they beheld himThey stood wide apart, driv'n by his handsAnd his feet which the nether abyssStamp'd in fury and hot indignation

9: But no light from the fires all was

PLATE 4Darkness round Los: heat was not; for bound upInto fiery spheres from his furyThe gigantic flames trembled and hid

1O: Coldness, darkness, obstruction, a SolidWithout fluctuation, hard as adamantBlack as marble of Egypt; impenetrableBound in the fierce raging Immortal,And the seperated fires froze inA vast solid without fluctuation,Bound in his expanding clear senses

Chap: II

1: The Immortal stood frozen amidstThe vast rock of eternity; timesAnd times; a night of vast durance:Impatient, stifled, stiffend, hardned.

2: Till impatience no longer could bearThe hard bondage, rent: rent, the vast solidWith a crash from immense to immense

3: Crack'd across into numberless fragments

The Prophetic wrath, strug'ling for ventHurls apart, stamping furious to dustAnd crumbling with bursting sobs; heavesThe black marble on high into fragments

4: Hurl'd apart on all sides, as a fallingRock: the innumerable fragments awayFell asunder; and horrible vacuumBeneath him & on all sides round.

5: Falling, falling! Los fell & fellSunk precipitant heavy down downTimes on times, night on night, day on day

Truth has bounds. Error none: falling, falling:Years on years, and ages on agesStill he fell thro' the void, still a voidFound for falling day & night without end.For tho' day or night was not; their spacesWere measurd by his incessant whirlsIn the horrid vacuity bottomless.

6: The Immortal revolving; indignantFirst in wrath threw his limbs, like the babeNew born into our world: wrath subsidedAnd contemplative thoughts first aroseThen aloft his head rear'd in the Abyss

And his downward-borne fall. chang'd oblique

7: Many ages of groans: till there grewBranchy forms. organizing the Human


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Into finite inflexible organs.

8: Till in process from falling he boreSidelong on the purple air, waftingThe weak breeze in efforts oerwearied

9: Incessant the falling Mind labour'dOrganizing itself: till the VacuumBecame element, pliant to rise,Or to fall, or to swim, or to fly:With ease searching the dire vacuity

Chap: III

1: The Lungs heave incessant, dull and heavyFor as yet were all other parts formlessShiv'ring: clinging around like a cloudDim & glutinous as the white PolypusDriv'n by waves & englob'd on the tide.

2: And the unformed part crav'd reposeSleep began: the Lungs heave on the waveWeary overweigh'd, sinking beneathIn a stifling black fluid he woke

3: He arose on the waters, but soonHeavy falling his organs like rootsShooting out from the seed, shot beneath,And a vast world of waters around himIn furious torrents began.

4: Then he sunk, & around his spent LungsBegan intricate pipes that drew in

The spawn of the waters. Outbranching

PLATE 5An immense Fibrous form, stretching out tThro' the bottoms of immensity raging.

5: He rose on the floods: then he smoteThe wild deep with his terrible wrath,Seperating the heavy and thin.

6: Down the heavy sunk; cleaving aroundTo the fragments of solid: up roseThe thin, flowing round the fierce fires

That glow'd furious in the expanse.

Chap: IV:

I: Then Light first began; from the firesBeams, conducted by fluid so pure .Flow'd around the Immense: Los beheldForthwith writhing upon the dark voidThe Back bone of Urizen appearHurtling upon the windLike a serpent! like an iron chainWhirling about in the Deep.

2: Upfolding his Fibres togetherTo a Form of impregnable strengthLos astonish'd and terrified, builtFurnaces; he formed an Anvil


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A Hammer of adamant then beganThe binding of Urizen day and night

3: Circling round the dark Demon, with howlingsDismay & sharp blightings; the ProphetOf Eternity beat on his iron links

4: And first from those infinite firesThe light that flow'd down on the windslie siez'd; beating incessant, condensingThe subtil particles in an Orb.

5: Roaring indignant the bright sparksEndur'd the vast Hammer; but unweariedLos beat on the Anvil; till gloriousAn immense Orb of fire be fram'd

6: Oft he quench'd it beneath in the DeepsThen surveyd the all bright mass. AgainSiezing fires from the terrific OrbsHe heated the round Globe, then beat[,]

While roaring his Furnaces endur'dThe chaind Orb in their infinite wombs

7: Nine ages completed their circlesWhen Los heated the glowing mass, castingIt down into the Deeps: the Deeps fledAway in redounding smoke; the SunStood self-balanc'd. And Los smild with joy.He the vast Spine of Urizen siez'dAnd bound down to the glowing illusion

8: But no light, for the Deep fled awayOn all sides, and left an unform'd

Dark vacuity: here Urizen layIn fierce torments oil his glowing bed

9: Till his Brain in a rock, & his HeartIn a fleshy slough formed four riversObscuring the immense Orb of fireFlowing down into night: till a FormWas completed, a Human IllusionIn darkness and deep clouds involvd.

The End of the Book of LOS

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William Blake - The Book of LOS - Illustrated Original