The [First] Book of Urizen by William Blake
The [First] Book of Urizen, a poem by William Blake, presents an alternative narrative of creation and fall, diverging from traditional biblical accounts. In this work, the central figure, Urizen, embodies a flawed creator who lacks benevolence and fails to engage with the creative imagination, represented by Los. As a result, Urizen's creation is marked by suffering and death, standing in stark contrast to the notion of a "good" world. The poem unfolds in a structured format reminiscent of scripture, detailing Urizen's introspective and tyrannical nature as he attempts to impose rigid laws on existence, leading to profound disconnection from the joy of life.
The narrative explores themes of division and materialization, as Urizen is gradually cut off from the eternal realm, embodying a descent into ignorance. Alongside Los, who becomes divided and experiences pity for Urizen, the emergence of a female counterpart named Enitharmon signifies the further fragmentation of existence. The poem culminates in an exploration of Urizen's grim, divided world, critiquing the restrictive nature of religion and reason that diminishes human experience. Through this satirical lens, Blake's work invites reflections on the implications of a rational intellect severed from imagination, posing questions about the nature of creation and human suffering.
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The [First] Book of Urizen by William Blake
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of World Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1794
Type of work: Poem
The Work
The [First] Book of Urizen is an unorthodox version of the Creation and the Fall, written to satirize the traditional accounts in Genesis and John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667, 1674). In The [First] Book of Urizen, the creator, Urizen, is neither all-powerful nor benevolent; his creation is not “good” as in Genesis, but flawed from the beginning. As a product solely of the unenlightened rational intellect, his world is incomplete. Cut off from the creative power of the imagination, which is personified in the poem by Los, Urizen can only create a world full of suffering and death.
The [First] Book of Urizen begins with a preludium, in which Blake gladly accepts the call of the Eternals to dictate their story. The poem is then divided, like Genesis, into chapter and verse. Chapter 1 describes Urizen’s activity in wholly negative terms. He is “unknown, unprolific,” and “unseen”; he broods introspectively; he is “self-clos’d” and a “self-contemplating shadow.” That is exactly the withdrawn, abstract type of mental activity that, in Blake’s view, was responsible for many of the ills that he saw in contemporary society. By retreating into a void within himself, Urizen is beginning to close himself off from the primal joy of existence.
In chapter 2, it transpires that Urizen’s activity is taking place before the creation of the world, before the existence of death, and before there are any material restrictions placed around the fiery delights of eternal existence. Urizen now reveals himself as the lawgiver, the Jehovah of the Old Testament, whom Blake associated with tyranny. Because Urizen cannot enjoy the free-flowing and joyful clash of opposite values in eternity, he attempts to create for himself “a joy without pain,/ . . . a solid without fluctuation.” To his eyes, the Eternals live in “unquenchable burnings,” when in fact these are the fires of the creative imagination as it constantly fulfills its desires. Failing to understand this, Urizen tries to fight with the fire and sets himself up as lord over all the other faculties. With his laws of “One command, one joy, one desire,” he attempts to impose a false unity on the infinite diversity of existence. For Blake, this is the sign of a tyrant.
Throughout the poem, the Eternals are horrified by Urizen’s self-defeating actions, which open up a series of separations between Urizen and eternity: “Sund’ring, dark’ning, thund’ring,”/ Rent away with a terrible clash,/ Eternity roll’d wide apart.” As Urizen is forced out of (or expels himself from) eternity, he undergoes a gradual process of materialization. In a parody of the seven days of creation in Genesis, Urizen acquires a material body, which is also the material world. His awareness of eternal life vanishes. Horrified at what is taking place, Los, the creative imagination, watches the process, throws nets around Urizen, and binds him with chains to stop him from descending even further into the darkness of ignorance. In his later work, Blake regarded creation as an act of mercy because it put a limit to the Fall and so allowed the possibility of redemption.
In this poem, however, the emphasis is entirely on the pervasive negative consequences of Urizen’s acts, which also affect Los, Urizen’s counterpart in eternity. Los forgets his true creative function and allows himself to feel pity for Urizen, which in Blake’s work is usually a negative emotion (“For pity divides the soul”). Los, like Urizen, is now a divided being, and the female portion of himself (which Blake calls the emanation) now takes on an independent life, separate from him. This first female form is named Enitharmon. The Eternals, who are androgynous beings, are appalled at this division into sexes, which is yet another sign of the Fall—an idea that Blake borrowed from his spiritual mentor, the German mystic Jacob Boehme.
In chapter 6, Los and Enitharmon give birth to a child, Orc, who elsewhere in Blake’s work symbolizes revolutionary, redemptive energy. Los becomes jealous of Orc, and in an act that suggests at once the Crucifixion of Christ, the binding of Isaac by Abraham, and the chaining of Prometheus, Los and Enitharmon chain Orc to a mountain.
In the next chapter, Urizen explores his grim new world, trying to understand it by dividing and measuring, which is all that the rational intellect, cut off from the unifying power of the imagination, can do. Urizen can only discover “portions of life.” Nothing is whole or healthy, and Urizen sickens at the sight of it. As he traverses the cities of earth, he curses his creation and realizes that no being can keep his “iron laws one moment.” A net stretches out behind him, born from the sorrow in his soul. Everything in creation is trapped by this net, which is named the net of religion. This image expresses Blake’s dislike of conventional religion, based on moral laws and human reason alone. As Urizen’s religion spreads across the earth, human beings find their senses, which in eternity are expansive—humans are able to perceive delight in everything—narrowing and shrinking, until, like everyone else in this poem, they “forgot their eternal life.”
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