The Book of Urizen (excerpts)

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1. The Book of Urizen: Chapter I 1. Lo, a shadow of horror is risen In Eternity! Unknown, unprolific! Self-closd, all-repelling: what Demon Hath form’d this abominable void This soul-shudd’ring vacuum? Some said “It is Urizen”, But unknown, abstracted Brooding secret, the dark power hid. 2. Times on times he divided, & measur’d Space by space in his ninefold darkness Unseen, unknown! […]...
2. The Book of Urizen: Chapter V 1. In terrors Los shrunk from his task: His great hammer fell from his hand: His fires beheld, and sickening, Hid their strong limbs in smoke. For with noises ruinous loud; With hurtlings & clashings & groans The Immortal endur’d his chains, Tho’ bound in a deadly sleep. 2. All the myriads of Eternity: All […]...
3. The Book of Urizen: Chapter VIII 1. Urizen explor’d his dens Mountain, moor, & wilderness, With a globe of fire lighting his journey A fearful journey, annoy’d By cruel enormities: forms Of life on his forsaken mountains 2. And his world teemd vast enormities Frightning; faithless; fawning Portions of life; similitudes Of a foot, or a hand, or a head Or […]...
4. The Book of Urizen: Chapter III 1. The voice ended, they saw his pale visage Emerge from the darkness; his hand On the rock of eternity unclasping The Book of brass. Rage siez’d the strong 2. Rage, fury, intense indignation In cataracts of fire blood & gall In whirlwinds of sulphurous smoke: And enormous forms of energy; All the seven deadly […]...
5. The Book of Urizen: Chapter IV a 1. Los smitten with astonishment Frightend at the hurtling bones 2. And at the surging sulphureous Perturbed Immortal mad raging 3. In whirlwinds & pitch & nitre Round the furious limbs of Los 4. And Los formed nets & gins And threw the nets round about 5. He watch’d in shuddring fear The dark […]...
6. The Book of Urizen: Chapter II 1. Earth was not: nor globes of attraction The will of the Immortal expanded Or contracted his all flexible senses. Death was not, but eternal life sprung 2. The sound of a trumpet the heavens Awoke & vast clouds of blood roll’d Round the dim rocks of Urizen, so nam’d That solitary one in Immensity […]...
7. The Book of Urizen: Chapter VII 1. They named the child Orc, he grew Fed with milk of Enitharmon 2. Los awoke her; O sorrow & pain! A tight’ning girdle grew, Around his bosom. In sobbings He burst the girdle in twain, But still another girdle Opressd his bosom, In sobbings Again he burst it. Again Another girdle succeeds The girdle […]...
8. The Book of Urizen: Chapter IX 1. Then the Inhabitants of those Cities: Felt their Nerves change into Marrow And hardening Bones began In swift diseases and torments, In throbbings & shootings & grindings Thro’ all the coasts; till weaken’d The Senses inward rush’d shrinking, Beneath the dark net of infection. 2. Till the shrunken eyes clouded over Discernd not the […]...
9. The Book of Urizen: Preludium Of the primeval Priests assum’d power, When Eternals spurn’d back his religion; And gave him a place in the north, Obscure, shadowy, void, solitary. Eternals I hear your call gladly, Dictate swift winged words, & fear not To unfold your dark visions of torment....
10. The Book of Urizen: Chapter VI 1. But Los saw the Female & pitied He embrac’d her, she wept, she refus’d In perverse and cruel delight She fled from his arms, yet he followd 2. Eternity shudder’d when they saw, Man begetting his likeness, On his own divided image. 3. A time passed over, the Eternals Began to erect the tent; […]...
11. The Task: Book V, The Winter Morning Walk (excerpts) ‘Tis morning; and the sun, with ruddy orb Ascending, fires th’ horizon: while the clouds, That crowd away before the driving wind, More ardent as the disk emerges more, Resemble most some city in a blaze, Seen through the leafless wood. His slanting ray Slides ineffectual down the snowy vale, And, tinging all with his […]...
12. The Task: Book VI, The Winter Walk at Noon (excerpts) Thus heav’nward all things tend. For all were once Perfect, and all must be at length restor’d. So God has greatly purpos’d; who would else In his dishonour’d works himself endure Dishonour, and be wrong’d without redress. Haste then, and wheel away a shatter’d world, Ye slow-revolving seasons! We would see (A sight to which […]...
13. The Task: Book IV, The Winter Evening (excerpts) Hark! ’tis the twanging horn! O’er yonder bridge, That with its wearisome but needful length Bestrides the wintry flood, in which the moon Sees her unwrinkled face reflected bright, He comes, the herald of a noisy world, With spatter’d boots, strapp’d waist, and frozen locks; News from all nations lumb’ring at his back. True to […]...
14. The Task: Book I, The Sofa (excerpts) Thou know’st my praise of nature most sincere, And that my raptures are not conjur’d up To serve occasions of poetic pomp, But genuine, and art partner of them all. How oft upon yon eminence our pace Has slacken’d to a pause, and we have borne The ruffling wind, scarce conscious that it blew, While […]...
15. The Task: Book II, The Time-Piece (excerpts) England, with all thy faults, I love thee still My country! and, while yet a nook is left Where English minds and manners may be found, Shall be constrain’d to love thee. Though thy clime Be fickle, and thy year most part deform’d With dripping rains, or wither’d by a frost, I would not yet […]...
16. The Faerie Queene, Book I, Canto IV (excerpts) CANTO IIII To sinfull house of Pride, Duessa Guides the faithfull knight, Where brothers death to wreak Sansjoy Doth chalenge him to fight. I Young knight, what ever that dost armes professe, And through long labours huntest after fame, Beware of fraud, beware of ficklenesse, In choice, and change of thy deare loved Dame, Least […]...
17. Wild Dark Love Song Her man, A wild dark love song Borne deep within her gypsy soul He’s gone to live in jagged mountains Where salmon jump and sing In tarns High above The cloud lines Beyond the silver moon In the shadow of the Cader Idris In misty mountains Where meadowlarks are known to wing And wild geese […]...
18. The Sonnets To Orpheus: Book 2: I Breathing: you invisible poem! Complete Interchange of our own Essence with world-space. You counterweight In which I rythmically happen. Single wave-motion whose Gradual sea I am: You, most inclusive of all our possible seas- Space has grown warm. How many regions in space have already been Inside me. There are winds that seem like My […]...
19. The Book of Thel THEL’S MOTTO 1 Does the Eagle know what is in the pit? 2 Or wilt thou go ask the Mole? 3 Can Wisdom be put in a silver rod? 4 Or Love in a golden bowl? I 1.1 The daughters of the Seraphim led round their sunny flocks, 1.2 All but the youngest: she in […]...
20. Queen Mab: Part VI (excerpts) “Throughout these infinite orbs of mingling light, Of which yon earth is one, is wide diffus’d A Spirit of activity and life, That knows no term, cessation, or decay; That fades not when the lamp of earthly life, Extinguish’d in the dampness of the grave, Awhile there slumbers, more than when the babe In the […]...
21. Dream Song 171: Go, ill-sped book, and whisper to her or Go, ill-sped book, and whisper to her or Storm out the message for her only ear That she is beautiful. Mention sunsets, be not silent of her eyes And mouth and other prospects, praise her size, Say her figure is full. Say her small figure is heavenly & full, So as stunned Henry yatters like […]...
22. Paragraphs from a Day-Book Cherry-ripe: dark sweet burlats, scarlet reverchons Firm-fleshed and tart in the mouth Bigarreaux, peach-and-white napoléons As the harvest moves north From Provence to the banks of the Yonne (they grow napoléons in Washington State now). Before that, garriguettes, From Périgord, in wooden punnets Afterwards, peaches: yellow-fleshed, white, Moss-skinned ruby pêches de vigne. The vendors cry […]...
23. Endimion and Phoebe (excerpts) In Ionia whence sprang old poets’ fame, From whom that sea did first derive her name, The blessed bed whereon the Muses lay, Beauty of Greece, the pride of Asia, Whence Archelaus, whom times historify, First unto Athens brought philosophy: In this fair region on a goodly plain, Stretching her bounds unto the bord’ring main, […]...
24. The Song of Los AFRICA I will sing you a song of Los. the Eternal Prophet: He sung it to four harps at the tables of Eternity. In heart-formed Africa. Urizen faded! Ariston shudderd! And thus the Song began Adam stood in the garden of Eden: And Noah on the mountains of Ararat; They saw Urizen give his Laws […]...
25. At Night On The High Seas At night, when the sea cradles me And the pale star gleam Lies down on its broad waves, Then I free myself wholly From all activity and all the love And stand silent and breathe purely, Alone, alone cradled by the sea That lies there, cold and silent, with a thousand lights. Then I have […]...
26. Comfort DARK head by the fireside brooding, Where upon your ears Whirlwinds of the earth intruding Sound in wrath and tears: Tender-hearted, in your lonely Sorrow I would fain Comfort you, and say that only Gods could feel such pain. Only spirits know such longing For the far away; And the fiery fancies thronging Rise not […]...
27. Aurora Leigh (excerpts) [Book 1] I am like, They tell me, my dear father. Broader brows Howbeit, upon a slenderer undergrowth Of delicate features, paler, near as grave ; But then my mother’s smile breaks up the whole, And makes it better sometimes than itself. So, nine full years, our days were hid with God Among his mountains […]...
28. French Revolution, The (excerpt) 84 Thee the ancientest peer, Duke of Burgundy, rose from the monarch’s right hand, red as wines 85 From his mountains; an odor of war, like a ripe vineyard, rose from his garments, 86 And the chamber became as a clouded sky; o’er the council he stretch’d his red limbs, 87 Cloth’d in flames of […]...
29. The French Revolution (excerpt) Thee the ancientest peer, Duke of Burgundy, rose from the monarch’s right hand, red as wines From his mountains; an odor of war, like a ripe vineyard, rose from his garments, And the chamber became as a clouded sky; o’er the council he stretch’d his red limbs, Cloth’d in flames of crimson; as a ripe […]...
30. Water Lilies If you have forgotten water lilies floating On a dark lake among mountains in the afternoon shade, If you have forgotten their wet, sleepy fragrance, Then you can return and not be afraid. But if you remember, then turn away forever To the plains and the prairies where pools are far apart, There you will […]...
31. The Poet And His Book Down, you mongrel, Death! Back into your kennel! I have stolen breath In a stalk of fennel! You shall scratch and you shall whine Many a night, and you shall worry Many a bone, before you bury One sweet bone of mine! When shall I be dead? When my flesh is withered, And above my […]...
32. The Sonnets To Orpheus: Book 2: XXIII Call to me to the one among your moments That stands against you, ineluctably: Intimate as a dog’s imploring glance But, again, forever, turned away When you think you’ve captured it at last. What seems so far from you is most your own. We are already free, and were dismissed Where we thought we soon […]...
33. A Call DUSK its ash-grey blossoms sheds on violet skies, Over twilight mountains where the heart songs rise, Rise and fall and fade away from earth to air. Earth renews the music sweeter. Oh, come there. Come, acushla, come, as in ancient times Rings aloud the underland with faery chimes. Down the unseen ways as strays each […]...
34. Worlds For Alexander there was no Far East, Because he thought the Asian continent India ended. Free Cathay at least Did not contribute to his discontent. But Newton, who had grasped all space, was more Serene. To him it seemed that he’d but played With several shells and pebbles on the shore Of that profundity he […]...
35. Eldorado Gaily bedight, A gallant knight, In sunshine and in shadow, Had journeyed long, Singing a song, In search of Eldorado. But he grew old This knight so bold And o’er his heart a shadow Fell as he found No spot of ground That looked like Eldorado. And, as his strength Failed him at length, He […]...
36. Paradise Lost: Book 07 Descend from Heaven, Urania, by that name If rightly thou art called, whose voice divine Following, above the Olympian hill I soar, Above the flight of Pegasean wing! The meaning, not the name, I call: for thou Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top Of old Olympus dwellest; but, heavenly-born, Before the hills […]...
37. At Melville's Tomb Often beneath the wave, wide from this ledge The dice of drowned men’s bones he saw bequeath An embassy. Their numbers as he watched, Beat on the dusty shore and were obscured. And wrecks passed without sound of bells, The calyx of death’s bounty giving back A scattered chapter, livid hieroglyph, The portent wound in […]...
38. The Vanity of Human Wishes (excerpts) 1 Let observation with extensive view, 2 Survey mankind, from China to Peru; 3 Remark each anxious toil, each eager strife, 4 And watch the busy scenes of crowded life; 5 Then say how hope and fear, desire and hate, 6 O’erspread with snares the clouded maze of fate, 7 Where wav’ring man, betray’d by […]...
39. The Argument Of His Book I sing of brooks, of blossoms, birds, and bowers, Of April, May, of June, and July-flowers. I sing of May-poles, hock-carts, wassails, wakes, Of bridegrooms, brides, and of their bridal-cakes. I write of youth, of love, and have access By these to sing of cleanly wantonness. I sing of dews, of rains, and piece by […]...
40. The Sky is an Immortal Tent Built by the Sons of Los (from The sky is an immortal tent built by the Sons of Los: And every space that a man views around his dwelling-place Standing on his own roof or in his garden on a mount Of twenty-five cubits in height, such space is his universe: And on its verge the sun rises and sets, the clouds […]...