- Title:
- Chapter I, "Lo, a shadow of horror is risen..." (Plate 3)
- Part Of:
- Date:
- 1794
- Materials & Techniques:
- Color-printed relief etching in green ink, with watercolor on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper
- Dimensions:
- Sheet: 11 7/8 x 9 5/8 inches (30.2 x 24.4 cm), Plate: 6 x 4 inches (15.2 x 10.2 cm)
- Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Inscribed in graphite, lower left: "4"
Lettered inside image, left: "Chap: 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; changes appeard | Like desolate mountains rifted furious | By the black winds of perturbation | 3. For he strove in battles dire | In unseen conflictions with shapes | Bred from his forsaken wilderness. | Of beast, bird, fish, serpent & element | Combustion, blast, vapour and cloud. | 4. Dark revolving in silent activity: | Unseen in tormenting passions; | An activity unknown and horrible; | A self-contemplating shadow, | In enormous labours occupied"; right: 5. But Eternals beheld his vast forests: | Age on ages he lay, clos'd, unknown, | Brooding shut in the deep; all avoid | The petrific abominable chaos | 6. His cold horrors silent. dark Urizen | Prepar'd; his ten thousands of thunders | Rang'd in gloom'd array stretch out across | The dread world. & the rolling of wheels | As of swelling seas, sound in his clouds, | In his hills of stor'd snows, in his mountains | Of hail & ice; voices of terror. | Are heard, like thunders of autumn, | When the cloud blazes over the harvests. | Chap: II. | -tion | 1. Earth was not: nor globes of attrac- | 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 | 3. Shrill the trumpet: & myriads of Eter- | -nity"
- Credit Line:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
- Copyright Status:
- Public Domain
- Accession Number:
- B1978.43.1422
- Classification:
- Prints
- Collection:
- Prints and Drawings
- Subject Terms:
- fire | flames | leaf | literary theme | men | nudes | text | vines
- Access:
- Accessible by appointment in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details. - Link:
- https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:2348
- Export:
- XML
- IIIF Manifest:
- JSON
William Blake (Tate Britain, 2000-11-02 - 2001-02-04) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]
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William Blake - His Art & Times (Yale Center for British Art, 1982-09-15 - 1982-11-14) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]
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