- Title:
- Chapter VIII, "Of life on his forsaken mountains..." (Plate 20)
- 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: 5 7/8 x 4 inches (14.9 x 10.2 cm)
- Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Inscribed in graphite, lower left: "21"
Lettered inside image, center: "1 Urizen. C.VIII."; left: "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 a heart, or an eye, they swam mis | -chevous | Dread terrors! delighting in blood | 3. Most Urizen sicken'd to see | His eternal creations appear | Sons & daughters of sorrow on mountains | Weeping! wailing! first Thiriel appear'd | Astonish'd at his own existence | Like a man from a cloud born, & Utha | From the waters emerging, laments!"; right: "Grodna rent the deep earth howling | Amaz'd! his heavens immense cracks | Like the ground parch'd with heat; then | Fuzon | Flam'd out! first begotten, last born. | All his eternal sons in like manner | His daughters from green herbs & cattle | From monsters, & worms of the pit. | 4. He in darkness clos'd, view'd all his | race | And his soul sicken'd! he curs'd | Both sons & daughters: for he saw | That no flesh nor spirit could keep | His iron laws one moment. | 5. For he saw that life liv'd upon | death"
- Credit Line:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
- Copyright Status:
- Public Domain
- Accession Number:
- B1978.43.1439
- Classification:
- Prints
- Collection:
- Prints and Drawings
- Subject Terms:
- beard | fire | flames | globe | lantern | light | lion | literary theme | men | mountains | text
- 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:2365
- Export:
- XML
- IIIF Manifest:
- JSON
British Vision - Observation and Imagination in British Art (Museum of Fine Arts Ghent, 2007-10-06 - 2008-01-13) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]
The Human Form Divine - William Blake from the Paul Mellon Collection (Yale Center for British Art, 1997-04-02 - 1997-07-06) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]
William Blake - His Art & Times (Art Gallery of Ontario, 1982-12-03 - 1983-02-06) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]
William Blake - His Art & Times (Yale Center for British Art, 1982-09-15 - 1982-11-14) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]
William Blake, Libros profe´ticos, vol. 1, Atalanta, Vilau¨r, Spain, 2013, p. 327, PR4142 .S35 2013 [ORBIS]
Denise Gigante, Life, organic form and Romanticism , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2009, between p. 114 and p. 115..151, Pl. III. 15, PR575.L54 G54 2009 (YCBA) [YCBA]
Robert Hoozee, British vision : observation and imagination in British art, 1750-1950, , Mercatorfonds Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Brussels , Ghent, 2007, pp. 23-24, 347, no. 238, fig. 238, N6767 B78 2007 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]