- Title:
- Chapter V, "Two Nostrils bent down to the deep..." (Plate 16)
- Part Of:
- Date:
- 1794
- Materials & Techniques:
- Color-printed relief etching in orange-brown ink, with watercolor on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper
- Dimensions:
- Sheet: 10 x 7 1/8 inches (25.4 x 18.1 cm), Plate: 6 x 4 1/4 inches (15.2 x 10.8 cm), Spine: 10 1/4 inches (26 cm)
- Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Inscribed in graphite upper right: "13"
Lettered inside image, upper center: "Urizen C: V."; upper left: "Two Nostrils bent down to the deep. | And a fifth Age passed over; | And a state of dismal woe. | 11. In ghastly torment sick; | Within his ribs bloated round, | A craving Hungry Cavern: | Thence arose his channeld Throat. | And like a red flame a Tongue. | Of thirst & of hunger appeard. | And a sixth Age passed over: | And a state of dismal woe. | 12. Enraged & stifled with torment | He threw his right Arm to the north | His left Arm to the south | Shooting out in anguish deep, | And his Feet stampd the nether Abyss"; upper right: "In trembling & howling & dismay, | And a seventh Age passed over: | And a state of dismal woe. | Chap: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 the wisdom & joy of life: | Roll like a sea around him."; lower left: "Except what his little orbs | Of sight by degrees unfold. | 3. And now his eternal life | Like a dream was obliterated | 4. Shudd'ring, the Eternal Prophet smote | With a stroke, from his north to south | region | The bellows & hammer are silent now | A nerveless silence, his prophetic voice | Siez'd: a cold solitude & dark void | The Eternal Prophet & Urizen clos'd | 5. Ages on ages rolld over them | Cut off from life & light frozen | Into horrible forms of deformity | Los suffer'd his fires to decay"; lower right: "Then he look'd back with anxious desire | But the space undivided by existence | Struck horror into his soul. | 6. Los wept obscur'd with mourning: | His bosom earthquak'd with sighs, | He saw Urizen deadly black, | In his chains bound, & Pity began. | 7. In anguish dividing & dividing | For pity divides the soul | In pangs eternity on eternity | Life in cataracts pourd down his | cliffs | The void shrunk the lymph into Nerves | Wand'ring wide on the boson of night | And left a round globe of blood | Trembling upon the Void"
- Credit Line:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
- Copyright Status:
- Public Domain
- Accession Number:
- B1992.8.5(16)
- Classification:
- Prints
- Collection:
- Prints and Drawings
- Subject Terms:
- birds | clouds | literary theme | religious and mythological subject | text | vines | women
- 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:3904
- Export:
- XML
- IIIF Manifest:
- JSON
The Romantic Print in the Age of Revolutions: Hero, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History (Yale Center for British Art, 2003-01-23 - 2003-06-01) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]
William Blake (Tate Britain, 2000-11-02 - 2001-02-04) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]
William Blake, Libros profe´ticos, vol. 1, Atalanta, Vilau¨r, Spain, 2013, p. 310, PR4142 .S35 2013 [ORBIS]