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(Engraved 1795)
THE KINGS of Asia heard | |
| The howl rise up from Europe, | |
| And each ran out from his Web, | |
| From his ancient woven Den; | |
| For the darkness of Asia was startled | 5 |
| At the thick-flaming, thought-creating fires of Orc. | |
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| And the Kings of Asia stood | |
| And crièd in bitterness of soul:— | |
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| ‘Shall not the King call for Famine from the heath, | |
| Nor the Priest for Pestilence from the fen, | 10 |
| To restrain, to dismay, to thin | |
| The inhabitants of mountain and plain, | |
| In the day of full-feeding prosperity | |
| And the night of delicious songs? | |
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| Shall not the Counsellor throw his curb | 15 |
| Of Poverty on the laborious, | |
| To fix the price of labour, | |
| To invent allegoric riches? | |
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| And the privy admonishers of men | |
| Call for Fires in the City, | 20 |
| For heaps of smoking ruins, | |
| In the night of prosperity and wantonness, | |
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| To turn man from his path, | |
| To restrain the child from the womb, | |
| To cut off the bread from the city; | 25 |
| That the remnant may learn to obey, | |
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| That the pride of the heart may fail, | |
| That the lust of the eyes may be quench’d, | |
| That the delicate ear in its infancy | |
| May be dull’d, and the nostrils clos’d up, | 30 |
| To teach Mortal Worms the path | |
| That leads from the gates of the Grave?’ | |
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| Urizen heard them cry, | |
| And his shudd’ring, waving wings | |
| Went enormous above the red flames, | 35 |
| Drawing clouds of despair thro’ the Heavens | |
| Of Europe as he went. | |
| And his Books of brass, iron, and gold | |
| Melted over the land as he flew, | |
| Heavy-waving, howling, weeping. | 40 |
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| And he stood over Judaea, | |
| And stay’d in his ancient place, | |
| And stretch’d his clouds over Jerusalem; | |
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| For Adam, a mouldering skeleton, | |
| Lay bleach’d on the garden of Eden; | 45 |
| And Noah, as white as snow, | |
| On the mountains of Ararat. | |
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| Then the thunders of Urizen bellow’d aloud | |
| From his woven darkness above. | |
| Orc, raging in European darkness, | 50 |
| Arose like a pillar of fire above the Alps, | |
| Like a serpent of fiery flame! | |
| The sullen Earth | |
| Shrunk! | |
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| Forth from the dead dust, rattling bones to bones | 55 |
| Join. Shaking, convuls’d, the shiv’ring Clay breathes, | |
| And all Flesh naked stands: Fathers and Friends, | |
| Mothers and Infants, Kings and Warriors. | |
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| The Grave shrieks with delight, and shakes | |
| Her hollow womb, and clasps the solid stem: | 60 |
| Her bosom swells with wild desire; | |
| And milk and blood and glandous wine | |
| In rivers rush, and shout and dance, | |
On mountain, dale, and plain.
THE SONG OF LOS IS ENDED
Urizen Wept. | |
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