William Blake's mythology
Urizen
Urizen is a figure in William Blake's illuminated mythology, not a historical person or a deity documented by this entry outside Blake's work. The Book of Urizen opens by naming a withdrawn, self-enclosed power and describing his solitary creation of divisions and forms. Later on, Los keeps watch around Urizen's dark world while the artwork repeatedly presents immense bodies constrained by darkness, stone or chains.
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In the sources
The secluded power is named
LiteraryChapter I asks who formed the void and answers with the name Urizen. It then describes division and measurement, followed by wars in the being's own wilderness.
Los watches the dark world
LiteraryThe leaf headed Chapter III ends by placing Los around Urizen's dark globe. He watches for the Eternals, keeping its separation in view.
Creation also produces separation
InterpretationThese passages connect the appearance of Urizen's world with division, solitude and a rupture from Eternity. Reading that separation as a critique of self-enclosed thought is an interpretation of the narrative, not a claim that the text has only one meaning.
Context & interpretation
The sources here are two text-bearing leaves and four designs from Lumitheca's scan of The Book of Urizen. Leaf numbers identify this scan's order, not a universal numbering of Blake's plates. Colour and sequence can differ between copies; readings of bodily confinement or restrictive reason are interpretations, not labels supplied by every design.
Original passages
Source 1
The Book of Urizen
It is Urizen. But unknown, abstracted / Brooding secret, the dark power hid.Open this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Scan leaf 3, Chapter I, stanza 1
Read directly from the illuminated scan; / marks a line break.
- Edition
- IMJ-0247-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0247-E001-P0003
- Original scan leaf
- 3
- Recorded leaf number
- 3
- Current Reader position
- 4
- Reader verification
- Matches the reviewed Reader
Source 2
The Book of Urizen
And Los round the dark globe of / Urizen / Kept watch for Eternals to confine, / The obscure separation alone;Open this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Scan leaf 5, Chapter III, stanza 8
Read directly from the illuminated scan; / marks a line break.
- Edition
- IMJ-0247-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0247-E001-P0005
- Original scan leaf
- 5
- Recorded leaf number
- 5
- Current Reader position
- 6
- Reader verification
- Matches the reviewed Reader
