Analysis of The Book of Urizen (excerpts)
William Blake 1757 (Soho) – 1827 (London)
Lo, a shadow of horror is risen
In Eternity! Unknown, unprolific,
Self-clos'd, 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.
Times on times he divided and measur'd
Space by space in his ninefold darkness,
Unseen, unknown; changes appear'd
Like desolate mountains, rifted furious
By the black winds of perturbation.
For he strove in battles dire,
In unseen conflictions with shapes
Bred from his forsaken wilderness
Of beast, bird, fish, serpent and element,
Combustion, blast, vapour and cloud.
Dark, revolving in silent activity:
Unseen in tormenting passions:
An activity unknown and horrible,
A self-contemplating shadow,
In enormous labours occupied.
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.
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; and the rolling of wheels,
As of swelling seas, sound in his clouds,
In his hills of stor'd snows, in his mountains
Of hail and ice; voices of terror
Are heard, like thunders of autumn
When the cloud blazes over the harvests
Scheme | AXABXCC XDXDA XXDXX XEXXX FXBX AXXXXEXXF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 101110110 00100011 111010110 111010001 1111011 11110110 101001101 1111010010 11101110 01011001 1100101100 10111010 1110101 001111 111010100 1111100100 0101101 10100100100 0101010 10100010100 011001 0010110 1111110 111011101 101001101 010100010 11101011 011110110 101011101 011001011 111011011 0111110110 110110110 11110110 1011010010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,392 |
Words | 206 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 5, 5, 5, 4, 9 |
Lines Amount | 35 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 171 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:04 min read
- 142 Views
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"The Book of Urizen (excerpts)" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/39152/the-book-of-urizen-%28excerpts%29>.
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