Chap. II

But the forehead of Urizen gathering,
And his eyes pale with anguish, his lips
Blue and changing, in tears and bitter
Contrition he prepar'd his Bow,

Form'd of Ribs, that in his dark solitude,
When obscur'd in his forests, fell monsters
Arose. For his dire Contemplations
Rush'd down like floods from his mountains,
In torrents of mud settling thick,
With eggs of unnatural production:
Forthwith hatching, some howl'd on his hills,
Some in vales, some aloft flew in air.

Of these, an enormous dread Serpent,
Scaled and poisonous, horned,
Approach'd Urizen, even to his knees,
As he sat on his dark-rooted Oak.

With his horns he push'd furious:
Great the conflict and great the jealousy

In cold poisons; but Urizen smote him!

First he poison'd the rocks with his blood,
Then polish'd his ribs, and his sinews
Dried, laid them apart till winter;
Then a Bow black prepar'd: on this Bow
A poisoned Rock plac'd in silence.
He utter'd these words to the Bow: —

'O Bow of the clouds of Secrecy!
O nerve of that lust-form'd monster!
Send this Rock swift, invisible, thro'
The black clouds on the bosom of Fuzon.'

So saying, in torment of his wounds
He bent the enormous ribs slowly —
A circle of darkness! — then fixed
The sinew in its rest; then the Rock,
Poisonous source, plac'd with art, lifting difficult
Its weighty bulk. Silent the Rock lay,

While Fuzon, his tigers unloosing,
Thought Urizen slain by his wrath.
I am God! 'said he, 'eldest of things.'

Sudden sings the Rock; swift and invisible
On Fuzon flew, enter'd his bosom;
His beautiful visage, his tresses,
That gave light to the mornings of heaven,
Were smitten with darkness, deform'd,
And outstretch'd on the edge of the forest.

But the Rock fell upon the Earth,
Mount Sinai, in Arabia.