Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    THE BOOK OF URIZEN (Illustrated Edition): Illuminated Manuscript with the Original Illustrations of William Blake
    THE BOOK OF URIZEN (Illustrated Edition): Illuminated Manuscript with the Original Illustrations of William Blake
    THE BOOK OF URIZEN (Illustrated Edition): Illuminated Manuscript with the Original Illustrations of William Blake
    Ebook55 pages25 minutes

    THE BOOK OF URIZEN (Illustrated Edition): Illuminated Manuscript with the Original Illustrations of William Blake

    By William Blake

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    "The Book of Urizen" is one of the major prophetic books of the English poet William Blake, illustrated by Blake's own plates. It was originally published as The First Book of Urizen in 1794. Later editions dropped the word "first". The book takes its name from the character Urizen in Blake's mythology, who represents alienated reason as the source of oppression. The book describes Urizen as the "primeaval priest", and describes how he became separated from the other Eternals to create his own alienated and enslaving realm of religious dogma. Los and Enitharmon create a space within Urizen's fallen universe to give birth to their son Orc, the spirit of revolution and freedom. In form, the book is a parody of the Book of Genesis, with Blake's Urizen being more similar to the demiurge of the Gnostics than a benevolent creator. The poems of William Blake reinterpret the spiritual history of the human race from the fall from Eden to the beginning of the French Revolution. Blake believed in the correspondence between the physical world and the spiritual world and used poetic metaphor to express these beliefs. In his poetry, we hear a man who look's for mankind to salvage his redemption from oppression through resurgence of imaginative life. The power of repression is a constant theme in Blake's poems and he articulates his belief in the titanic forces of revolt and the struggle for freedom against the guardians of tradition.
    William Blake (1757–1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMusaicum Books
    Release dateNov 15, 2017
    ISBN9788027231690
    THE BOOK OF URIZEN (Illustrated Edition): Illuminated Manuscript with the Original Illustrations of William Blake
    Author

    William Blake

    William Blake was born in London in 1757. He was apprenticed to a master engraver and then studied at the Royal Academy under the guidance of Joshua Reynolds. In 1789 he engraved and published Songs of Innocence and the contrasting Songs of Experience came later in 1794. A poet, painter and printmaker of great originality and imagination, his work was largely unrecognized during his lifetime and he struggled to make a living. Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. He died in 1827.

    Read more from William Blake

    Related to THE BOOK OF URIZEN (Illustrated Edition)

    Related ebooks

    Literary Criticism For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Harvesting History

      Mar 24, 2020

      Harvesting History
      4 min read

    • Article

      What Love Meant in 4500 B.C.

      Feb 21, 2022

      What Love Meant in 4500 B.C.
      2 min read

    • Article

      Syncretism

      Feb 28, 2020

      Syncretism
      1 min read

    • Article

      Women Of Grace

      May 20, 2019

      Jesus did not say that people would know that we are His disciples by how much we own, nor by how rich or powerful we are, but by the way we love one another (John 13:35)! This was the new commandment that Jesus left His disciples, and is addressed t

      2 min read

    • Article

      Polaris

      Aug 12, 2021

      Polaris
      5 min read

    • Article

      Perfect Prose II

      May 15, 2020

      Perfect Prose II
      4 min read

    • Article

      Punishment From On High

      Jan 19, 2023

      Punishment From On High
      3 min read

    • Article

      Hook, Line And Sinker

      Oct 18, 2018

      Hook, Line And Sinker
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Devil’s Dictionary

      Jul 6, 2021

      Select entries from Ambrose Bierce’s lexicon of cynicism, bitterness, and humor, produced over a 30-year period beginning in 1881. APOLOGIZE, v.i. To lay the foundation for a future offence. BARD, n. A person who makes rhymes. The word is one of the

      4 min read

    • Article

      Tessa Castro

      Jul 26, 2023

      IN COMPETITION No 295 you were invited to write a poem called Roots. Cherry MacGregor started off in medias res: ‘Has the vine died? My husband had asked,/ As we enjoyed lunch in the garden.’ Another excellent opening came from DM Davis: ‘Roots, oh m

      2 min read

    • Article

      Poem Of The Week: The North Wind By Anne Brontë

      May 8, 2023

      That wind is from the North, I know it well;No other breeze could have so wild a swell.Now deep and loud it thunders round my cell,Then faintly dies,And softly sighs,And moans and murmurs mournfully.I know its language; thus is speaks to me – ‘I have

      3 min read

    • Article

      from 36 WAYS OF WRITING A VIETNAMESE POEM

      Feb 28, 2023

      You can’t go far wrong with violence.You’ll go far, my boy.You’ll cross oceans, my boy. Start with the Fall, go back or forth,Through bombs or boats,Across all the killing fields of thought. You can’t make it upBecause it’s all yours—by blood.By righ

      4 min read

    • Article

      Stop Hating on Adjectives!

      Jun 12, 2019

      A common admonition in creative writing pedagogy is, “Cut as many adjectives as possible.” I propose that this rule springs from mere prejudice. The post Stop Hating on Adjectives! appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    • Article

      Spell

      Apr 25, 2018

      Spell
      4 min read

    • Article

      Sea Sounds

      Feb 3, 2022

      Sea Sounds
      3 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      May 1, 2022

      —after Gerrit van Honthorst’s “Samson and Delilah,” c. 1621 They’ve made a monster of me, marring my namefor eternity. I’m not Delilah,but Laila. I loved him. Each night, in bed, after our bodies became one body, he would succumb to sleep, resting hi

      3 min read

    • Article

      Poetic Licence

      Mar 18, 2023

      Let me ask you this, my dear friend: are you truly content with complacency? Are you content to sit idly by and watch as the world around you descends into chaos and injustice? Is the comfort of the status quo truly worth the cost of your conscience?

      2 min read

    • Article

      Tessa Castro

      May 4, 2022

      IN COMPETITION No 279 you were invited to write a poem called Broken Bottle. Basil Ransome-Davies portrayed himself as ‘The man who dropped his wine in Marks’, by Bateman. Mike Morrison’s narrator found that the wind had knocked from the shelf ‘A nov

      2 min read

    • Article

      Toby Martinez De Las Rivas

      Dec 15, 2018

      III. Is belief, like love, first a touch, a feeling,an inclination toward rightness?But I have known—known—myself right somany times & been so, só wrong.Is it a mode of dying? Of benediction?Acceptance of suffering?It is benediction.I am ill. There i

      2 min read

    • Article

      Somme Song

      Feb 12, 2019

      Somme Song
      3 min read

    • Article

      Tessa Castro

      Mar 9, 2022

      IN COMPETITION No 277 you were invited to write a poem called Morning Sounds. The entries were vivid: half domestic, half outdoor. Tim Lloyd observed that ‘A bin lorry approaching in reverse/Sounds like an asthmatic seal.’ Liz Piper remembered, durin

      2 min read

    • Article

      Worship On High

      Oct 18, 2021

      Worship On High
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Crown

      Mar 4, 2021

      The Crown
      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for THE BOOK OF URIZEN (Illustrated Edition)

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      THE BOOK OF URIZEN (Illustrated Edition) - William Blake

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1