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| Sebastiano Galeotti Mercury in clouds 1741 drawing Prado |
Earth was not, nor globes of attraction.
The will of the Immortal expanded
Or contracted his flexible senses.
Death was not, but eternal life sprung.
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| Donato Creti River God 18th century drawing Ashmolean Museum, Oxford |
The sound of a trumpet the heavens
Awoke, & vast clouds of blood roll'd
Round the dim rocks of Urizen, so nam'd
That solitary one in Immensity.
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| Giovanni Battista Cipriani Classical figure pouring a libation 18th century drawing British Museum |
Shrill the trumpet; & myriads of Eternity
Muster around the bleak desarts
Now fill'd with clouds, darkness & waters
That roll'd perplex'd lab'ring, & utter'd
Words articulate bursting in thunders
That roll'd on the tops of his mountains.
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| Gian Paolo Panini Angels on a Pediment 18th century drawing British Museum |
From the depths of dark solitude: "From
the eternal abode, in my holiness
Hidden, set apart in my stern counsels
Reserv'd for the days of futurity,
I have sought for a joy without pain,
For a solid without fluctuation."
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| Francesco Bartolozzi Figure studies 18th century drawing British Museum |
"First I fought with the fire, consum'd
Inwards into a deep world within,
A void immense, wild, dark & deep,
Where nothing was, Nature's wide womb:
And self-balanc'd, stretch'd o'er the void,
I alone, even I! the winds merciless
Bound; but condensing in torrents
They fall and fall; strong I repell'd
The vast waves, & arose on the waters
A wide world of solid obstruction."
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| Francesco Bartolozzi Académie 18th century drawing British Museum |
"Here alone I, in books form'd of metals,
Have written the secrets of wisdom,
The secrets of dark contemplation."
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| Anonymous Italian artist Ornamental figures with Griffin 18th century drawing British Museum |
"Lo! I unfold my darkness, and on
This rock place with strong hands the Book
Of eternal brass, written in my solitude."
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| Giuseppe Cades Levitation of St Joseph of Copertino 18th century drawing Ashmolean Museum, Oxford |
The voice ended: they saw his pale visage
Emerge from the darkness, his hand
On the rock of eternity unclasping
The Book of brass.
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| Anonymous Roman artist Acolyte with attendant angel 18th century drawing British Museum |
Urizen explor'd his dens,
Mountain, moor & wilderness,
With a globe of fire lighting his journey,
A fearful journey, annoy'd
By cruel enormities, forms
Of life on his forsaken mountains.
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| Anonymous Italian artist Académie late 18th century drawing Ashmolean Museum, Oxford |
And his world teem'd vast enormities,
Fright'ning, faithless, fawning
Portions of life, similitudes
Of a foot or a hand or a head
Or a heart or an eye; they swam, mischevous
Dread terrors, delighting in blood.
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| Placido Costanzi Virgin and Child with Angel 18th century drawing Ashmolean Museum, Oxford |
Most Urizen sicken'd to see
His Eternal creations appear
Sons & daughters of sorrow on mountains
Weeping! wailing! first Thiriel appear'd,
Astonish'd at his own existence,
Like a man from a cloud born, & Utha
From the waters emerging, laments.
Grodna rent the deep earth, howling
Amaz'd; his heavens immense cracks
Like the ground parched with heat; then Fuzon
Flam'd out, first begotten, last born.
All his eternal sons in like manner,
His daughters from green herbs & cattle,
From monsters & worms of the pit.
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| Anonymous Italian artist Study for a sculpture 18th century drawing British Museum |
He, in darkness clos'd, viewed all his race,
And his soul sickened! he cursed
Both sons and daughters, for he saw
That no flesh nor spirit could keep
His iron laws one moment.
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| Giovanni Battista Piazzetta Profile of a youth ca. 1715-18 drawing British Museum |
And their thirty cities divided
In form of a human heart.
No more could they rise at will
In the infinite void, but bound down
To earth by their narrowing perceptions,
They lived a period of years,
Then left a noisome body
To the jaws of devouring darkness.
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| Domenico Zanetti Fall of the Giants 18th century wash drawing Morgan Library, New York |
– quotations are from The Book of Urizen (1794) by William Blake