The Book Of Urizen (excerpts)

Chapter 1     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. Chapter 2     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. Chapter 3     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. Chapter 4     Dark, revolving in silent activity:     Unseen in tormenting passions:     An activity unknown and horrible,     A self-contemplating shadow,     In enormous labours occupied. Chapter 5     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. Chapter 6     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.