FOUR ZOAS III / 37:2-38:11


The possibility that the
shifting of titles for Uri-
zen has significance for
the narrative movement


The cloudy context and
the content of Ahania's
 vision coincide.



"Ahania": alternate read-
 ing "shadow" (E750,
 830): both readings
deleted. Lining through
both objects of address
 enacts in the text the
cloudy obscurity Urizen
 invokes to keep the
 female hazy in his per-
 ception.

 "My wide table": Uri-
 zen's diminished role at
 the Feast of Night I (and
 briefly in Night II
 [23:10]) intrudes
 unobtrusively into his
 tale of master and slave.


bright Sons and Daughters (condensed in Ahania's own obedient gesture
of bowing). Her utterance, however, immediately transforms him back
into the "Prince" in the narrator's voice, the title under which he en-
tered the poem and the title associated most strongly with the identifi-
cation of his architectural creation with the fall itself. This shift in Night
III is subtle but significant, for the term "Prince" is more ambiguous than
"King," since it can signify either an actual monarch or one in line for the
throne. Thus, although her speech appears to confirm his kingly control
over the "immortal Atmospheres," in fact it subtly and ambiguously
diminishes his stature. She desires to be acknowledged, looked upon; her
attempt to capture Urizen's attention, by invoking a vision of Urizen's
glory that emphasizes (at some level of her awareness) a false assessment of
his power, is perceived by Urizen as just such a ploy.

 She ceas'd the Prince his light obscurd & the splendors of his crown
 Infolded in thick clouds, from whence his mighty voice burst forth
 (37:11; 38:1)

He can "look on" her and address her only through the mystifying
"clouds," which have appeared in a variety of contexts up to this point but
most recently in Night II in the sexual context of Los and Enitharmon that
triggered Urizen's jealousy toward Ahania: "Urizen saw thy sin & hid his
beams in darkning Clouds" (34:43). When, in her vision of the past,
Ahania refers to the "Prince of Light" with "splendor faded" (39:17), she
reveals that the story she is telling is covertly an account of Urizen (as
Prince) obscuring his light and splendor in the present in order to mystify
his awareness of Ahania's sexual presence. In Night III, however, jealousy
is not Urizen's conscious motive. His response to Ahania is a transcription
in language of this act of self-delusion:
 O bright [Ahania] a Boy is born of the dark Ocean
 Whom Urizen doth serve, with Light replenishing his darkness
 I am set here a King of trouble commanded here to serve
 And do my ministry to those who eat of my wide table
 All this is mine yet I must serve & that Prophetic boy
 Must grow up to command his Prince but hear my determined Decree
 Vala shall become a Worm in Enitharmons Womb
 Laying her seed upon the fibres soon to issue forth
 And Luvah in the loins of Los a dark & furious death
 Alas for me! what will become of me at that dread time?
 (38:2-11, "Ahania" italicized in E)

Urizen's speech immediately denies Ahania's indirect assertion (by rhetor-
ical question) that he is master of his creation ("are not the morning stars
thy obedient Sons..." [37:5-10]). Urizen's admission that he "doth serve"
the unnamed "Boy" is surprising and uncharacteristic. Urizen's transfor-
mation to "Prince" in the narrative proper by Ahania's verbal attempt to
bolster his morale reflects the way her speech calls to Urizen's attention the
fact that his spirits need to be bolstered, forcing him to acknowledge the