FOUR ZOAS Ill / 40:9-41:4


A period intrudes be-
tween subject and verb
 in 40:9 as the syntax
 shifts from active to
 passive.


what extent is Vala an agent in producing this slumber? Vala functioned in
Night I as the form in which Enitharmon appeared to the Fallen One in her
dream which concluded with the Fallen One accusing her of being born
"to drink up all [the Man's] Powers" (10:25). Thus, the absorption of the
Man here further implies Vala's sinister presence, but her role in the action
is even less clear. After the Man speaks to the Shadow: "Vala trembled &
covered her face, & her locks, were spread on the pavement" (40:9). Because
Vala's image parallels the Man's "prostrate" posture before the Shadow, it
further serves to dissociate Vala from conspiratorial implication in the
appearance of the Shadow: in assuming a bodily position similar to the
Man's, she may be expressing a similar reflex of terror. Yet since the Man's
prostrate position is a response to his own self-delusion, how is Vala's
posture involved in that delusion, if not as a parody?
 Ahania (who is physically in a similar prostrate position before Urizen
during her tale [37:2ff] and who now trembles [as Vala does], as she
trembled in Night II [30:28-29]) breaks in and identifies herself with Vala:
"I heard astonishd at the Vision & my heart trembled within me / I heard
the voice of the Slumberous Man & thus he spoke / Idolatrous to his own
Shadow words of Eternity uttering" (40:10-12). Though these words are
spoken by Ahania to Urizen, they could just as well be spoken by Vala, who
is likewise trembling and who could only "hear" the "vision" because her
face was covered and turned toward the ground in spreading her locks on
the pavement. Thus, in the midst of this scene Blake reminds us of its
context, the exchange between Ahania and Urizen, thereby emphasizing
the parallel between the story-telling context and the content of the vision.
 Although shadows are normally products of light, the presence of this
delusive Shadow depends on the faded light of the Prince, and thus when
the Man (now "Slumbrous" [40:11], parodying Urizen's state of sleep in
Ahania's vision) worships his shadow, he reiterates the shadow-light
inversion, assumes the shadow's role, and speaks the words our shadows
might say to us if they could speak:


O I am nothing when I enter intojudgment with thee
If thou withdraw thy breath I die & vanish into Hades
If thou dost lay thine hand upon me behold I am silent
If thou withhold thine hand I perish like a fallen leaf
O I am nothing & to nothing must return again
If thou withdraw thy breath, behold I am oblivion


(40:13-18)


In repeating, "I am nothing," the Slumbrous Man re-enacts Tharmas
declaration of male impotence in Night I (4:44) as well as Enitharmon's
admission of delusive female weakness in Night II (34:91) and Man's own
previous cry of powerlessness (40:8). The Darkning/Slumbrous Man de-
finitively completes this verbal gesture by becoming what he beholds: "He
ceasd: the shadowy voice was silent" (40:19). Although the Man is con-
stituted at this point in the poem by darkening, fading light, the words he