FOUR ZOAS IV / 55:24-31


The Lamb of God, given
responsibility for creat-
 ing Beulah in Night I
 (5:29-32), is, like Thar-
 mas, absent from this
 scene.
















 The spastic body Los
 becomes at the end of
 Night IV follows his
 beholding "the hand of
 God."


 Fig. B.4 (pp. 210-11)
maps the textual pattern
 of Night V.

The narrative context at
 the outset of Night V


"resume some little semblance" (47:9) as a result of Los's actions. The
Daughters project Tharmas' desire onto Beulah, which (according to the
Spectre's account) is the realm made possible by Tharmas' fleeing and the
withdrawing from consciousness. The weakness and retreat of the
Daughters is the female aspect of Tharmas' blustering cowardice. Because
the two "Limits" established by the Beulah-like "mild & gentle" Saviour
are the two poles of Tharmas as body (Adam) and the chaotic form of
Urizen (Satan), the action of the interposed "Eternal" dimension is an
aspect of what is happening in the central narrative and not simply a
response to it.
 In the final phase of Night IV, Los's binding reflects back on him and
simultaneously identifies him with Urizen, the Spectre, and Tharmas,
making him more than ever a victim of both sexual and power divisions:
the forms of Urizen and Enitharmon that groaned and shrieked during his
labors now are experienced by Los as internal aspects of his own body
consciousness:
 Spasms siezd his muscular fibres writhing to & fro his pallid lips
 Unwilling movd as Urizen howld his loins wavd like the sea
 At Enitharmons shriek his knees each other smote & then he looked
 With stony Eyes on Urizen & then swift writhd his neck
 Involuntary to the Couch where Enitharmon lay
 The bones of Urizen hurtle on the wind the bones of Los
 Twinge & his iron sinews bend like lead & fold
 Into unusual forms dancing & howling stamping the Abyss
 (55:24-31)

The negative imagery of Night IV-from Urthona's writhing veiny loins
to the dancing skeleton bones of the anatomized body-fuse into Los. He
becomes a victim of both Urizen and Enitharmon as the nightmare of
Night IV coalesces into Los's own limbs. This painful dance macabre
decisively undercuts whatever redemptive possibilities we might have ex-
pected to issue from the mysterious and ambiguous appearance of the
Divine Vision.



 Progressive Re-Enactment in Night the Fifth


 Night IV re-established the initial conditions for the opening of the
 poem itself-the emergence of the "body" as an object capable of being
 anatomized. This perspective transformation involved not only Tharmas
 attempt to appropriate Albion's role in Night II by ordering Los to "Go
 forth" and rebuild the universe but also Los's refusal to do so. By involving
 Enitharmon in sexual division on three occasions in Night IV, the narra-
 tive integrated details of Ahania's vision in Night III (which precipitated
 the "fall" ofUrizen) into the context ofTharmas' confrontation with Los,
 the Spectre, and Enitharmon. Tharmas' division of Enitharmon from Los