FOUR ZOAS VI / 70:1-71:3


Narrative preconditions
of the books of iron and
 brass



















 See above, pp. 212-13.







Narrative preconditions
 of Urizen's globe















 The possibility that the
 globe is writing the
 books


brass" (70:3) that suddenly appear are one solution to the problem of
making a linear path in a pathless space. These books are of "iron & brass"
because they are direct responses to the monsters who devour his path. In
turn, the monsters who are covered with "iron & brass" are able to devour
Urizen's path because these metals are deeply embedded in Urizen's illu-
sion of control over Luvah and in Urizen's repression of sexual division. In
Night II the voice of Luvah said that his sons and daughters "have sur-
rounded me with walls of iron & brass" (27:9) while in Night III Ahania
revealed Urizen's subservience to Luvah through similar imagery-"thou
art compell'd / To forge the curbs of iron & brass" (39:4-5).
 The "Globe of fire," on the other hand, appears for the first time in the
poem immediately after the narrator inserts auditory imagery regard-
ing Los's labors in Night IV, which are now grasped from the perspective
of Urizen, a perspective which appeared to Los in Night IV as a "stoned
stupor" "Freezing to solid all beneath" (52:20-23). This shift to auditory
imagery is itself a response to Urizen becoming overwhelmed, "sickened
at the sight" of his journey. In Night VI Los's vast labors in Night IV are
heard as "The howlings gnashings groanings skriekings shudderings sob-
bings burstings / Mingle together to create a world for Los. In cruel
delight / Los brooded on the darkness. nor saw Urizen with a Globe of
fire" (69:32-33; 70:1). What Los grasped in Night IVas frozen chaos (now
transferred into the frozen waves ofTharmas) is now the narrative point of
view, and Los becomes the brooding passive victim blind to Urizen's
ironic quest. Urizen's "Globe of fire" appears suddenly as a reflex to this
inverted perspective on Los's task, a perspective transformation which
deletes conscious reference to Enitharmon and Orc (though the sounds
contain them) and emphasizes the darkness of the landscape that makes the
Globe necessary. This repression of Enitharmon and Orc occurs because
the Globe itself is a transformation of Enitharmon's sexually divided
"Globe ofBlood" in Night IV, while the "fire" has migrated from Urizen's
repressed sexual "fires" in Night II (30:30), through the "ceaseless fire" of
Enitharmon's sexual bondage in Night IV (53:9), and the "circling fire" of
Orc's bondage in Night V (61:12ff). Thus the "Globe of fire" has the
power to illumine the suddenly emphasized "darkness" of this pathless
world because it incorporates tremendous repressed sexual and political
energy.
 Ironically, Urizen suddenly becomes able to "behold" in a way that does
not "sicken" him by means of the Globe, a transformed condensed image
of all he wants to evade in taking this journey. In addition, Blake adds a
syntactic parallel between "Lighting" and "Writing" that opens up the
possibility that the Globe actually writes the books as it lights thejourney:
"In cruel delight / Los brooded on the darkness, nor saw Urizen with a
Globe of fire / Lighting his dismal journey through the pathless world of
death / Writing in bitter tears & groans in books of iron & brass" (69:33;
70:1-3). This possible identification of the way of seeing with the act of
writing renders the extended account in Night VI of what Urizen encoun-