FOUR ZOAS VIIA / 81:10-90:4


 Narrative discon-
 tinuities following the
descent of Enitharmon's
 Shadow


maphroditic form of the war in Night VIII. As this new character, the
Shadow of Enitharmon, enters the narrative proper, three lines of com-
pressed narrative superimpose successive moments in this Night:

 Enitharmon lay on his knees. Urizen tracd his Verses
 In the dark deep the dark tree grew. her shadow was drawn down
 Down to the roots it wept over Ore. the Shadow of Enitharmon
 (81:10-12)

The short, discrete narrative utterances simultaneously connect the phases
of action, by spatially enclosing (on the surface of the page) the Urizen plot
between phases of the Los plot (thus inverting the narrative sequence), and
separate them by their summary abruptness and factual objectivity. The
repeated "d's" in 81:11 interconnect the Urizen plot with the Los plot,
while the unusually large number of periods equally insists on their sep-
aration. The Shadow is drawn down at the same moment as the initial action
of Night VIIa when the Tree springs up and Urizen traces his words in the
book of iron. Finally, the ambiguous punctuation and spatial placement of
words in 81:12 suggests that the Shadow of Enitharmon is an aspect of Orc
as well as being drawn down by Ore. This movement anticipates by
inversion the shadow's drawing of the spectrous form of Orc (85:21).
 In the extended sequence that follows this moment of compression,
Blake introduces a central event into the plot in a way that leaves huge gaps
and discontinuities, as if significant details were being suppressed; the
narrative then proceeds to introduce new information sequentially under
the guise of analyzing out, layer by layer, information which, upon its
appearance in the narrative proper, behaves as if it had been previously
suppressed. For example, the narrator says, "Her Shadow went forth &
returned" (81:14). The narrative retroactively requires that between the
going forth and returning of the Shadow stretch the events of the next 130
lines. Again, the narrator says, "the Spectre entered Los's bosom" (85:26);
then, after a lengthy verbal interchange, Los says to the Spectre, "Come
then into my Bosom" (86:10). Or, in one of the best examples of the
tenaciously confusing syntax in this section, the narrator says "So spoke
Los & Embracing Enitharmon & the Spectre / Clouds would have folded
round in Extacy & Love uniting / But Enitharmon trembling fled & hid
beneath Urizens tree" (86:13-14; 87:1). This language is very likely an
alternative account of the descent of the Shadow of Enitharmon beneath
the Tree of Mystery. When the Spectre first speaks to the Shadow saying,
"Loveliest delight of Men. Enitharmon shady hiding" (82:28), he not only
anticipates but actually casts suspicion on what otherwise might appear to
be Los's later more enlightened speech which begins, "Lovely delight of
Men Enitharmon shady refuge from furious war" (90:5). Thus, while the
actions that flow out of the Shadow's descent seem to involve a major
advance in the narrative, they are, in part, a "delusive" re-enactment of a
single event-complex which is both presupposed by and created in the
unfolding narrative; and it simultaneously fulfills and undermines Uri-
zen's plot.