NARRATIVE ACTION: RE-ENACTMENT


the key embrace of Tharmas and Enion in the context of the "bright
South" (132:10; 133:2). Third, Orc's fire increasingly takes on the charac-
teristic "animating volumes" (118:10) of the scroll-like "volume of
Heaven" (117:14) and the "books of Urizen" (118:8) which begin to
unroll.
 The trumpet returns in lines 118:17-19 calling forth the "trembling
millions," an image which will be repeated (minus the trumpet) in lines
119:21-23. The second appearance of these lines has much the effect of a
cracked record, especially because the repeated lines refer specifically to a
beginning, the "Start[ing] forth [of] the trembling millions" into "bright
visions of Eternity," from which the narrative immediately turns. The
identity of these "millions" is immediately obscured when they are
minutely contrasted to the "trembling families / Of women & children"
who "Then...Cling round the men...pale / As snow" (118:20-23), re-
enacting pale Enitharmon's clinging to Los just prior to Orc's birth in
Night V (57:18-58:2) as well as its wintry context. The "just man" is
especially singled out as standing "pale... looking up to heavn" (118:25),
clearly not yet entered into "flames of mental fire" nor yet "Bathing [his]
limbs in the bright visions of Eternity."
 The imagery of this segment appears to re-enact the cracking of the
heavens without acknowledging Los's agency. Now it is the anonymous
"Universal stroke" that "unroot[s]" trees, inverting the opening perspec-
tive in which Los was credited with tearing down the heavens with "vege-
table hands" in "fibrous Strength" like a tree. The suggested inversion in
the vegetable world is immediately followed by an animation of the min-
eral world (rocks, mountains, rivers) and a humanization of the animal
world reminiscent of the Song at the Feast of Los and Enitharmon in
Night I: but Los and Enitharmon have now disappeared. Of all the ani-
mals, it is the carnivorous beasts of prey who are most frightened and
articulate:
 the wild beasts of the forests
 Tremble the Lion shuddering asks the Leopard. Feelest thou
 The dread I feel unknown before My voice refuses to roar
 And in weak moans I speak to thee This night
 Before the mornings dawn the Eagle called the Vulture
 The Raven called the hawk I heard them from my forests black
 Saying Let us go up far for soon I smell upon the wind
 A terror coming from the South. The Eagle & Hawk fled away
 At dawn & Eer the sun arose the raven & Vulture followed
 Let us flee also to the north. They fled. The Sons ofMen
 Saw them depart in dismal droves. The trumpet sounded loud
 And all the Sons of Eternity Descended into Beulah
 (118:29-40)

The Lion's reference to the "South" as the source of the "terror" parallels
the hint given in the embrace of the Spectre ofEnitharmon and the Spectre
of Urthona (118:1), and the sequence in which these events have been


The relationship of Orc
to Urizen's books reap-
pears from Night Vila.










Discrepancies and
re-enactments as the
millions start forth







The suppression ofLos's
agency in the action
parallels the suppres-
sion, in Night VI
(69:32-34), ofLos's
agency in forming the
body and the Chain of
Jealousy.