FOUR ZOAS IX / 123:40-125:1 (28:25-125:1)


 In order to perform its
 perceptual function, the
 Cloud complex must
 resist subversive analysis
 through prior contexts.




As in Night III, the Man
 divides into different
 aspects by virtue of
 different adjectival
 modifiers (here "Eter-
 nal," "Falln," and
 "Redeemd") in the pre-
 sence of the Cloud of the
 Son of Man.






The Cloud's power to be
beheld conventionally as
"the Vision of God" and
 "the Lord coming to
 Judgment" enacts the
 transformations of the
 Man and the narrator.


(i.e., cannot be unequivocally exposed as a delusory apocalyptic vision
solely on the grounds of imagery or syntax or even the associations these
terms have assembled throughout the poem) because Blake's perceptual
strategy is to demonstrate how fully the reader, still guided by conven-
tional memories, expectations, and desires, can be lured into a mental state
in which these few lines are able to override the entire narrative context
that precedes the vision.
 Though the vision is primarily unassailable, its subversive role is man-
 ifested in its immediate consequences: for the first time in Night IX the
 Eternal Man suddenly becomes (is temporarily replaced by/transformed
 into) "the Falln Man," intersecting the creation of "the fallen Man" by the
 Council of God at the beginning of Night VIII (99:1-4). The narrative
 intercession of the Cloud results in the fall of the Eternal Man. Since the
 phrase "is beheld" in the vision itself is passive and ambiguous as to its
 subject, it sweeps the Eternal Man into its perceptual vortex. In beholding
 the vision of "power and great Glory" he becomes "Falln." Narratively the
 Cloud is here the locus of fallenness, brings the fallenness of the Eternal
 Man to narrative consciousness. The events surrounding the "Falln
 Man's" attempt to rise from the "Rock of Ages" (where he was placed by
 the "Saviour" in Night I) reveal how the "Falln Man" conventionalizes the
 vision he has just beheld. The Cloud of the Son of Man now becomes
 simply, in the narrator's account, "the Vision of God." No remnant of the
 Cloud is left, and "God," who is excluded by name from the vision itself,
 is seen by the "Falln Man" as the unambiguous origin and object "of" the
 vision.
 Just as the Eternal Man became the "Falln Man" in beholding the vision
 of the Cloud, so the "Falln Man" becomes the "Redeemd Man" when he
 and Urizen are repelled in their attempt to pass together through the
 flames to enter into a Consummation with the vision of the Cloud (which
 appears "after the flames" [123:27]). Like the "Falln Man," the "Redeemd
 Man" grasps only the conventional aspects of the vision-"The Lord
 coming to Judgment." Just as in Night III the Man divided into different
 name/aspects in the context of Luvah's descent from the cloud as the Son
 of Man, so the Cloud of the Son of Man in Night IX succeeds in preserv-
 ing the Eternal Man's inertia by separating him into aspects ("Falln,"
 "Redeemd") by creating in the "Falln Man" an intense yearning to be
 integrated into the luring vision of the Cloud while using the flames that
 precede the vision to deny the "Redeemd Man" entrance into the vision as
 a "Consummation," a term appearing in Night IX only in connection
with Luvah and the females associated with him, Rahab and Tirzah (118:7)
and Mystery (120:4).
 The "Redeemd Man's" inability to enter the Consummation is re-
enacted by the narrative itself, which suddenly shifts focus to the agricul-
tural imagery that appeared in the Eternal Man's previous vision of the
sexual cycle. This shift is perspectivally appropriate because the term
"redeemd" most recently appeared in the context of Jerusalem's sexual