LUVAH MATERIALIZES AT THE FEAST


been "Furious"? [132:36]) licking the girl while the lion eats the "golden
food" from the boy's lap. If these functions were reversed, the oral sexual
implications might be even more obvious, but that would unbalance the
delicate and tantalizing delusion conjured up to allow Luvah to rise from
his own inertial sitting position.
 The pastoral evocativeness of the Eternal Man's speech is shattered by
the drunken reply of Luvah, who seems not to be responding at all to the
speech we have just experienced but rather to the much earlier speech
concerning the danger of attempting to exceed "Man" that the "Immor-
tal" delivered to Luvah and Vala as they descended into the world of
"shadows sweet delusions unformd hopes" wherein they no longer could
perceive "the terrible confusion of the wracking universe" (126:22-23):
"Attempting to be more than Man We become less said Luvah / As he
arose from the bright feast drunk with the wine of ages" (135:21-22). Prior
to this point there is no indication that Luvah is sitting at the table as an
equal, though the Eternal Man was addressing him. Previously, we must
recall, his flames were serving the wine, a subtle absorption of Urizen's
power and light, but there was no direct indication that he had served
himself the wine, becoming both servant and guest at the feast. Just as we
learn that Luvah is sitting at the feast only as he stands up, so only as it falls
from his head do we learn he has a crown of thorns (identifying him both
with "Jesus," the figure who stood by Los and Enitharmon, "Separating /
Their Spirit from their body" [117:4-5], and with the crucified "Son of
Man" associated with vengeance).
 In each case-including Luvah's opening statement-Blake reveals the
event's significance only after it is over. As Luvah descends into the Vine-
yards, which are "bright" (unlike every other space that exists beneath the
feast, with the exception of Vala's ambiguous "shadowy" yet "bright"
lower paradise), he is "Sounding the Song of Los." This title refers either
to one of Blake's earlier poems, an analysis of the history of oppression, or
to a song hidden from the reader and not sung aloud-Enitharmon has
sung songs in The Four Zoas but Los has not. If it is the Nuptial Song of Los
and Enitharmon in Night I, then it predicts precisely the transformation of
the harvest and vintage into global pain and destruction and reveals Lu-
vah's consciousness of the results of his actions. In any case, or at best,
Luvah's "Sounding" (echoing previous "soundings" in Night IX) the
Song of Los calls attention to the poem's own co-option of Los's role. Los's
minimal residue in the title of this Song reveals the extent to which the
poem has abandoned him.
 We learn, as we did with Luvah, that Luvah's sons populate the feast
only as they arise to gather the vintage in golden baskets. At this point
Blake shows how easily the narrator can lapse into language that instantly
allows the reader to seize on a hope of redemption on the page and thus
forget the chain of past unfulfilled expectations. This transition depends
on a fundamental association that has pervaded the poem almost from the
beginning-that of music with the feast. As the vintage is taken to the
wine presses:


As in the case of several
speeches in Night IX,
Luvah's seems to be a
response to a much ear-
lier utterance.







Luvah's crown of thorns
connects him to "Jesus"
who, like the soon to
emerge wine presses,
separates Spirit from
body.











Los survives at this point
only in his "Song"
which Luvah sings.