ABSTRACT
Urizen is a turning point in B.’s work, as Marriage, whose prophecies remain unfulfilled, is not. Adam has not returned to Paradise (Marriage pl.3), the song of Liberty has not been sung. In France, the revolution has been debauched by blood, and has fallen into the hands of committees; at home, Government is ever more repressive. The balance of Orc and Urizen has changed. Most of all, B.’s mood too has changed. Urizen, still shown as the tyrannical author of the earth’s darkness, has become a tragic tyrant, architect of his own downfall. In Vala, his decline is fully developed, on the way to insignificance in Jerusalem, while Los fights on.
