The Book of Los

The poem opens with a lamentation by "Eno aged Mother" over the loss of Edenic pleasures through Urizenic error and the world it creates. The narrative then centers on Los's anguished responses to that world, including his transformation of the void into matter and his binding of Urizen.

The five plates of The Book of Los were etched in intaglio and printed in 1795. There is only one complete copy (A), plus a separate impression of plate 4. The designs on plates 1-3 and 5 were color printed from the surfaces of copperplates bearing only etched outlines of the pictorial motifs.