The [First] Book of Urizen

With its double columns of text and divisions into chapters and verses, the format of The [First] Book of Urizen indicates its close relationship to the Bible. The poem is in many respects a heterodox rewriting of Genesis, one in which the creation of the universe is seen as a fall into materiality and its abstract laws. The process is initiated by Urizen when he separates himself from his fellow "Eternals" and thereby creates difference, absence, and self-consciousness. As Urizen falls into this void of his own making, Los reacts by building a material and temporal base below which Urizen cannot descend. Through this narrative of ultimate origins, Blake explores fundamental epistemological and ontological issues.

Blake etched in shallow relief the twenty-eight plates of The [First] Book of Urizen in 1794, although only copies A and B contain them all. In the same year, he printed proof copies H and I (only 3 and 2 plates respectively) and copies A, C-F, and J. Copy B was printed in 1795 and copy G in 1818. Bentley plate 4 appears only in copies A-C (an impression was pulled for copy G but not included). The full-page designs are differently positioned in each copy; copies A, B, E, and F also have variant orders of text plates.