Urizen Explores his Dens
This chapter analyses William Blake's illustration for the part of Edward Young's Night-Thoughts where the narrator was asked if he was fond of life. Blake depicted this scene with a naked Sense and Reason demanding the narrator to choose between the present life and next. In the context of The Four Zoas, this design recalls the immediately preceding Night-Thoughts proof where the natural sublime tutors Young to turn from this world to the next. This situation is comparable to Urizen's plight as he wakes up in the world of Los and Enitharmon, convinced that his true identity belongs with the supersensible yet confined by a sensible world and a material body.
Keywords: Night-Thoughts, William Blake, Edward Young, illustrations, The Four Zoas, Urizen, reason, life
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