The Book of Ahania

(Engraved 1795)

CHAP. I
1. FUZON, on a chariot iron-wing’d,
On spikèd flames rose; his hot visage
Flam’d furious; sparkles his hair and beard
Shot down his wide bosom and shoulders.
On clouds of smoke rages his chariot, 5
And his right hand burns red in its cloud,
Moulding into a vast Globe his wrath,
As the thunder-stone is moulded,
Son of Urizen’s silent burnings.

2. ‘Shall we worship this Demon of smoke,’ 10
Said Fuzon, ‘this abstract Nonentity,
This cloudy God seated on waters,
Now seen, now obscur’d, King of Sorrow?’

3. So he spoke in a fiery flame,
On Urizen frowning indignant, 15
The Globe of wrath shaking on high.
Roaring with fury, he threw
The howling Globe; burning it flew,
Length’ning into a hungry beam. Swiftly