Eternally I labour on [Urizen, Plate 9 from Small Book of Designs copy B],

1794

In Blake’s personal mythology, Urizen is the embodiment of law and reason, the force that created the universe. In this image, a version of which precedes the second chapter of Blake’s Book of Urizen, the title figure, placing his book upon a rock after having labored in solitude, professes:

Here alone I, in books form’d of metals / Have written
the secrets of Wisdom, . . . / Lo! I unfold my darkness,
and on / This rock place, with strong hand, the Book /
Of eternal brass, written in my solitude

Blake’s emphasis on books and metals recalls the printmaking process, including that behind the Book of Urizen—itself a book wrought from metal. Due to his idiosyncratic reliefetching technique, only a few unique impressions could be pulled from the copper plate. This example belonged to the second copy of his Small Book of Designs, a work intended to showcase the artist’s “illuminated printing.”