Vala, or The Four Zoas

Vala, or The Four Zoas refers to one of the uncompleted prophetic books by the English poet William Blake, begun in 1797. The titular main characters of the book are the Four Zoas (Urthona, Urizen, Luvah and Tharmas), who were created by the fall of Albion in Blake's mythology. It consists of nine books, referred to as "nights". These outline the interactions of the Zoas, their fallen forms and their Emanations. Blake intended the book to be a summation of his mythic universe but, dissatisfied, he abandoned the effort in 1807, leaving the poem in a rough draft and its engraving unfinished.

Blake began working on Vala, or The Death and Judgement of the Eternal Man: A Dream of Nine Nights while he was working on an illustrated edition of Edward Young's Night Thoughts after 1795. He continued to work on it throughout the decade but slowly lost confidence that he could complete the work as he was suffering from a deep state of depression. After 1800, he was able to work on it again. The poem was later renamed The Four Zoas: The torments of Love & Jealousy in The death and Judgment of Albion the Ancient Man in 1807, and this name is used to describe a second version of the poem with the first completed between 1796 and 1802. The actual manuscript of the poem was written on proof engravings of Night Thoughts. The lines were surrounded by large designs and there was around 2,000 lines in the original edition of the poem and 4,000 in the second edition. Of Blake's revision to the work, he primarily changed the last two "nights".

Vala was much larger than any of his previous works. Europe a Prophecy was 265 lines and was printed on copperplates that measured 23 x 17 cm. The plates used to print Vala were 41 x 32 cm. The work also took far longer than his previous works; most of Blake's designs were completed within a year, but Vala took ten years for the whole process to be completed. A notebook was probably used to draft the poem or the designs of the work, but none survived. One of the manuscript sheets was originally used to create a history of England that was abandoned by Blake in 1793. The work was never put into etching, and the manuscript was given to John Linnell. Portions of the work were later used in his Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion.

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