The Song of Los

Blake's frontispiece to The Song of Los, showing Urizen presiding over the decline of morality.

The Song of Los (written 1795) is one of William Blake's epic poems, known as prophetic books. The poem consists of two sections, "Africa" and "Asia". In the first section Blake catalogues the decline of morality in Europe, which he blames on both the African slave trade and enlightenment philosophers. The book provides a historical context for The Book of Urizen, The Book of Ahania, and The Book of Los, and also ties those more obscure works to The Continental Prophecies, "Europe" and "America".[1] The second section consists of Los urging revolution.

  1. ^ Bloom (1988). footnote. p. 905.