This article is about the William Blake poem. For the character of Tiriel, see Tiriel (character). For the opera of the same name, see Tiriel (opera). For the minor character in The Book of Urizen, see Thiriel.
Tiriel supporting Myratana (Yale Center for British Art); the illustrated text is: "The aged man raisd up his right hand to the heavens/His left supported Myratana shrinking in the pangs of death" (1:19-20). Three of Tiriel's sons are opposite, including his eldest, Heuxos (with the crown). The pyramid, river and columns are not mentioned in the text, which instead describes a "beautiful palace" (1:1) and a "once delightful palace" (1:4).
Tiriel is a narrative poem by William Blake, written c.1789. Considered the first of his prophetic books, it is also the first poem in which Blake used free septenaries, which he would go on to use in much of his later verse. Tiriel was unpublished during Blake's lifetime and remained so until 1874, when it appeared in William Michael Rossetti's Poetical Works of William Blake.[1] Although Blake did not engrave the poem, he did make twelve sepia drawings to accompany the rough and unfinished manuscript, although three of them are considered lost as they have not been traced since 1863.[2]