"I Have Sought for a Joy without pain,/ For a Solid Without

            "I have sought for a joy without pain,/ For a solid without fluctuation. How does Blake's poetry comment on Urizen's longings?.
             The Urizenic ideology of immutability is what Blake seeks to subvert and destroy throughout his poetry. Urizen's longings epitomizes the tyranny of religion; "one God, one Law" (The Book of Urizen, Plate 4, line 40). Urizen is the mythological representation of the Orthodox Christian God. Blake condemns this "merciful" God, which praises the "good" (or the passive) and denounces the "evil" (or the energetic). He felt that these distinctions were crippling to the human condition. They crushed positive energy and celebrated enforced conformity. Blake demonstrates that this hypocritical religious oppression was alive in his society, the established church nurtured this Urizenic despotism. Blake re-writes the theological myths of the creation of Christianity. By doing so he demonstrates the pitfalls of a religion which denies the intrinsic contrariety of the passionate human soul.
             Blake's belief in contraries is so deeply rooted in his poetic vision that it is evident in some of his earliest work. The Songs of Innocence and Experience written in 1789, demonstrates Blake's early experimentation with differing perceptions. The sub-title of the collection of poems verifies this, "Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul." (William Blake: The Complete Poems, 1977:104). A poem in this collection called "The Clod and the Pebble" shows differing emotions when discussing love. The Clod which has been "Trodden" on can be seen to represent innocence. It says that love is selfless "And builds a Heaven in Hells despair" (line 4). Whereas the hardened Pebble, possibly representing experience, says that love is malicious and selfish "And builds a Hell in Heavens despite" (line 12). This allegory is effective but not didactic. It demonstrates the contravening emotions that love can produce.