page_title: Tiriel (poem)
section_title: Synopsis
hierarchical_section_title: Tiriel (poem) / Synopsis
caption_attribution_description: Har blessing Tiriel (an illustration for William Blake's poem Tiriel (1789)
context_page_description: 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 Tiriel was unpublished during Blake's lifetime and remained so until 1874, when it appeared in William Michael Rossetti's Poetical Works of William Blake. 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.
context_section_description: Many years before the poem begins, the sons of Har and Heva revolted and abandoned their parents. Tiriel subsequently set himself up as a tyrant in the west, driving one of his brothers, Ijim, into exile in the wilderness, and chaining the other, Zazel, in a cave in the mountains. Tiriel then made slaves of his own children, until eventually, led by the eldest son, Heuxos, they too rebelled, overthrowing their father. Upon his demise, Tiriel refused their offer of refuge in the palace, and instead went into exile in the mountains with his wife, Myratana. Five years later, the poem begins with the now blind Tiriel returning to the kingdom with his dying wife, as he wants his children to see her death, believing them to be responsible and cursing them for betraying him five years previously; "Come you accursed sons./In my weak arms. I here have borne your dying mother/Come forth sons of the Curse come forth. see the death of Myratana" (1:7-9). Soon thereafter, Myratana dies, and Tiriel's children again ask him to remain with them but he refuses and wanders away, again cursing them and telling them he will have his revenge;
  There take the body. cursed sons. & may the heavens rain wrath
  
  As thick as northern fogs. around your gates. to choke you up
  
  That you may lie as now your mother lies. like dogs. cast out
  
  The stink. of your dead carcases. annoying man & beast
  
  Till your white bones are bleachd with age for a memorial.
  
  No your remembrance shall perish. for when your carcases
  
  Lie stinking on the earth. the buriers shall arise from the east
  
  And. not a bone of all the soils of Tiriel remain
  
  Bury your mother but you cannot bury the curse of Tiriel
  — 1:42-50
  After some time wandering, Tiriel eventually arrives at the "pleasant gardens" (2:10) of the Vales of Har, where he finds his parents, Har and Heva. However, they have both become senile and have regressed to a childlike state to such an extent that they think their guardian, Mnetha, is their mother. Tiriel lies about who is he is, claiming that he was cast into exile by the gods, who then destroyed his race; "I am an aged wanderer once father of a race/Far in the north. but they were wicked & were all destroyd/And I their father sent an outcast" (2:44-46). Excited by the visit, Har and Heva invite Tiriel to help them catch birds and listen to Har's singing in the "great cage" (3:21). Tiriel refuses to stay, however, claiming his journey is not yet at an end, and resumes his wandering.
  He travels into the forest and soon encounters his brother Ijim, who has recently been terrorised by a shapeshifting spirit to whom he refers as "the Hypocrite". Upon seeing Tiriel, Ijim immediately assumes that Tiriel is another manifestation of the spirit;
  This is the hypocrite that sometimes roars a dreadful lion
  
  Then I have rent his limbs & left him rotting in the forest
  
  For birds to eat but I have scarce departed from the place
  
  But like a tyger he would come & so I rent him too
  
  Then like a river he would seek to drown me in his waves
  
  But soon I buffetted the torrent anon like to a cloud
  
  Fraught with the swords of lightning. but I bravd the vengeance too
  
  Then he would creep like a bright serpent till around my neck
  
  While I was Sleeping he would twine I squeezd his poisnous soul
  
  Then like a toad or like a newt. would whisper in my ears
  
  Or like a rock stood in my way. or like a poisnous shrub
  
  At last I caught him in the form of Tiriel blind & old
  — 4:49-60
  Tiriel assures Ijim that he is in fact the real Tiriel, but Ijim does not believe him, and decides to return to Tiriel's palace to see the real Tiriel and thus expose the spirit as an imposter; "Impudent fiend said Ijim hold thy glib & eloquent tongue/Tiriel is a king. & thou the tempter of dark Ijim" (4:36-37). However, upon arriving at the palace, Heuxos informs Ijim that the Tiriel with him is indeed the real Tiriel, but Ijim suspects that the entire palace and everyone in it is part of the spirit's deception; "Then it is true Heuxos that thou hast turnd thy aged parent/To be the sport of wintry winds. (said Ijim) is 
caption: Har blessing Tiriel while Mnetha comforts Heva (British Museum); the illustrated text is: "Then Har arose and laid his hand on old Tiriel's head" (2:35).
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