Thematically related both to the Prophetic books America and Europe by completing the representation of the four continents (Africa and Asia are depicted here) and to the books of Urizen, Los, and Ahania in composing the Blakean mythology of the history of man,

The Song of Los is a relatively short work, composed of only eight pages of image and text.

Taken as a whole, these works tell the story of mankind from the Creation of Adam and Eve in Eden to the Last Judgment. "Africa" begins the chronological story with man's enslavement to various repressive religions until the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century. To give chronological sequence, the last line of "Africa"--"The Guardian Prince of Albion burns in his nightly tent"--becomes the opening line of the poem proper in America. Europe provides the third part of the cycle, while the final part of The Song of Los--"Asia"--completes the cycle.

Only five copies of The Song of Los are recorded.

Shown here is the first page of "Asia," whose opening lines also stress the continuity from Europe: "The Kings of Asia heard / The howl rise up from Europe!"