Blake's War III

What can be said in addition to what we already have in Blake's War and in More on Blake's War? What is War about anyway? Is it about a country that fancies itself stronger than another country and presumes to attempt to work its will on the (thought to be) weaker country? Is that the way the British Empire (yet abuilding in Blake's day) developed? the intention of King George on America? The first seemed to succeed, until World War II in fact; the second? not quite! Blake memorialized that Failure in War.

Blake knew that War is doomed to failure by any measure; he was well acquainted with what Jesus had said: they that take up the sword shall perish by the sword. He expressed this most aptly with The Grey Monk.

Blake wrote twice about the Grey Monk (in E201-2 and in 489-90). The first one is found in Jerusalem Plate 52; Erdman 201-2); it concludes with

"For a Tear is an Intellectual thing;
And a Sigh is the Sword of an Angel King
And the bitter groan of a Martyrs woe
Is an Arrow from the Almighties Bow!"

as does the Grey Monk from (the Pickering Manuscript) with an additional quatrain:

"But vain the Sword & vain the Bow
They never can work Wars overthrow
The Hermits Prayer & the Widows tear
Alone can free the World from fear

For a Tear is an Intellectual Thing                           
And a Sigh is the Sword of an Angel King
And the bitter groan of the Martyrs woe                       
Is an Arrow from the Almighties Bow

The hand of Vengeance found the Bed                           
To which the Purple Tyrant fled
The iron hand crushd the Tyrants head
And became a Tyrant in his stead" (Erdman
489-90).

One might say that Washington lost (almost) every battle-- and won the war. Mao lost every battle-- and won the war; Ho Chi Minh lost every battle-- and won the war. America has won every battle in Afghanistan-- and what?

Perhaps the most dominant theme is Blake's Complete Works was the plaintive, 'why do we take up the sword?'