BIOGRAPHY 6

From Chapter 1 of Larry's book Ram Horn'd With Gold.

  Jerusalem

      The primary monument of Blake - the new man - is the epic poem, 'Jerusalem'. The old man wrote of fallenness; the new man continues to describe the world as it is, but the note of grace runs like a thread through all the hell of fallen life and leads us out in the last pages into heaven. 'Jerusalem' is for the reader who knows Blake; he can rejoice. Others are well advised not to invest much in the poem until they have some grounding in Blake's myth and his symbolic language. However any reader acquainted with the Book of Revelation may find joy in Blake's closing vision of the end of time and the moral principle upon which it rests.

       Apocalyptic yearnings were the staple diet of the religious radical mind and the school which Blake most nearly approached. After his awakening in 1800 his vision of apocalypse was fleshed out and glorified by his positive faith in Jesus, who died for our sins. He saw all the fallenness fall away like a cloud when following Jesus' example of self giving love.

Jerusalem, Plate 96, (E 256)

"Jesus said. Wouldest thou love one who never died
For thee or ever die for one who had not died for thee
And if God dieth not for Man & giveth not himself           
Eternally for Man Man could not exist. for Man is Love:
As God is Love: every kindness to another is a little Death
In the Divine Image nor can Man exist but by Brotherhood

So saying. the Cloud overshadowing divided them asunder
Albion stood in terror: not for himself but for his Friend     
Divine, & Self was lost in the contemplation of faith
And wonder at the Divine Mercy & at Los's sublime honour

Do I sleep amidst danger to Friends! O my Cities & Counties
Do you sleep! rouze up! rouze up. Eternal Death is abroad

So Albion spoke & threw himself into the Furnaces of affliction 
All was a Vision, all a Dream: the Furnaces became
Fountains of Living Waters Howing from the Humanity Divine
And all the Cities of Albion rose from their Slumbers, and All
The Sons & Daughters of Albion on soft clouds Waking from Sleep
Soon all around remote the Heavens burnt with flaming fires    
And Urizen & Luvah & Tharmas & Urthona arose into
Albions Bosom: Then Albion stood before Jesus in the Clouds
Of Heaven Fourfold among the Visions of God in Eternity"

British Museum
Jerusalem
Plate 76

No one has ever looked more deeply into the evil of the world and discovered so glorious an outcome. It has cheered all of the sorrowful who have known Blake, and it will cheer many more in the future. It's in this that he most vividly resembled his Lord, who suffered crucifixion and death and gave back life and love.

Wikipedia Commons
Illustrations of the Book of Job
Plate 18

With the completion of 'Jerusalem' Blake's poetic work was done, but his crowning work of art came in a series of pictures created as Illustrations of the Book of Job. That Biblical work has mystified many through the ages, and many diverse interpretations of it have been offered. Blake seized upon it for one last telling of his story. A picture is worth a thousand words, and these 21 pictures speak with simple eloquence of the man who had the whole world, saw it turn to ashes, and saw a new and better world take its place. In the course of these events Job's vision of God turned to Satan, and a new and more real vision took its place. The most vivid image for me is the picture and moment when Job and his wife intently watch Satan falling from Heaven and by his side fall two small figures who may be identified as old Job and old wife; two new creatures have taken their place. These pictures merit much study, and they yield a simple but profound understanding of Blake's life and myth, and, if he is right, the life of every man and of the world.

In his last years a small group of liberal and progressive artists gathered around Blake, and he at last enjoyed a modest measure of that human acceptance which had eluded him for most of his life. John Linnell assumed the loving care supplied in earlier days by Thomas Butts; all but two of our last series of letters are addressed to this young artist and his wife. Illness overtook Blake in 1826, but he remained in high spirits and had a song of praise on his lips, an original of course, at the moment of his departure from this world.

1 John 4
[11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
[12] No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
[13] Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.