BLAKE'S INFINITY

Yale Center for British Art

America A Prophecy

Plate 14

In The Blake Dictionary on Page 31 S. Foster Damon states:

"To Blake, the Atlantic Continent symbolized the spiritual and intellectual unity of the two countries [America and the British Isles], but the deluge submerged most of it; indeed the American idea was the logical development of English libertarian thought. These ideas were lofty, therefore the Atlantic Continent is mountainous."

Blake's used the Atlantic Continent as a symbol for qualities of Infinity. Parallel to Eternity as a dimension beyond time, Infinity is a dimension beyond space. It is reached through the 'void outside of existence.'  Imagination can take you there.

In this statement infinite space in which all matter is contained is capable of being small enough  to be held in one's hand. Although infinity has no bounds, to the world of vision it contracts or expands to the perception of the individual.

Auguries of Innocence, (E 490)               

"To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour"

America, Plate 14, (E 56)

 "Fury! rage! madness! in a wind swept through America             
And the red flames of Orc that folded roaring fierce around
The angry shores, and the fierce rushing of th'inhabitants together:
The citizens of New-York close their books & lock their chests;
The mariners of Boston drop their anchors and unlade;
The scribe of Pensylvania casts his pen upon the earth;          
The builder of Virginia throws his hammer down in fear.

Then had America been lost, o'erwhelm'd by the Atlantic,
And Earth had lost another portion of the infinite,

But all rush together in the night in wrath and raging fire
The red fires rag'd! the plagues recoil'd! then rolld they back with fury"

America was not lost to the Infinite although it was lost to Great Britain. It remained to be seen if Orc - the spirit of revolution - would gain a permanent foot hold for liberty or if America would slide back into the 'mind forged manacles' which prevent the perception of the infinite.