HYMN JERUSALEM

British Museum

Milton

Plate 2 - Preface

Hymn Jerusalem

In the USA the first Monday in September is celebrated as Labor Day in honor of the workers who supply us with the physical necessities of living. For most a last picnic or excursion of the summer season represents the activity of the day. Labor Day began as a serious effort to recognize the Labor Movement which grew out of the need to protect the rights of those whose labor has often been unrecognized and undervalued. The movement had developed in order to safeguard workers and to reward them with wages commensurate with their work.

In the UK the Labour Party was an outgrowth of the efforts to prevent the exploitation of laborers when the industrial age became established. William Blake was concerned with the plight of the poor when their traditional employment was replaced with factory jobs. But he also envisioned his native land restored to a pristine condition suitable for the Lamb of God to walk upon its pastures green.

Milton, Plate 1, (E 95)

 "And did those feet in ancient time,
     Walk upon Englands mountains green:
     And was the holy Lamb of God,
     On Englands pleasant pastures seen!

     And did the Countenance Divine,             
     Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
     And was Jerusalem builded here,
     Among these dark Satanic Mills?

     Bring me my Bow of burning gold:
     Bring me my Arrows of desire:                     
     Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
     Bring me my Chariot of fire!

     I will not cease from Mental Fight,
     Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:
     Till we have built Jerusalem,                     
     In Englands green & pleasant Land.

During world war I the “Fight for Right” movement was begun in Great Britain to strengthen people's resolve in desperate conditions. A leader of the organization, Poet Laureate, Robert Bridges, requested that his friend Sir Hubert Parry compose music so that Blake's poem (which is referred to as Jerusalem) could be sung at their meetings. The hymn was later used as a theme for the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. It is frequently sung at meetings of the Labour Party in the UK.

Jerusalem, Plate 65, (E 216)

"And all the Arts of Life. they changd into the Arts of Death in Albion.
The hour-glass contemnd because its simple workmanship.
Was like the workmanship of the plowman, & the water wheel,
That raises water into cisterns: broken & burnd with fire:
Because its workmanship. was like the workmanship of the shepherd. 
And in their stead, intricate wheels invented, wheel without wheel:
To perplex youth in their outgoings, & to bind to labours in Albion
Of day & night the myriads of eternity that they may grind
And polish brass & iron hour after hour laborious task!
Kept ignorant of its use, that they might spend the days of wisdom
In sorrowful drudgery, to obtain a scanty pittance of bread:
In ignorance to view a small portion & think that All,
And call it Demonstration: blind to all the simple rules of life." 

Song of Los, Plate 6, (E 68)

"Shall not the King call for Famine from the heath?
Nor the Priest, for Pestilence from the fen?            
To restrain! to dismay! to thin!
The inhabitants of mountain and plain;
In the day, of full-feeding prosperity;
And the night of delicious songs.

Shall not the Councellor throw his curb               
Of Poverty on the laborious?
To fix the price of labour;
To invent allegoric riches:

And the privy admonishers of men
Call for fires in the City                           
For heaps of smoking ruins,
In the night of prosperity & wantonness

To turn man from his path,
To restrain the child from the womb,
Plate 7
To cut off the bread from the city,
That the remnant may learn to obey.
              
That the pride of the heart may fail;
That the lust of the eyes may be quench'd:
That the delicate ear in its infancy                             

May be dull'd; and the nostrils clos'd up;
To teach mortal worms the path
That leads from the gates of the Grave."

Four Zoas, Night II, Page 35, (E 325) 

"What is the price of Experience do men buy it for a song
Or wisdom for a dance in the street? No it is bought with the price
Of all that a man hath his house his wife his children
Wisdom is sold in the desolate market where none come to buy
And in the witherd field where the farmer plows for bread in vain

It is an easy thing to triumph in the summers sun
And in the vintage & to sing on the waggon loaded with corn
It is an easy thing to talk of patience to the afflicted
To speak the laws of prudence to the houseless wanderer
Page 36 
To listen to the hungry ravens cry in wintry season
When the red blood is filld with wine & with the marrow of lambs

It is an easy thing to laugh at wrathful elements
To hear the dog howl at the wintry door, the ox in the slaughter house moan
To see a god on every wind & a blessing on every blast           
To hear sounds of love in the thunder storm that destroys our enemies house
To rejoice in the blight that covers his field, & the sickness that cuts off his children
While our olive & vine sing & laugh round our door & our children bring fruits & flowers

Then the groan & the dolor are quite forgotten & the slave grinding at the mill
And the captive in chains & the poor in the prison, & the soldier in the field
When the shatterd bone hath laid him groaning among the happier dead

It is an easy thing to rejoice in the tents of prosperity
Thus could I sing & thus rejoice, but it is not so with me!"