SYMBOLIC LANGUAGE

Songs of Innocence (E 16)
Infant Joy

"Sweet Joy Befall Thee"

Besides his well known (to Blake students), A Blake Dictionary, S. Foster Damon wrote William Blake: His Philosophy and Symbols, which also has much to teach about Blake's poetry and how it can be understood. This quote about various levels of meaning which the symbol can represent is found on page 65.



"Practically the whole existence of poetry consists of imposing of human values on natural objects...
Symbolism is the recognition and fixation of these values. It is the highest form of that process usually performed by the weaker metaphor and the still weaker simile. The simile states a resemblance, the metaphor states an identity, and the symbol assumes the identity without direct statement. In the first case love would be likened to a rose; in the second case, Love would be called a rose; in the third, the Rose would appear unexplained. There is a still higher rung in this Jacob's Ladder: the rung popularly known as Prophecy. Here the Rose would indicate some particular act in the past, present, or future. A specific temporal significance is thus imposed upon the Symbol, which hitherto dealt with Eternities...
Let us return , then, to the symbol. Blake, of course, knew perfectly well what he was doing. He deliberately interpreted objects to show their relation to, and their expression of, mankind. Everything he saw revealed to him its inner essence, which was in turn the revelation of a truth. Only through this method could Truth be approached. Isis cannot be seen unveiled, for the mortal eye itself is her vesture. The great secrets cannot be told; the very syllables are their mask....
And thus we learn a strange fact: that the clearer, the more precise, Blake's writings become, the more obscure they seem. The trouble is not with Blake, it lies in our own inability to understand. The fires of Hell still seem like torment and insanity to us, the Angels. Therefore Blake cried so fiercely: 'Go! put off Holiness, and put on Intellect!' "

It is not difficult to find passages in Blake to illustrate the use of the symbol to reveal multiple layers of psychological, poetic and spiritual meanings. How does this speak to you?

Four Zoas, Night VIII, Page 113-114, (E 384)
[Enion speaking:]
"Listen: I will tell you what is done in the caverns of the grave
the lamb of God has rent the veil of mystery
When the mortal disappears in improved knowledge cast away
The former things so shall the Mortal gently fade away
And so become invisible to those who still remain
Listen I will tell thee what is done in the caverns of the grave

The Lamb of God has rent the Veil of Mystery soon to return
In Clouds & Fires around the rock & the Mysterious tree
As the seed waits Eagerly watching for its flower & fruit
Anxious its little soul looks out into the clear expanse
To see if hungry winds are abroad with their invisible army
So Man looks out in tree & herb & fish & bird & beast
Collecting up the scatterd portions of his immortal body
Into the Elemental forms of every thing that grows
He tries the sullen north wind riding on its angry furrows
The sultry south when the sun rises & the angry east
When the sun sets when the clods harden & the cattle stand
Drooping & the birds hide in their silent nests. he stores his thoughts
As in a store house in his memory he regulates the forms
Of all beneath & all above & in the gentle West
Reposes where the Suns heat dwells he rises to the Sun
And to the Planets of the Night & to the stars that gild
The Zodiac & the stars that sullen stand to north & south
He touches the remotest pole & in the Center weeps
That Man should Labour & sorrow & learn & forget & return
To the dark valley whence he came to begin his labours anew
In pain he sighs in pain he labours in his universe
Screaming in birds over the deep & howling in the Wolf
Over the slain & moaning in the cattle & in the winds
And weeping over Orc & Urizen in clouds & flaming fires
And in the cries of birth & in the groans of death his voice
Is heard throughout the Universe whereever a grass grows
Or a leaf buds The Eternal Man is seen is heard is felt
And all his Sorrows till he reassumes his ancient bliss"

This is symbolic language at its finest; not allegory, simile or metaphor but living symbols which may enter the Soul of Man: an opportunity to collect the 'scattered portions of [our] immortal bodies.'

First posted May 2010.

WESTERN GATE

Jerusalem, Plate 12, (E 156)
"And the Four Points are thus beheld in Great Eternity
West, the Circumference: South, the Zenith: North,
The Nadir: East, the Center, unapproachable for ever.
These are the four Faces towards the Four Worlds of Humanity
In every Man. Ezekiel saw them by Chebars flood.
And the Eyes are the South, and the Nostrils are the East.
And the Tongue is the West, and the Ear is the North.

And the North Gate of Golgonooza toward Generation;
Has four sculpturd Bulls terrible before the Gate of iron.
And iron, the Bulls: and that which looks toward Ulro,
Clay bak'd & enamel'd, eternal glowing as four furnaces:
Turning upon the Wheels of Albions sons with enormous power.
And that toward Beulah four, gold, silver, brass, & iron:

PLATE 13
And that toward Eden, four, form'd of gold, silver, brass, &
iron.

The South, a golden Gate, has four Lions terrible, living!
That toward Generation, four, of iron carv'd wondrous:
That toward Ulro, four, clay bak'd, laborious workmanship
That toward Eden, four; immortal gold, silver, brass & iron.

The Western Gate fourfold, is closd: having four Cherubim
Its guards, living, the work of elemental hands, laborious task!
Like Men, hermaphroditic, each winged with eight wings
That towards Generation, iron; that toward Beulah, stone;
That toward Ulro, clay: that toward Eden, metals.
But all clos'd up till the last day, when the graves shall yield
their dead

The Eastern Gate, fourfold: terrible & deadly its ornaments:
Taking their forms from the Wheels of Albions sons; as cogs
Are formd in a wheel, to fit the cogs of the adverse wheel.
That toward Eden, eternal ice, frozen in seven folds
Of forms of death: and that toward Beulah, stone:
The seven diseases of the earth are carved terrible.

And that toward Ulro, forms of war: seven enormities:
And that toward Generation, seven generative forms."

Milton, Plate 5, (E 98)
"And this is the manner of the Daughters of Albion in their beauty
Every one is threefold in Head & Heart & Reins, & every one
Has three Gates into the Three Heavens of Beulah which shine
Translucent in their Foreheads & their Bosoms & their Loins
Surrounded with fires unapproachable: but whom they please
They take up into their Heavens in intoxicating delight"

In the world of generation man is not Fourfold as he is in Eternity, but is Threefold. In the south is his head, in the east is his heart and in the north is his loins. The west is vacant, or the Western Gate is closed. The body, the forth aspect in Eternity, no longer gives access to the real world of Eternity. Tharmas, the Zoa of the body, no longer has the ability to provide the integrating force which facilitates the unity of man.

Milton O. Percival gives us his wisdom on this subject in William Blake's Circle of Destiny, (Page 295):

"Note 15.36. cosmic man: That south, east, and north are the head, heart, and loins will not, I suppose, be questioned. The evidence is explicit. The evidence for the west being the Body may be briefly summarized. The west is 'outwards every way.' As the fall begins, Tharmas and Enion (the dual regents of the west) are said to constitute Nature (the cosmic body). At this point also Enion weaves a 'filmy woof' containing Tharmas; this is his new conception of the physical universe. As the fall progresses, it is the world of Tharmas which troubles Urizen (the Mind). At the time of the Flood Tharmas appears as the 'rough demon of the waters,' an overwhelming multiple and material universe. It is he who commands the universe to be rebuilt in the forms of 'death and decay'. The fall drags Enion into the indefinite of matter - into the Grave, whence she speaks with a comprehensive knowledge of the suffering of nature. As regeneration begins and the unity of Eden begins to be restored, Albion is said to gather 'the scattered portions of his immortal body.' The unity of Eden, which is placed in Tharmas's western region, is suggested by the fact that the Eternals live there in 'perfect harmony,' meeting together as 'One Man.'"

The Threefold sexual man of generation cannot be returned to the Fourfold complete man of Eternity unless heart, head, loins and body regain the ability to function in 'perfect harmony' through the opening of his Western Gate.

Four Zoas, Night VII, PAGE 95 [87] (SECOND PORTION), (E 368)
"If we unite in one[,] another better world will be
Opend within your heart & loins & wondrous brain
Threefold as it was in Eternity & this the fourth Universe
Will be Renewd by the three & consummated in Mental fires
But if thou dost refuse Another body will be prepared"

Genesis 3
[23] Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
[24] So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.






Blake's Illustrations to Milton's Paradise Lost
The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden
Butts Set 1808

Perennial Reader

Everyone knows that William Blake was a great reader. What isn't generally known; what is in fact a great mystery is where he got the books or where he did the reading. I haven't succeeded in finding any information about that (tell me if there is any).

Blake went to school for part of one day; that's all the formal education he seems to have acquired. Of course he had some journeyman training. However he appeared to be the most learned person of his generation, which makes him what we call an autodidact -- self-educated.

Very likely his learning began with the Bible; that's demonstrated by the use he made of the Bible in his creative work. He had a thorough acquaintance with the Bible, but he never confined himself to a literal understanding; he didn't see it as history -- no, as poetry. The primary difference is that poetry is susceptible to various meanings, depending on the perception of the reader. Likewise the meaning of any element of the Bible is various, depending on the perception of the reader.

Among the Books of the Bible that he favored he named Ezra and Isaiah; but in MHH he mentioned Ezekiel; he had a conversation with Ezekiel (plate 13). Some of his works demonstrated a considerable acquaintance with Revelation, in the same way that John had shown an extensive acquaintance with The Old Testament.

In a Letter to Flaxman Blake wrote:

"Now my lot in the Heavens is this; Milton
lovd me in childhood & shewd me his face, Ezra
came with Isaiah the Prophet, but Shakespeare in
riper years gave me his hand; Paracelsus & Behmen
appeard to me."

If you're serious about William Blake here's your reading list:

Jacob Boehme: Aside from the Bible nothing meant more to Blake than William Law's translation of this German mystic (some would say Gnostic). The more of Boehme you read, the more Blake you will see and understand. (the English called him Behmen.)

John Milton: Blake identified strongly with Milton -- and had some marked differences with him. Paradise Lost had a great influence on him. In Plate 6 of MHH he said that Milton "was a true Poet and of the Devils party without knowing it". In Vision, writing The Book of Milton he found it necessary to call Milton back from Heaven to correct his spiritual mistakes (much like God sent his Son to save the world).

Swedenborg: Blake's parents had been attracted to this Swedish philosopher and mystic. He and his wife likely attended the Swedenborg Church in London. But he soon saw the man's deficiencies -- and lampooned him in some early works. He undoubtedly learned something from Swedenborg and lamented about him in Milton, "O Swedenborg! strongest of men, the Samson shorn by the Churches! "

Shakespeare is given by Blake as one of his significant literary relationships. I haven't found that in reading Blake. David Whitmarsh apparently has a lot of say on that score.

Paracelsus (1493-1541): To learn how this man affected Blake you might best consult Milton Percival's Circle of Destiny (probably the best introduction to Blake). He has a chapter on Alchemical Symbolism, and reading this will help you understand how and why the furnaces come up so often in the major prophecies.

Although Thomas Taylor was one year younger than Blake, his translations of Plato and the Neo-Platonists led our poet's interests emphatically in that direction. Thereafter the Greek and Roman myths loomed large in Blake's poetry and pictures.

Homer was a major source for Blake's works. Although he expressed some contempt for Homer, he drew heavily on Homer's stories, using Ovid more often than Homer himself. To get some understanding of how Blake used Homer take a look at my file on myths. The Sea of Time and Space is directly about the Odyssey, a pictorial description in fact (of course it's about a lot of other things as well).

Hermes Trismegistus was a special interest of Blake's as well as a dozen similar arcane and esoteric works too numerous to discuss in this post. But perhaps there will be more to come.

First posted by Larry on January 14, 2010.

Annihilate the Selfhood

We hear about this from Blake only after his conversion to Christianity; it was a consequence of the Moment of Grace.

Blake spent his youth denouncing the 'Enemy': an oppressive political and economic conspiracy against Albion--its tool, the 'State Church' (all churches in fact), exploitation of the poor, the Art merchants who approved only commercial art (they had dealt with Blake like the Pharisees dealt with Jesus), and finally the misguided help of a 'corporeal friend'.

Wikipedia Commons

Jerusalem

Plate 76, Copy A

After all this came the Moment when he heard the voice: "thou ram horn'd with gold", and he knew himself accepted and used by the Eternal Powers that abide after all the above has passed away. Here he was at that point in his journey through life, and in the system which he reported on:

He came to see that the 'Enemy' was within (we have met the enemy, and he is Us).   

He 'came to himself', he confessed his sins. 

Henceforth the annihilation of his selfhood (Jerusalem, Plate 5, line 23)

and the power of Forgiveness became his chief motifs. 

The old, old story was told again.

WEALTH IN POVERTY

Gospel of Thomas

(29) Jesus said, "If the flesh came into being because of spirit, it is a wonder. But if spirit came into being because of the body, it is a wonder of wonders. Indeed, I am amazed at how this great wealth has made its home in this poverty."

Blake was never wealthy but he went through periods ranging from relative affluence to abject poverty. One constant in his life in spite of his circumstances was that he continued to work at his art whatever difficulties there were. If you look at pictures he produced when you know he was destitute, there is no intimation that he was working in poverty. In fact the period in which he returned to London in 1803 after the three years in Felphan was a time when his income was at a low ebb. However inspiration had returned to him giving him renewed reason to produce what his imagination led him to. His hopes of earning significant income from his art were repeatedly thwarted, but that gave him more time to put into the writing and engraving of Jerusalem which he probably knew from the beginning would not earn appreciable money. In 1818 John Linnell was added to Thomas Butts as a supporter who provided regular commissions. These two men provided the roof over his head and food on the table through years of productive labor when Blake lived according to vision and imagination.

The quote I begin with from the Gospel of Thomas came to mind as I thought of the treasures of art and poetry Blake had produced when his outward circumstances were miserable. In a strange way Blake's spirit was expressed in his art because he lived without the world's rewards. His work became the body in which his spirit resided. The 'wonder' of which Jesus spoke, which made its home in this poverty, is seen in the wealth of spirit expressed in Blake as he struggled outwardly with lack and loss and little.

This image from Blake's illustrations for Edward Young's Night Thoughts encapsulates a wealth of ideas which recur in Blake extended myth.

British Museum

Illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts

The final verse of Holy Thursday epitomises the mental state which allowed Blake to work without regard to outward hardships.

Songs of Innocence, SONGS 33, (E 19)
HOLY THURSDAY

"Is this a holy thing to see,
In a rich and fruitful land,
Babes reduced to misery,
Fed with cold and usurous hand?

Is that trembling cry a song?
Can it be a song of joy?
And so many children poor?
It is a land of poverty!

And their sun does never shine.
And their fields are bleak & bare.
And their ways are fill'd with thorns.
It is eternal winter there.

For where-e'er the sun does shine,
And where-e'er the rain does fall:
Babe can never hunger there,
Nor poverty the mind appall."

The Word within the Word

Northrup Frye was a very famous literary critic,
and a great deal can be found about him on the
web. A Canadian, Frye went to seminary and became
a parish minister; then he went to Oxford and got
an M.A. in English Literature. He wrote his
thesis on William Blake.

A great many books came from his pen; the first
one was Fearful Symmetry (1944). Frye opens the
door to a depth understanding of Blake's poetry (and
pictures). It took five readings of Fearful Symetry
(30 years ago) to open my mind to William Blake.

In the eighties, near the end of his life, Frye
published two monumental volumes of "The Bible as
Literature"; they speak directly to the depth
understanding of our poet.

Some of the statements in 'The Word with the Word'
(chapter five of Fearful Symmetry) may sound
enigmatic; just stay with them, and light will come.
This chapter is a lucid description of Frye's primary
gift to literature, to meaning and religion.

All words are metaphors; the meanings they convey
depend upon the author's mind - and frame of mind
when he writes them; and upon the reader's (or
hearer's) mind when he reads or hears them. (Most
of the purposeless arguments over virtually anything
stem from failure to understand this basic fact.)

For Western culture the Bible is the Great Code of
Art; it embodies the Universal Myth, basically
fourfold: Creation, The Fall, Redemption,
Apocalypse. Blake believed that it was the
guiding myth undergirding virtually all discourse.

"Blake's poetry is all related to a central myth...
and the primary basis of this myth is the Bible.
...
The Bible is therefore the archetype of Western
culture, and the Bible...provides the basis for most
of our major art" (Fearful Symmetry, p. 109).

The word of God was Jesus (cf John 1). Anything
that you say or write may be the Word of God-- the
Jesus in you (Paul).

In Plate 3 of Jerusalem (Erdman p. 145) we can read:
"I also hope the Reader will be with me, wholly One in
Jesus our Lord, who is the God [of Fire] and Lord [of
Love] to whom the Ancients look'd and saw his day afar off,
with trembling & amazement. The Spirit of Jesus is continual
forgiveness of sin"

This is the Word in Blake's consciousness.
Jerusalem, (Erdman p. 180):
"Saying. Albion! Our wars are wars of life, & wounds of love,
With intellectual spears, & long winged arrows of thought:
Mutual in one anothers love and wrath all renewing
We live as One Man; for contracting our infinite senses
We behold multitude; or expanding: we behold as one,
As One Man all the Universal Family; and that One Man
We call Jesus the Christ: and he in us, and we in him,
Live in perfect harmony in Eden the land of life,
Giving, receiving, and forgiving each others trespasses.
He is the Good shepherd, he is the Lord and master:
He is the Shepherd of Albion, he is all in all,
In Eden: in the garden of God: and in heavenly Jerusalem."

First posted by Larry, December 30, 2009.

CREATION OF EVE

Blake often writes of the splitting off of the emanation from the unified man as an occasion of destruction and sorrow; a portent of a downward spiral of disintegration. This image from the illustrations to Paradise Lost portrays the creation of Eve from the contrary perspective: the Eternal perspective. Eve is seen not as being made of clay as was the description of Adam's creation in the Bible. She is not taken from the flesh of Adam by the removal of one of his ribs. She is created by Christ as a spiritual being, not of the earth or man but as individual with the potential to develop spiritually.

The book William Blake at the Huntington, by Robert N. Essick comments on this picture:

"In Adam's recounting of this scene [in Paradise Lost], he does not specifically refer to Christ's presence. Yet Milton consistently attributes the creation of the world to Christ as the Father's 'effectual might' (3:170) and the performative incarnation of His creative 'Word' (7:163). Thus, Blake's presentation of Christ as Eve's creator does not violate the text even though it stands outside the tradition established by Renaissance paintings such as Michelangelo's Sistine fresco, that God is the divine creator of Eve. Here and elsewhere throughout the Paradise Lost watercolors, Blake takes every opportunity to emphasize Christ's energetic presence.
...In his later writings, however, Blake presents this primal scene as a fortunate fall. As he writes on plate 42 of his conclusive epic, Jerusalem, 'when Man sleeps in Beulah [a version of Eden], the Savior in mercy takes / Contraction's Limit [Adam], and of the Limit he forms Woman: That / Himself may in process of time be born Man to Redeem.' By creating Eve, Christ prepares for His own incarnation in her descendant, the man Jesus." (Page 120)

Paradise Lost , Book 3
John Milton

"To whom the great Creatour thus reply'd.
O Son, in whom my Soul hath chief delight,
Son of my bosom, Son who art alone
My word, my wisdom, and effectual might,
All hast thou spok'n as my thoughts are, all
As my Eternal purpose hath decreed:
Man shall not quite be lost, but sav'd who will,
Yet not of will in him, but grace in me
Freely voutsaft; once more I will renew
His lapsed powers,"


Click on picture to enlarge.

GOOGLE BOOKS

If you have an interest in reading the early books about William Blake as well as what is being written about him in our own day, you will find a tremendous resource in Google books. Many of the out of copyright Blake books have been digitized by Google. Unlike the copyright books which Google makes available, these books are published in their entirety without deletions. Furthermore they are available as text files as well as image files so that passages can be copied and saved for your own individual use or to share with others.

You may find that early works about Blake's writing offers critical information and analysis which you are less likely to find in current books. The early writers were closer to Blake's times. They were frequently giving their full attention to understanding the content of his work. Current works sometimes assume the basic mastery of Blake's content and focus on 'minute details' of literary criticism. So have a look at these out of print, out of copyright volumes which are at your fingertips.

Here is a sample passage from the introduction to The prophetic books of William Blake: Milton by William Blake, Eric Robert Dalrymple Maclagan, Archibald G Russell:







"The substance of the poem [Milton] is almost entirely autobiographical. Blake himself tells us, in one of his letters, that it is descriptive of ' the spiritual acts ' of his ' three years' slumber on the banks of ocean.' Both the characters and the action have their counterparts in the drama which had been enacted at Felpham. The disguise is often a close one: but we are told that it is a ' sublime allegory,' and ' allegory addressed to the intellectual powers, while it is altogether hidden from the corporeal understanding,' is Blake's 'definition of the most sublime poetry.' The writing was 'from immediate dictation, twelve or sometimes twenty or thirty lines at a time, without premeditation, and even against' his ' will.' ' Thus,' he writes, ' the time it has taken in writing was rendered non-existent, and an immense poem exists ... all produced without labour or study.' The purpose of the book is clearly stated on p[late]. 36, 11. 21-25 [E 137]:

'. . When Los join'd with me he took me in his fiery whirlwind:
My vegetated portion was hurried from Lambeth's shades:
He set me down in Felpham's vale and prepar'd a beautiful
Cottage for me, that in three years I might write all these visions,
To display Nature's cruel holiness: the deceits of natural religion.'"

INTRODUCTION TO OUR BLOG

This is a repost of an earlier post intended to help Blake students get started:

An anonymous reader has asked that we provide more information in our posts. So I will try to explain what we are attempting to do in our Blake blog.

First we want to focus our attention on William Blake and his writing.

We are not experts but students of Blake. We follow our own interests. We are interested in sharing what we have learned of Blake and would would like to tailor our posts to the interests of the reader. We hope readers will let us know what interests them about Blake.

There have been posts which attempt to introduce the reader to studying Blake especially using the resources on the internet. The links to the text of Blake's poetry and prose, and to his graphic works are provided. A link to Larry's online book which includes a primer is also a useful tool. (These files can be electronically searched for specific topics.) Within the posts we often provide links to external files which expand the study to wider sources.

None of Blake's work is simple to understand. Beginners can start with Songs of Innocence and Experience. Marriage of Heaven and Hell grabs the attention of many with its irony. The major prophecies can be approached a little at a time rather than entire. If you are visually oriented, the visual images can be used as an avenue to draw you into reading the poetry.

Blake's body of work is large and complex. On our blog we have not attempted a systematic study. We are giving clues to solving the mystery. Analysts of Blake's work often tell us that Blake expected the reader to go beyond what was stated in the text, to perceive the underlying meaning. We hope our readers will sift through the blog posts looking for cracks or doors or highways through which they may enter Blake's mind and heart and imagination.

Reading Blake may expand your mind, nourish your spirit, or enrich your imagination; don't expect it to put money in your pocket, expand your social circle or impress your professors.
Here are some earlier posts which may help the neophyte.

Bible
Perception
Vision
Emphasis
Help
Fourfold
Idealism
Reader
Plates
4Z's







I can't end without a quote from Blake as well as the picture.Liberty or Stems of VegetationMilton, Plate 50



Jerusalem, Plate 60, (E 209)
"within the Furnaces the Divine Vision appeard

On Albions hills: often walking from the Furnaces in clouds
And flames among the Druid Temples & the Starry Wheels
Gatherd Jerusalems Children in his arms & bore them like
A Shepherd in the night of Albion which overspread all the Earth

I gave thee liberty and life O lovely Jerusalem
And thou hast bound me down upon the Stems of Vegetation"

DOOR OF DEATH

Blake's Jerusalem begins with a memorable image of Los entering the dark doorway of a crypt carrying in his hand a light to illuminate his steps. The ideas contained in the post CONSUMED IN FIRE follow from the concepts incorporated in the image and legend in this frontispiece. The 'Door of death' which Los enters is to the world which we call life. Entering the physical world is experienced as Death to eternity. Reentering eternity is experienced as death to the world. In the Gospels Jesus had this to say:



Luke 17
[33] Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.

John 12
[25] He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

Minna Doskow book Jerusalem: Structure and Meaning in Poetry and Picture analyzes the text and illustrations of Jerusalem. Also included is a facsimile of Blake's book which facilitates the study of both facets of Blake's communication. She writes this about the initial plate of Jerusalem:

"The full-page illustration of Los entering 'the Door of Death for Albion's sake Inspired' (1:19) with which Jerusalem opens captures the situation of the whole poem in the image of a single action, a single figure, and a single moment. From the graffiti over the doorway, we learn of the two adjacent, coexistent, and omnipresent realms the the poem explores - the Void (also called sleep, Ulro, or Generation in the poem) and Existence (alternatively called awakening, Eden, or Eternity). While the poem tells us much about the meaning of these two realms, this plate immediately gives us their salient features. Existence is characterized by the imaginative light pictured in the illustration, while the Void is poetically described by sleep, shadow and rock (1:3-4). Albion's initial position is in the void, dead, with petrified and 'fixed' intellect and emotions (his 'sublime' and 'pathetic' qualities [1:4]), enclosed by limited reason (his covering 'Spectrous Power' [1:5]), which does not allow him to see further than this fallen universe that he creates and is limited to (1:1-2)." (Page 26)

Jerusalem, Title Page, (E 144)
JERUSALEM

The Emanation of The Giant Albion

1804 Printed by W. Blake Sth Molton St.

PLATE 1
[The following text is not visible in this copy of the plate but readable other copies.]
[Above the archway:]

"There is a Void, outside of Existence, which if enterd into
Englobes itself & becomes a Womb, such was Albions Couch
A pleasant Shadow of Repose calld Albions lovely Land

His Sublime & Pathos become Two Rocks fixd in the Earth
His Reason his Spectrous Power, covers them above
Jerusalem his Emanation is a Stone laying beneath
O [Albion behold Pitying] behold the Vision of Albion

[On right side of archway:]

Half Friendship is the bitterest Enmity said Los
As he enterd the Door of Death for Albions sake Inspired
The long sufferings of God are not for ever there is a Judgment

[On left side, in reversed writing:]

Every Thing has its Vermin O Spectre of the Sleeping Dead"

As Doskow implies, she and Blake both wrote their books to 'contrast between sleep in Ulro (Albion's fallen state) and the awakened Eternal Life (the Savior's unified state of identity and mutual love between man and God) [which] could not become more complete than it is at the outset.' (Page 16)

It is all about changing sleep to awakening, death to life, Ulro to Eternity.

Blake and Dante

Blake considered Dante to be one of the greatest writers; however as explained in Illustrating Dante, he disagreed with Dante's orthodox theology. In fact he disagreed with all manner of 'orthodox theology'; to agree with any such thing would be for Blake being "enslaved by another man's system". He felt that we all must create our own system. Like George Fox Blake believed 'there was that of God' in everyone.

That of God in you is not the same as that of God in me (or in anyone else). It is the 'poetic genius':

"He who Loves feels love descend into him & if he has wisdom may percieve it is from the Poetic Genius which is the Lord" (Annotations to Swedenborg; Erdman 603)

According to my system love is God; Blake has called it here 'the Poetic Genius which is the Lord'.

The term Lord is a generic one. In the days of Jesus it was used generally for any person of higher status. It has come (in some orthodoxies) to be used for Jesus, while for others it is God.

God is within and without. I think Blake understood that. Dante had wisdom, and Blake respected him as such, but his wisdom was based on the general Catholic orthodoxy, for which Blake had little use.

********************** Very early in his writings (E43) Blake showed his evaluation of Dante's poetry (MHH plate 21):
"..................Any man of mechanical talents
may from the writings of Paracelsus or Jacob Behmen, produce ten thousand volumes of equal value with Swedenborg's.
And from those of Dante or Shakespear, an infinite number."

In Jerusalem (Plate 73) he gave another listing of Great Men created by Los:
"..................................................................Los Creates Adam Noah Abraham Moses Samuel David Ezekiel
[Pythagoras Socrates Euripedes Virgil Dante Milton]"
(although we're told that on reflection he deleted Dante from the list).

In E634 he wrote: "Dante was an Emperors Man", by that he meant of course a hireling.

In seven letters to Linnell, who had commissioned him to do the Illustrations to Dante's Inferno he described his progress.

The Blake can be found at the Works

CONSUMED IN FIRE

Image from the Small Book of Designs (British Museum)

Originally on Plate 14 of Marriage of Heaven and Hell

Existence to Blake is the life Eternal. What we usually call life is Eternal Death. The realization the we live eternally through Jesus, the Imagination, is our entry into Eternity. Eternal Death is consumed by Eternal Life because it has no eternal existence.

Marriage of Heaven and Hell, PLATE 14,(E 39)
The ancient tradition that the world will be consumed in fire
at the end of six thousand years is true. as I have heard from
Hell.
For the cherub with his flaming sword is hereby commanded to
leave his guard at the tree of life, and when he does, the whole
creation will be consumed, and appear infinite. and holy whereas
it now appears finite & corrupt.
This will come to pass by an improvement of sensual enjoyment.
But first the notion that man has a body distinct from his
soul, is to be expunged; this I shall do, by printing in the
infernal method, by corrosives, which in Hell are salutary and
medicinal, melting apparent surfaces away, and displaying the
infinite which was hid.
If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would
appear to man as it is: infinite.
For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro'
narrow chinks of his cavern."

Four Zoas , Night IX, PAGE 136, (E 404)
"O terrible wine presses of Luvah O caverns of the Grave
How lovely the delights of those risen again from death
O trembling joy excess of joy is like Excess of grief

So sang the Human Odors round the wine presses of Luvah

But in the Wine presses is wailing terror & despair
Forsaken of their Elements they vanish & are no more
No more but a desire of Being a distracted ravening desire
Desiring like the hungry worm & like the gaping grave
They plunge into the Elements the Elements cast them forth
Or else consume their shadowy semblance Yet they obstinate
Tho pained to distraction Cry O let us Exist for
This dreadful Non Existence is worse than pains of Eternal Birth

Eternal Death who can Endure. let us consume in fires
In waters stifling or in air corroding or in earth shut up
The Pangs of Eternal birth are better than the Pangs of Eternal Death"

Vision of the Last Judgment , (E 563)
"Many suppose that before [Adam] All was Solitude & Chaos This is the most pernicious
Idea that can enter the Mind as it takes away all sublimity from
the Bible & Limits All Existence to Creation & to Chaos To the
Time & Space fixed by the Corporeal Vegetative Eye & leaves the
Man who entertains such an Idea the habitation of Unbelieving
Demons Eternity Exists and All things in Eternity Independent of
Creation which was an act of Mercy"


The Library of Congress provides a PDF file of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Use this link, scroll down to Marriage of Heaven and Hell, and select PDF. Read the text with the images.

Declining Years II

For twenty years Blake had suffered from a failure of his Visions from Heaven. But in 1800, at the age of 43 they returned. 'Purity of Heart is to will one thing', but under the influence of the Main Chance (the need to find a respectable place in the world, to better himself financially, to eat meat instead of beans) he had become double-minded. Divided from the will of God he had failed financially as well as spiritually.

Then he was "Surprised by Joy" and rescued from the Main Chance (a story that has been amply if not exhaustively treated in this blog). The Visions returned and he happily 'lived in Heaven', to use his wife's plaintive term for it.

Then, with increasing age and deteriorating health, he was 'surprised by joy' again; he found everything that he had lost in the past: friends, and an income that allowed him to 'put bread on the table'.

Perhaps every person with some age has glowing memories of some event in their past: perhaps just a day, perhaps a month or a year. That's what Shoreham meant to Samuel Palmer and the other Ancients, and to Blake at the end of his life.

London was a vast polluted mire of men: the miry clay indeed (Psalm 42), of which the country side was a refuge. All Londoners were aware of this, particularly the young men who made up the Ancients. Thomas Palmer's father was a conforming Christian, a Baptist. Perhaps about 1820 he was called as a lay preacher to a chapel in the environs of the village of Shoreham. The upshot was that he moved his family there.

Meanwhile George Cumberland, a long time friend of Blake brought John Linnell, an affluent painter, to see him. Linnell fell in love with Blake and with what he represented. He supported the old man for the rest of his life. He also brought many of his friends to see Blake and his lovely pictures. They adopted Blake, much like the sixties flower children had adopted him.

For the flower children it may have been mostly about sex, but Linnell's friends liked Blake in more general and thorough ways. Particularly they loved his religion, his spirit, his values. Youthful individualists, they were religious boys, living a life of joy and piety.

These were young man who had become a loose-knit community which they called The Shoreham Ancients. They frequently visited Blake and brought him to Shoreham where he found himself a very honored guest. All this made Blake's last days a fulfillment of extravagant degree. In 1828 he died heartily mourned by his young friends. Everyone knew it was but a temporary separation.

ILLUSTRATING DANTE

Blake was conflicted in regard to illustrating Dante's Divine Comedy. Although he admired Dante's genius, he deplored much in Dante's theology. Notice that Blake mentioned Dante among various luminaries in a positive role in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem , Plate 73, (E 228)
"And all the Kings & Nobles of the Earth & all their Glories
These are Created by Rahab & Tirzah in Ulro: but around

These, to preserve them from Eternal Death Los Creates
Adam Noah Abraham Moses Samuel David Ezekiel
[Pythagoras Socrates Euripedes Virgil Dante Milton]
Dissipating the rocky forms of Death, by his thunderous Hammer
As the Pilgrim passes while the Country permanent remains
So Men pass on: but States remain permanent for ever"

The line on Plate 73 of Jerusalem mentioning Dante was deleted by Blake after further consideration. Blake had included geniuses of Greek and European literature along with the most influential Old Testament characters, as individuals created by Los to preserve imagination. Apparently Blake later decided that he could not put all of these men in the same category.
When late in life Blake was commissioned to illustrate the Divine Comedy, he went about the task with enthusiasm but skepticism. A particular illustration in which the giant Antaeus transports Virgil and Dante to a lower circle of hell as per their request, gave Blake an opportunity to show a benevolent giant gently placing the two pilgrims on the ledge below. If Blake was making a bit of a joke by picturing an acrobatic giant clinging to the cliftside with an expression of loving concern on his face, some think that Dante too was making a joke with Virgil's negotiations with Antaeus.

Blake produced other pictures contrasting the size of giants with ordinary humans. The Angel of Revelation pictures a vision being recorded by John of Patmos as he sits between the feet of the gigantic angel who commanded him to prophesy. Plate 62 of Jerusalem pictures the agonized giant Albion standing above the diminutive Los, the One who stood forth to warn Albion. The Eternal Zoas were giants too although we don't see them pictured with ordinary humans. In the illustrations to Night Thoughts there is occasionally a contrast between giant figures and ordinary sized ones. Much as Blake in his poetry used words to describe various levels of existence, he used size in images to portray different orders of reality. Becoming conscious of the Gigantic forms represents a mental awakening.

It appears that Blake used the image of Antaeus, Virgil and Dante as a reminder that powerful forces may offer unexpected assistance.

Declining Years

By 1804 Blake finished Milton and Jerusalem, a magnificent achievement but without financial remuneration. He and Catherine lapsed into an increasing level of poverty; there was no income.

Always starkly plain-speaking he had managed to lose the friends and sponsors of the 18th Century:

Blake became friends with John Flaxman, Thomas Stothard and George Cumberland during his first year at the Royal Academy. They shared radical views.

John Flaxman, a distinguished artist, had been generous to Blake in various ways. He introduced Blake to Henry Fuseli, a Swiss artist had much in common with Blake. He introduced him to Hayley, who supported Blake and Catherine for three years at Felpham. Expressing his gratitude in 1800 Blake wrote these lines:

"To My Dearest Friend John Flaxman these lines
I bless thee O Father of Heaven & Earth that ever I saw Flaxmans face.
Angels stand round my Spirit in Heaven. the blessed of Heaven are my friends upon Earth.
When Flaxman was taken to Italy Fuseli was giv'n to me for a season
And now Flaxman hath given me Hayley his friend"
(Erdman 707).

But "as poverty, neglect, and the utter failure of an 1809 exhibition caused him mounting frustration, Blake picked bitter arguments with his erstwhile supporters. He turned on Flaxman with accusations of hypocrisy; he successfully alienated the peaceable Stothard and, by 1810, had managed to fall out with ....the benevolent Butts. There were no more commissions forthcoming.
'I found them blind and taught them how to see
and now they know neither themselves or me' (E508)." (Mysterious Wisdom, page 64) written by Rachel Campbell-Johnston)

But we're told that he accused Flaxman of hypocrisy and also alienated Stothard (a long term friend who was given a commission after it was promised to Blake).

Eventually the Blakes were one step from the workhouse. But help was to come. In 1818 one remaining friend, George Cumberland, introduced him to John Linnell, a prosperous artist. It introduced a chain of events that led to a larger acquaintance that could only help William and Catherine Blake; in fact it served to glorify Blake's last decade.

"Linnell was one of the best friends and kindest patrons of William Blake. He gave him the two largest commissions he ever received for single series of designs—£150 for drawings and engravings of The Inventions to the Book of Job, and a like sum for those illustrative of Dante Aligheri." (From John Linnell (painter)

IS ALL JOY FORBIDDEN

Written on a sketch by Blake in the British Museum is the legend 'is all joy forbidden.' The image catches the sorrow of being closed off from all sources of joy. John Middleton Murry, author of William Blake, directs us to the causes of man's deepest sorrow in this fallen world:

"Man is already punished in that they 'know naught of sweet eternity'. To take from them the possibility of that knowledge is a crime against the Manhood.
In the Christianity we know, and which we have inherited, it was not so. Once let Eternity become a condition into which men enter after death, and Christianity may not merely condone War, as it does, but it may employ War, as it did. The life of the body is indifferent: the immortal soul fares on, unhindered to its appointed place. But if Eternity is here and now, the case is altered. The soul fares as the body, and to kill a body is to kill a soul.
Such was Blake's doctrine, and such was the doctrine of Jesus before him. Eternity is here and now. And for Blake the cause of the corruption of the true Religion is, first of all, to have told the Human Race that Woman's love is Sin, and, second , to have told it

'That an Eternal life awaits the worm of sixty winters
In an allegorical abode where existence has never come'

These illusions propagated by false Religion are not separate from one another. The Moral Law which 'Forbids all Joy' in life, and forbids most vehemently the deepest joy of all, must needs offer its victims the promise of happiness to come. But happiness is here and now, like Eternity. And Eternity is happiness in the here and now; nor is there any other." (Page 313)

In this account the fall of Albion leads to his forgetting his origin until 'Nought he knew Of sweet Eternity.'

Four Zoas, Night VII, Page 83, (E 358)
"Among the Flowers of Beulah walkd the Eternal Man & Saw
Vala the lilly of the desart. melting in high noon
Upon her bosom in sweet bliss he fainted Wonder siezd
All heaven they saw him dark. they built a golden wall
Round Beulah There he reveld in delight among the Flowers
Vala was pregnant & brought forth Urizen Prince of Light
First born of Generation. Then behold a wonder to the Eyes
Of the now fallen Man a double form Vala appeard. A Male
And female shuddring pale the Fallen Man recoild
From the Enormity & calld them Luvah & Vala. turning down
The vales to find his way back into Heaven but found none
For his frail eyes were faded & his ears heavy & dull

Urizen grew up in the plains of Beulah Many Sons
And many daughters flourishd round the holy Tent of Man
Till he forgot Eternity delighted in his sweet joy
Among his family his flocks & herds & tents & pastures

But Luvah close conferrd with Urizen in darksom night
To bind the father & enslave the brethren Nought he knew
Of sweet Eternity"

The ideas that ' Womans love is Sin' and that Eternal life is only experienced after death are associated in this passage with the forbidding of joy.

Europe, PLATE 5, (E 62)
"Now comes the night of Enitharmons joy!
Who shall I call? Who shall I send?
That Woman, lovely Woman! may have dominion?
Arise O Rintrah thee I call! & Palamabron thee!
Go! tell the human race that Womans love is Sin!
That an Eternal life awaits the worms of sixty winters
In an allegorical abode where existence hath never come:
Forbid all joy, & from her childhood shall the little female
Spread nets in every secret path.

My weary eyelids draw towards the evening, my bliss is yet but new."

Blake's Values

Although Blake's poetry is most often opaque and mystifying, to share the following values gives one a leg up on understanding.

Non material: no, anti materialistic: 'when you die, you die.' Blake would have laughed at that materialistic viewpoint: there are several kinds of death, and life, we die to live ((except a gain of seed fall into the ground (and die as a seed) it yields nothing.))

Anti-clerical: The Established Church in Blake's day was shot through with corruption. To go to the Established Church was to stamp your approval on social preference.
But Blake saw much to disapprove in the Dissenters churches. He saw that any church is an institution, with all the flaws of any institution: favoritism, privilege, 'politics', everything but brotherhood.

Anti-war: No peacenik of our generation has anything over Blake. He associated war with the State, the ultimate constriction of human freedom.

Political: a rabid democrat. He gloried in the American Revolution and felt the same toward the French Revolution until the guillotine came to the fore.

The bounding line:
"The great and golden rule of art, as well as of life, is this: That the more distinct, sharp, [P 64] and wirey the bounding line, the more perfect the work of art; and the less keen and sharp, the greater is the evidence of weak imitation, plagiarism, and bungling. Great inventors, in all ages, knew this: Protogenes and Apelles knew each other by this line. Rafael and Michael Angelo, and Albert Durer, are known by this and this alone. The want of this determinate and bounding form evidences the want of idea in the artist's mind, and the pretence of the plagiary in all its branches." (Descriptive Catalogue, E 550)

BLAKE & ANGER

In 1933 John Middleton Murry wrote his study titled William Blake. His stated aim was to 'elucidate the doctrine of William Blake, using only his written works as evidence.' His book evokes the man William Blake and his thought as well as any.

Murry uses this short quote from Auguries of Innocence to apply Blake's concept of 'states' to man's common experience of being angry.

Auguries of Innocence, (E 492)
"To be in a Passion you good may do;
But no good if a Passion is in you."

"The passion of Anger is a state; for the man who knows that it is a State, and keeps the Eternal Individual undisturbed and uncontaminated by it, Anger is a necessary instrument of life - a weapon against the enemies of life, and a means of purging the bosom of perilous stuff. Such anger is clean; one enters and leaves it as an alien thing; a flamelike visitation. But the anger that is in us, smolders and does not flame; it is a grudging resentment of a thwarted Selfhood, a state in which, because we do not know that it is a State, the Eternal Individual is lost.

From such an anger comes war. Forgiveness being the condition of the Eternal Individual, opposes its absolute veto to the corruption of pure wrath into corperal war. It refuses to allow righteous wrath to become the disguise of the appetite of the Selfhood for envy and hatred and vengeance." (Page 323)



At a critical point in the Four Zoas Los threatens to use the instrument of his anger against Urizen unless he repent and be redeemed from error's power. Los' anger against Urizen's error leads him to weep and seek to resume his human form.




Image
Europe a Prophecy
Plate 13


Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 120, (E 390)
"My anger against thee is greater than against this Luvah
For war is energy Enslavd but thy religion
The first author of this war & the distracting of honest minds
Into confused perturbation & strife & honour & pride
Is a deceit so detestable that I will cast thee out
If thou repentest not & leave thee as a rotten branch to be burnd
With Mystery the Harlot & with Satan for Ever & Ever
Error can never be redeemd in all Eternity
But Sin Even Rahab is redeemd in blood & fury & jealousy
That line of blood that stretchd across the windows of the morning
Redeemd from Errors power. Wake thou dragon of the Deeps

PAGE 121
Urizen wept in the dark deep anxious his Scaly form
To reassume the human & he wept in the dark deep"

JOB & SATAN

Blake's Illustrations to the Book of Job
Satan Going Forth from the Presence of the Lord and Job's Charity
Butts Set

There is a lot to be seen in this illustration to the book of Job. Job and his wife are conforming to the standards of their religion by giving alms to the poor represented by a man who is old, blind and crippled, led by his faithful dog. Angels to the right and left give their approval. But Satan is descending with God's permission to pour his woes on the head of Job.

God in the picture is hidden from Job in clouds. He is the God afar off in the sky with his book of law and scroll of the elect. You might say that he is the God whom Job has created in his own image sitting on the same sort of stone platform. His relationship to Job is equivalent to Job's relationship to the beggar: distant but proper, involved at a superficial level.

To the left of Job is a trilithon which to Blake represented the Druid religion of sacrifice or Natural Religion. As Damon writes in A Blake Dictionary:
"Blake objected to the deist God, remote, and inaccessible, as he believed that God exists actively in our bosoms. He objected to the deistic nature worship, with its idea that the world of three dimensions is all, and that it operates by cause and effect." (Page 101)

In this passage Blake equates the Religion of Satan, Deism, Natural Religion, Natural Philosophy, Natural Morality and Self-Righteousness.

Jerusalem, Plate 52, (E 201)
"Man must & will have Some Religion; if he has not the Religion
of Jesus, he will have the Religion of Satan, & will erect the
Synagogue of Satan. calling the Prince of this World, God; and
destroying all who do not worship Satan under the Name of God.
Will any one say: Where are those who worship Satan under the
Name of God! Where are they? Listen! Every Religion that Preaches
Vengeance for Sins the Religion of the Enemy & Avenger; and not
the Forgiver of Sin, and their God is Satan, Named by the Divine
Name Your Religion O Deists: Deism, is the Worship of the God
of this World by the means of what you call Natural Religion and
Natural Philosophy, and of Natural Morality or
Self-Righteousness, the Selfish Virtues of the Natural Heart.
This was the Religion of the Pharisees who murderd Jesus. Deism
is the same & ends in the same."

Blake suggests that although Job originally worships the God of this world who goes by the name Satan, his error is made known to him by bitter experience. He comes to know the ever present God who has the power to reveal the Eternal World to man.

TRUE FRIENDSHIP

Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Plate 20, (E 42)
"So the Angel said: thy phantasy has imposed upon me & thou
oughtest to be ashamed.
I answerd: we impose on one another, & it is but lost time
to converse with you whose works are only Analytics.

Opposition is true Friendship."
[Barely visible in the waves below Leviathan]

Fitzwilliam Museum
Marriage of Heaven and Hell

Plate 20

 The climax of Jerusalem occurs as Albion (mankind) is reunited to Brittannia his connection to Eternity. In the 'wrathful rebuke' which  accompanied their reunion, Erdman sees Blake's wrath which had impelled him to write his prophetic poems as vindicated. Action and  Passion, Joy and Wrath are both awake and alive in one body.

David V Erdman, in Prophet Against Empire gives us this perspective on events as Jerusalem is reaching its resolution:

"Her (Britannia's) waking exclamations reanimated the 'stony members' of Albion-Adam, who, 'when he saw England,' rose up first in anger, full of the "wrath of God' and speaking 'in direful Revolutions of Action and Passion.' But these revolutions swiftly compelled his dislocated Zoas to resume their proper places as 'Sons of Eden.' Whereupon 'England who is Britannia entered Albion's Bosom rejoicing, Rejoicing in his indignation! adoring his wrathful rebuke' (J. 94-95).

After this visionary preview, the rest is easy. Blake knows that the prophetic wrath he has had difficulty trying to control will be fully vindicated when Albion learns to express it adequately and generously in Action and Passion. Vox populi, vox dei. [Voice of man, voice of God] The wrath in his bosom has really come from the Divine Humanity in his bosom, as he now discovers when Jesus appears, ready to converse 'as Man with Man, in Ages of Eternity And the Divine Appearance [is] the likeness and similitude of Los.' Albion is quickly given to understand that the angry prophet has been his true friend all along, dying for him continually - for 'every kindness to another is a little Death In the Divine Image nor can Man exist but by Brotherhood' (J. 96)."
(Page 485)

Jerusalem , Plate 95, (E 254)
Her [Brittannia's] voice pierc'd Albions clay cold ear. he moved upon the Rock
The Breath Divine went forth upon the morning hills, Albion mov'd

Upon the Rock, he opend his eyelids in pain; in pain he mov'd
His stony members, he saw England. Ah! shall the Dead live again

The Breath Divine went forth over the morning hills Albion rose
In anger: the wrath of God breaking bright flaming on all sides around
His awful limbs: into the Heavens he walked clothed in flames
Loud thundring, with broad flashes of flaming lightning & pillars
Of fire, speaking the Words of Eternity in Human Forms, in direful
Revolutions of Action & Passion, thro the Four Elements on all sides
Surrounding his awful Members. Thou seest the Sun in heavy clouds
Struggling to rise above the Mountains. in his burning hand
He takes his Bow, then chooses out his arrows of flaming gold
Murmuring the Bowstring breathes with ardor! clouds roll around the
Horns of the wide Bow, loud sounding winds sport on the mountain brows
Compelling Urizen to his Furrow; & Tharmas to his Sheepfold;
And Luvah to his Loom: Urthona he beheld mighty labouring at
His Anvil, in the Great Spectre Los unwearied labouring & weeping
Therefore the Sons of Eden praise Urthonas Spectre in songs
Because he kept the Divine Vision in time of trouble."