To view more poems I have examined, click HERE.
Jerusalem
by William Blake
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.
_______________________________
William Blake’s famous poem is 16 lines, broken into four quatrains, in iambic tetrameter, with each stanza having an ABCB DEFE GHGH IJKJ rhyme scheme.
The poem, shown above, is actually part of a much larger “prophetic” epic by the poet titled Milton. Sir Hubert Parry pulled Blake’s lines from the larger work, set them to music, and created something akin to England’s secondary national anthem.
Before we look at the poem, let’s take a short look at the poet:
I am unabashedly uncomfortable with William Blake and his art. As I mentioned in a previous analysis of one of his poems, he has long been associated with the occult and the Church of Satan (at least, they claim him, if not the other way around – see the link HERE.) Blake was not only a writer, but he was also a brilliant painter. Blake’s paintings, The Great Red Dragon series, are the inspiration for the fictional antagonist in Thomas Harris’ novel The Red Dragon as well as various film and TV adaptations of said book. Nevertheless, Blake is among the more celebrated artists of all time.
Who is William Blake?
William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. What he called his prophetic works were said by 20th-century critic Northrop Frye to form “what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language”. His visual artistry led 21st-century critic Jonathan Jones to proclaim him “far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced”. In 2002, Blake was placed at number 38 in the BBC‘s poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. While he lived in London his entire life, except for three years spent in Felpham, he produced a diverse and symbolically rich œuvre, which embraced the imagination as “the body of God” or “human existence itself”.
Although Blake was considered mad by contemporaries for his idiosyncratic views, he is held in high regard by later critics for his expressiveness and creativity, and for the philosophical and mystical undercurrents within his work. His paintings and poetry have been characterised as part of the Romantic movement and as “Pre-Romantic”. A committed Christian who was hostile to the Church of England (indeed, to almost all forms of organised religion), Blake was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of the French and American revolutions. Though later he rejected many of these political beliefs, he maintained an amiable relationship with the political activist Thomas Paine; he was also influenced by thinkers such as Emanuel Swedenborg. Despite these known influences, the singularity of Blake’s work makes him difficult to classify. The 19th-century scholar William Michael Rossetti characterised him as a “glorious luminary”, and “a man not forestalled by predecessors, nor to be classed with contemporaries, nor to be replaced by known or readily surmisable successors”
With introductions out of the way, let’s look at the piece:
The poem seems to exist in two pieces, with the first two stanzas introducing a question about Christ visiting England, and the second two stanzas represent the poet’s reaction:
Stanza One and Two:
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?
There is an ancient myth in Britain that Jesus visited the land that is today England with Joseph of Arimathea at some point after the death of Joseph, His father, but before the beginning of His ministry. (There are similar legends about Christ traveling to other places as well, including even to Japan.) Nevertheless, the Jesus to England story carries with it a lot of national feeling in England.
Stanza Three and Four:
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.
Here we see Blake, in stanza three, use repetition to create a sense of rallying into action. Blake is vowing that Jerusalem be built in England – but what is meant by that? What is Jerusalem to Blake?
The first clue we get is in Lines 7 and 8:
And was Jerusalem builded here,
Among these dark Satanic Mills?
If we view Jerusalem as a stand-in word for Christ’s divine kingdom, then the picture painted by these lines is one where something in the ancient past was good and pure, but was subsequently made to fall. Could “Satanic Mills” refer to a grievance Blake had with the Industrial Revolution? Perhaps. The Mills might also refer to the Church of England, churning out evil atop a land where Christ once builded Jerusalem.
Blake’s vow to build Jerusalem might be a call to war against industry. Or it might be a call to war against what he perceives to be the blight of a false Christianity. He might view Christ’s kingdom most favorably if it had no Churches on it at all (as was the case for whatever Jesus may have allegedly built in England if and when He ever visited.) Given Blake’s anti-religious, anti-nationalistic personal outlook, this poem might have been written ironically, maybe even to make fun of English nationalism, before its words were subsequently given a new purpose and a serious treatment.
I suppose that one can read the work however one wants, regardless of what the poet may have intended. Blake is not around for us to ask questions.
For another (and hopefully better) attempt to analyze the work, let me direct you to the video below:
