The symbol of Christ in the poetry of William Blake

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Authors Nemanic, Gerald, 1941-

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Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/317898 THE SYMBOL OF CHRIST IN THE POETRY OF WILLIAM BLAKE

Gerald Carl Neman!e

A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the

3 DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

In the Graduate College

THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

1965 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR

This thesis has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library.

Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the. Dean of the Graduate College when in his judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author.

APPROVAL. BY THESIS DIRECTOR

This thesis has been approved on the date shown below: TABLE OF COITENTS

INTRODUCTION. 0O OOOO 0O&0000OO

THE LYRIC POETRY,,O&O0OO0000OOOO

THE EARLY PROPHECIES,Jo o & & O 0,0 © 0 o

THE LATER PROPHECIES, ......

THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL.

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BIBLIOG]W>HY. , OO. 0OQ0O .0 OOOO CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION TO BLAKE6S THEOSOPHY

Blake told Crabb Robinson that Jesus^ is the only God, 66And so am I, and so are you,66^ Perhaps in' the understanding of this paradoxical statement we find the key to all Blake6s thoughts on religion and philosophy.

From an early age William Blake had been fascinated by the Christ­ ian religion, but it was only as a mature adult that he used the figure of Christ and put it into a prominent role in a private vision of history.

Blake9s vision of history is a highly imaginative one. The

clearest and most comprehensive elucidation of this vision can be found

in Northrup Frye9s excellent study of Blake, Fearful Symmetry. I have used a good deal of Frye8s commentary in formulating this introductory

chapter. It is certainly the clearest way to outline Blake9s concept of

history, before turning to the poetry itself.3

Blake considered himself a. prophet1, and, like the Hebrew

prophets of the Old Testament (to whom he felt himself closely related)

he had the power to visualize the world., the whole of existence, as a

drama of Fall, Redemption and Apocalypse. His later prophetic^ works,

The Four Zoas, Milton and Jerusalem become epic narratives of this

vision. In The Four Zoas. Blake, as prophet-poet, is possessed by a

daughter of inspiration (Eno) and sees the history of the world:

1 Then Eno, a daughter of Beulah9 took a Moment of Time And drew it out to seven thousand years with much care & affliction And many tears 9 & in every year made windows into Eden. She also took an atom of space & open’d its centre Into Infinitude & ornamented it with wondrous art.-5

Blake sees the basic framework of history as Fall. Redemption and Apocalypse. But within this framework are cycles of history.

These cycles can be likened to a wheel rolling on a linear plane.

The wheel continually rolls back upon itself (i.e., history keeps repeating itself in cyclic fashion) but keeps moving along toward the end of the plane (as history moves from Fall to Apocalypse).

There is, of course, only one difficulty in this view of existence.

Fall and Redemption through Christ are history already happened, whereas Apocalypse is history of the future seen through prophetic vision.

Apocalypse may occur at any time, i.e., the linear plane has no definite limits. Paradoxically, the wheel comes to the end of its journey only when Mankind ceases to believe in the existence of the wheel or plane, when all conceptions of linear time and space have dissolved with the idea of a !Srealt? physical universe. Then all men live in the vision of Christ, and the city of God is found.

Blake felt he had good reason to believe the Apocalypse was coming upon the world in his own lifetime. The political revolutions against tyranny going on around him were exciting signs of Man breaking the bonds- .of ignorance and proceeding toward the light of God. Blake realized his own prophetic genius and felt his own task to be that of 3 rallying men8s minds to the final Apocalyptic glory through the power of divine poetry.

Northrup Frye says Blake divided the whole of history into seven major cycles, the last of these being that time from Christ to the present day. Frye finds these cycles clearly delineated in J erusalem.

Let us start again with Blake9s division of history into seven periods identified with the Biblical Eyes of God, and called by Blake Lucifer, Moloch, Elohim, Shaddai, Pachad, Jehovah and Jesus. Each Eye is an Ore cycle, yet each, as an Eye of God can only be the eye with which man sees as God, is a plateau of imaginative development, and there is, thanks to Los, some evolutionary development in their sequence. The sixth of these, the vision of Jehovah or the Hebrew'religious imagination, is...a mixture of genuine imagination and moral law, and was purified into the former by Jesus. The vision of Jehovah, thus purified, constitutes the essential Bible.

The cycles of Blakean history are not identical, but follow similar patterns. A cycle begins with a revolutionary burst of imaginative life, often precipitated by one man and eventually per­ meating a large group of people. The J ehovah cycle begins with the mind of Moses and eventually becomes the mind of the Hebrew nation.

Moses the revolutionary leads the Jews out of Egypt.

The Hebrew nation degenerates after crossing the J ordan into

Canaan. Imagination is replaced by reason, the spirit by the letter of the law, Moses by the Pharisees, The coming of Jesus brings the cyclical nature of history into focus. Jesus comes as s. revolutionary of the imagination to fulfill the law of Moses (i.e., to separate its intrinsic Mosaic from its extrinsic Pharisaic nature). The cycle of

Jesus is similar to that of Jehovah (Moses), but it refines and clarifies the Mosaic vision. In this way the cycles are progressive. The beginning of these eras represents their greatest hours, and from that

point of origin they lose their force. The era of Jesus, in Blake6s

mind, has decayed through the crucifixtion, establishment of church

religion and science to the low point of contemporary deism, the epitome

of reasonable, non-imaginative religion.

Jesus has great importance in this view of history. Jesus was

a. Hebrew prophet as had been Ezekiel, Elijah, and others before him.

But the light of Jesus is unique; his imaginative vision is so strong

that to compare him with the early prophets is like comparing the bright,

intimate sun with faraway twinkling stars. The source of light is the

same energy, but in Jesus the beam is stronger, more pervasive, clearer

to the mind.

J esus also introduces a new element into the prophetic imagination

in the doctrine of forgiveness.

What can this Gospel of Jesus be? What Life & Immortality, What was it that he brought to Light . That Plato and Cicero did not write?... },Thy Sins are all forgiven thee."7

Only in the most intense mystical vision can the prophet divorce himself

completely from Self, and only as a Self-less mind can Man reach the

height of compassion necessary to complete the Redemption. Thus Christ,

by reaching this Self-less mind, has modified the cycles of history.

Man is no longer plunging from the original Fall, but progressing toward

the final Apocalypse. All the cycles of history are'progressive, since

the six cycles before Christ progress toward him, preparing the way for

his visions. 5

The important element in the personality of Jesus was his ability to ignite the minds of other men. The sheer power of his imagination became a force in making other men understand and follow him. We still live, according to Blake, within the cycle of Jesus, since the kernel of his mind still resides within the human psyche.

The power of his imagination could not die with his body. When Christ comes a second time (i.e., when the imaginative vision which the historical Jesus represents flares anew in all Mankind) Apocalypse will occur. ^

The question as to whether or not Blake thought of Christ as

$tGod$i has little more than semantic difficulty, "Thou art a Man, God is no more,/Thy own humanity learn to adore..."® It is evident that he visualized no ^otherness" in God. Man is God, or at least can be.

The seed of Nazarene genius is within the minds of all modern men, and it has only to be brought to flower.

Jesus, the revolutionary hero of mankind, comes into the world and is crucified by the forces he came to destroy. As a physical body,

Jesus of Nazareth is bom, lives among men and finally dies on a cross.

As a mental being, Jesus fires the flame of imagination, is tempted by

Satan (the force of anti-imaginative thought) and returns to the imaginative fires again. The seven major cycles of history are a broad framework within which smaller cycles occur constantly. In the Jesus cycle, the great event is the reaching of imaginative zenith, followed by a period of degeneracy in which we still live. We are still waiting for the second coming of Christ.

S Within this framework are other cycles5 the life of Jesus as a physical organism; the struggle of each man on earth for the pos­ session of his soul. Ideally, this soul struggle is a progression from innocence to experience to a mature innocence. In a broad sense, we can see in political revolution a cycle in which nations under tyranny overthrow one yoke only to be harnessed by another (as in the

French Revolution).

Life is a series of cycles because of the Fall, which produced in Man a division where before there was a unity. This division is not one of mind and matter, or even what is conventionally thought of as soul and body. The Fall, for Blake, constitutes a partial loss by

Man of his divine essence. Man is God, and before the Fall he lived in Paradise, a mental state in which Nature as we know it was simply an extension of the unfallen consciousness. Man was at One with the universe; he perceived nos;nOthernessM in things he saw.

The Fall was brought about by the emergence of what Blake calls the '•female will." To put it in Christian terms, Adam falls from Paradise because of the treachery of Eve, But this is a symbolic action. Eve does not represent "Woman" but instead "Nature Mother."

"The Darkening Man walk'd on the steps of fire before his [Urizen's] halls, "And Vala9 walk'd with him in dreams of soft deluding slumber. "Then Man ascended mourning into the splendors of his palace, , "Above him rose a Shadow from his wearied intellect. "Of living gold, pure, perfect, holy; in white linen pure he hovered, "A sweet entrancing self delusion, a wat'ry vision of Man "Soft exulting in existence, all the Man absorbing."1®

Perhaps Frye's commentary here will be more to the points 7

The fall of Man began with the appearance of an independent ■ object-world9 and continued into this state of Generation, where we begin life in helpless dependence on Mother Nature for all our ideas. This independent nourishing force in nature Blake calls the female will. The worship of a female principle, therefore, specif­ ically a maternal principle, is not imaginative, and is only possible to natural religion. In Eden there is no Mother- God. In many religions God is certainly worshiped as a trinity of father, mother and child...but in the more highly developed ones God is always the Supreme Male, the Creator for whom the distinction between the beloved female and created child has disappeared. The reappearance of the Madonna in Christianity is thus a corruption of that rel­ igion, and is in direct contradiction to Jesus® own teach­ ings, Mother-worship is womb-worship, a desire to prolong the helplessness of the perceiver and his dependence on the body of nature which surrounds him. Women are of course the'only possible images of the female will in this world, though it does not follow that they are to be identified with it. All female worship is disguised nature-worship, and all Petrarchan and chivalric codes directed to the adoration of a mistress are imagin­ atively pernicious for that reason. The female antics mentioned above which have degenerated from these codes reproduce, in the fallen world, the elusive and treacherous beauty of a separate nature; and the separation of nature from man.

When Man first began looking at the world as "Nature,®* as something apart from himself, part of his divinity was lost. The cycles of history are actually nothing more than the attempt of Man to find this lost divinity and his failure because of his own weakness.

It is important to realize that this fall from divinity is not complete.

Man's duality exists because he has retained part of his divinity; this duality is an alloy of the divine and fallen within Man,

In individual men, the natural-fallen has predominance. The

Jehovah cycle was started by Moses, who had a strong sense of the divine within him. The Hebrew nation to whom he gave the Torah was degenerate, however, and they corrupted his teaching into a tyrannical set of Mlaws6i promulgated by a stern sky-god called Jehovah.

Christ began a new cycle as he came not to destroy, but to fulfill the law of Moses, i.e., to bring back the spirit of Moses8 teachings and destroy the Pharisaic notions of reason and nature which had permeated and corrupted the original ideas.

But Christ was special. He represented the unfallen life of Man incarnate, the entirety of Man’s divinity. Still, although he was divine, the world of men could not accept the visionary.

Nature and Reason still rule in the person of Caiaphas, who has

Jesus crucified upon Satan’s ^Mysterious Tree.61 The Jesus cycle no more ended with the death of Christ than had the Jehovah cycle with the death of Moses. Just as the Moses cycle reached its lowest point in the Pharisaic law, the J esus cycle reached a low with the full flowering of nature worship, eighteenth century deism.

The era of Jesus did not have to wait until the eighteenth century to decay. It began its degeneracy with the personal dis­ ciples of Jesus. The creation of a Christian Church, a pernicious invention to Blake’s way of thinking, was the seed of degeneracy.

Whereas Jesus had come to restore the spirit and destroy the letter of the law, the Church erected in his name promptly established its own letter. Whereas Christ had come to rid men’s minds of nature, reason and mystery, the Church deemed it proper to sanction nature

(e.g., the doctrine that Man is not God) a rationale (e.g., the

Scholastic philosophy) and a mystery (e.g., the Virgin birth and the Trinity)» 9

Christianity in its essence, then, is the mind of Christ, and this essence is salvation» Christianity in its practice suppresses the vital imagination of Man. Christ will come a second time to destroy the letter of Christianity as he first came to destroy the letter of Judaism.

In his earlier years Blake saw the world’s political ferment as a sign of Christ’s eventual second coming, The political re­ publicanism of America and the Continent influenced Blake as it had inspired Coleridge, Wordsworth and Byron. Characteristically, Blake

saw the popular reform movement in terms of religious liberation.

He had little real interest in democratic government, and undoubtedly would have found a streak ©f pernicious deism in thinkers like

Jefferson, Franklin and Hamilton.

In several of the early prophetic books, notably America. The

French Revolution, Europe and The First Book of Urizen, Blake attempts

to create a seer’s mythopoeic forecast of Man’s liberation from the bond of suppressive tyranny. It is important that, whatever the historical facts may be, Blake saw this emancipation coming through

revolt against deistic tyrants and empirical rationalism.

In retrospect, we can see that the revolution and. subsequent

democracy in Americanwas a full blooming rather than a destruction of

deism. Faith in the inherent abilities of Man is imbedded in the

kernel of all democratic thinking, and if there is one important

element in Blake’s thought which isolates him.from the main body of

English republican Romanticism it is this: the fallen, natural Man has no positive place in Blake’s world. Man, in Blake’s mind, is 10

fallen, and in his 6,natural® state (i»e«, the state in which he sees

himself as a part of Nature's "otherness18 rather than Nature as a part

of himself), he can arrive at nothing but deism or pantheism. Blake,

a sometimes admirer of Wordsworth, labeled him an enemy of imagination

on other occasionsJ

I see in Wordsworth the Natural Han rising up against the Spiritual Man Continually, & then he is no poet but.a Heathen philosopher at Enmity against all true poetry or Inspiration.

Blake saw deism and the Age of Reason as the culmination of the

Renaissance. In deistic doctrine, Man is placed in a physical universe

in which he is subject to physical laws. Divinity, if indeed it

exists, is given a position of remote "otherness88 in which it affects

Man’s life little. Man is a natural being who resides in a natural

environment created by a force or forces which have left the scene.

Blake had no abiding interest in the metaphysical controversy

which occupied much of seventeenth and eighteenth century Western

philosophy. The empirical, mechanistic ideologies of Locke, Hobbes

and Newton were usually consistent with the deistic interpretations

of Christianity, In the eighteenth century, philosophical idealism

proved to be a reaction to these materialistic doctrines. Thinkers

like Kant in Germany and Bishop Berkeley in England stressed the

idea that reality is a quality of the mind rather than an impersonal

entity of a physical universe.

Still, Blake was primarily concerned with his own "ideal"

visions, and had little inclination to metaphysical argument. We

do get, however, some insights into Blake’s thought through study of

his annotations of idealistic philosophy. 11

Berkeley was a chief eighteenth century eneirry of Lockian philosophy. Blake6s annotation of Siris gives valuable glimpses into his own epistemology.

God is not a Mathematical Diagram.,» The Natural Body is an Obstruction to the Soul or Spiritual Body... What Jesus came to Remove was the Heathen or Platonic Philosophy, which blinds the Bye of Imagination, The Real Man... Knowledge is not by deduction, but Immediate by Perception or Sense at once, Christ ,-adresses [sic] himself to the Man, not to his Reason, Plato did not bring Life & Immort­ ality to Light. Jesus only did this.^3

Blake launched his own prose attacks against the empirical materialism which had become so pervasive in an age of science. In

There is No Natural Religion Blake attacks the basis of empirical

thought— the ultimate validity of sensory perceptions

First Series

THE Argument. Man has no notion of moral fitness but from education. Naturally he is only a natural organ subject to Sense,

Second Series

I. Man’s perceptions are not bounded by organs of perception; hs perceives more than sense (thoe ever so acute) can discover.

II, Reason, or the ratio of all we have already known, is not the same that it shall be when we know more.

VI. If any could desire what he is incapable of possess­ ing, despair must be his eternal lot.

VII. The desire of Man being Infinite, the possession is Infinite & himself Infinite.

Application. He who sees the Infinite in all things, sees God. He who sees the Ratio only, sees himself only. Therefore God becomes as we are, that we may be as he is. 12

It is clear that we are not dealing with a champion of the ncult of the noble savage’5 in Blake. Several scholars have attempted to find in Blake’s work the mind of a late eighteenth century liberal revolutionary, a man in step with the intellectual, political and social developments of his time.^ I feel that Blake’s interest in these ideas was basically an interest in revolution per se, the release of imaginative energy from the bonds of empirical thought. He no more accepted the liberal rationalism of Jefferson, Voltaire and

Rousseau than he did the earlier versions by Locke and Bacon.

Mock on, Mock on Voltaire, Rousseau; Mock on, Mock on; ’tis all in vain! You throw the sand against the wind, And the wind blows it back a g a i n . 16

I have called this particular section of the paper an ’’Intro­ duction to Blake’s Theosophy" because, for one thing, it has been a mere general discussion of ideas which will be handled, more con­ cretely and explicitly in the analysis of the poetry. It seems also that "theosophy" is the best term to use in describing Blake’s thought. "Philosophy" carries with it the connotation of science and empirical thought, while "theology" has the sense of methodical formu­ lation of religion following rational principles. The special combi­ nation of mystical insight and philosophical speculation which theosophy represents seems to suit Blake’s inclination of mind best.

With what I hope has been a clear and sufficiently detailed introduction to Blake’s idea of history and Christ’s place in it, we will proceed to the poetry. CHAPTER II

THE LYRIC POETRY

William Blake's Poetical Sketches, written between his twelfth and twentieth years and published in 1 ?8 3 > are largely youthful poems of nature and love composed with striking energy and wealth of imagination. At this early point, however, it does not seem as though Blake's significant religious poetry has begun.

Mention of God in these lyrics is confined to the image of an almighty father. Blake seems quite taken with the Old Testament at this date, as witnessed especially by the prose drama, "Samson."

The Christ image in poetry has traditionally been the product of a poet's maturity, and Blake is no exception. What Blake might have

called "mature innocence" is necessary for an imaginative identi­ fication with so momentous an idea.

Poetical Sketches is the work of an immature, albeit highly imaginative young poet. We must wait for the fully developed mind

of Blake to emerge before significant Christ images will be found.

The mature Blake makes his first appearance in the lyrics of .

six years later, Songs of Innocence (I7 8 9 ), Certain critics have

felt that, in the Songs, Blake brought forth the idea of children

as primary symbols of Christ.1 The Songs of Innocence and its

companion piece. Songs of Experience (1794), are poems about children

certainly, but the child image of Christ is only one among many rooted

13 14 there. Blake's purpose is in i8shewing the two contrary states of the 2 human soul88 — these 68states" being those of childhood innocence and ensuing experience in the ways of the world. A mature Christ, in

Blake's way of thinking, permeates the anguished human world of experience as well as the child's consciousness. The idea that the child becomes an important Christ symbol results, I think, in over­ loading the symbol of childhood. The "Introduction" to Innocence perhaps represents the best example of the child as Christ and as the muse of poetry8

Piping down the valleys wild. Piping songs of pleasant glee. On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me 8

"Pipe a song about a Lambi" So I piped with merry chear. "Piper, pipe that song again;" So I pipedI he wept to hear...

"Piper, sit thee down and write "In a book, that all may read." So he vanish'd from my sight..

The child is no doubt a vision who represents freedom, imagi­ nation and innocence. The child is the muse of poetry, and since poetry takes on religious significance for Blake, the child has some religious connection. But to say that the child is Jesus, one misin­ terprets Blake. Children are not Christ-like. Jesus of Nazareth is not an innocent, but a man of consummate experiences

Was J esus Born of Virgin Pure With narrow Soul & looks demure? If he intended to take on Sin The Mother should an harlot been, Just such a one as Magdalen With seven devils in her pen... 15

?iHe mock’d the Sabbath & he mock’d MThe Sabbath’s Gods & he unlock’d t!The Evil Spirits from their Shrines 9 11 And turn’d Fishermen to Divines,,. MHe scorn’d Earth’s Parents, scorn’d Earth’s God 61 And mock’d the one & the other’s Rod,,, $?He left his Father’s trade to roam x i6A wand8ring vagrant without Home,.,

The state of childhood innocence does not represent that level of consciousness which is closest to Christ. In the ’’Introduction” to Experience the child has been transformed into a prophets

Hear the voice of the Bardl Who Present, Past, & Future, sees; Whose ears have heard The Holy Word That walk’d among the ancient trees,

Calling the lapsed Soul, And weeping in the evening dew; That might controll The starry pole, - And fallen, fallen light renew!

The essence of Christ is not pastoral bliss, an iSArcadia” hidden from the woes of men. Likewise, innocent children as physical entities do not represent Blake’s idea of Paradise. ’’Innocence” and

’’Experience” do not represent absolute good and evil, but rather ’’the two contrary states of the human soul.” Only by experiencing both can Man mature, and only in maturity can he hope to become One with

Christ.

In the Songs of Innocence and Experience Blake links Christ and the child not through innocence, but through imagination. Blake is saying that childhood imagination must be recaptured in order to live in Christ, but that this imagination must be enriched and deepened by mature experience. Thus the contraries are necessary to have 16 progression, and each man must grow up, like Christ who

When twelve years old he ran away And left his Parents in dismay. When after three days9 sorrow found. Loud as Sinai9s trumper sound; MNo Earthly Parents I confess— -^ ,8My Heavenly Father’ s business I

Christ realized the necessity of breaking the swaddling bands of innocence and of finding experience. He preached later on the necessity of mature innocence (1!Ye must be born again86).

It is important that, before studying the proliferation of

Christ images in Blake’s lyrics, we understand clearly the relation­ ship between innocence, experience, and Christ. . Blake was no prophet of utopian pastoralism, ’’Arcadian6* bliss or any such sentimental nonsense. His interest was wholly within the realm of imagination, the vision which in its earliest form is represented by childhood innocence, in its depths of degeneracy represented by experience in a perniciously rational, hypocritical world, and in its culmination represented by a mature blending of innocence and experience which ends in the vision of Christ himself, the epitome of this progression.

In one sense the Songs of Innocence and Experience can be seen as two.long poems representing different aspects of Christ.

Innocence invariably shows the mildness and love of Nazarene imagination, whereas Experience illustrates the preternatural imaginative energies of Man-Christ suppressed by the fallen world of morality and ”otherness” in which he lives.

The most recurrent symbols of Christ in Innocence are those of the child and the shepherd. In the 56Introduction” quoted above. 17 the child represents a fusion of the Nazarene imagination and poetical inspiration, that element of imagination which inspires the prophetic voice to speak its poetry.

The child, however, is often a less complex image of imagi­ native innocence, one who is in perfect harmony with all he sees:

Little Boy, Full of joy; Little Girl, Sweet and small; Cock does crow. So do you; Merry voice, . . Infant noise, ? Merrily, Merrily, to welcome in the Tear.'

The child is innocent, but since he is only a partial manifest­ ation of Christ, he at times needs the protection of a kindly guide.

The shepherd becomes a Christ image, one who through love accepts responsibility for the fragile young flockl

How sweet is the Shepherd’s sweet loti From the morn to the evening he strays; He shall follow his sheep all the day... He is watchful while they are in peace. For they know when their Shepherd is nigh,®

The shepherd, in his duties, is near to God. Blake sees even the lion as a keeper of the flocks

'•And now beside thee, bleating lamb, "I can lie down and sleep.., "For, wash’d in life’s river, "My bright mane for ever "Shall shine like the gold "As I guard o’er the f o l d . 9

The shepherd is not only the human being who protects lambs, but is also lower forms of life showing their essential Godliness:

Once a dream did weave a shade O’er my angel-guarded bed. 18

That an Emmet lost its way Where on grass me thought;! lay,.,

Pitying 9 I drop’d a tear; But I saw a glow-worm near, Who replied: "What wailing wight "Calls the watchman of the night?

"I am set to light the ground, "While the beetle goes his rounds "Follow now the beetle’s hum; "Little wanderer, hie thee home,"-*-®

In the shepherd, then, we are dealing with a more comprehensive Christ image than the child. The child is imaginative, he resides in a state in which anything is possible; wild beasts become tame, and angels appear in trees. But the shepherd is a higher imagination, one which incorporates compassion and responsibility. Like Christ, he volun­ tarily becomes keeper of the flock. "On Another’s Sorrow" illustrates the connection clearly. Here the shepherd meditates 5

Can I see another’s woe, And not be in sorrow too? Can I see another’s grief, And not seek for a kind relief?...

And can he who smiles on all Hear the wren with sorrows small, Hear the small bird’s grief & care, Hear the woes that infants bear.

And not sit beside the nest. Pouring pity in their breast; And not sit the cradle near. Weeping tear on infant’s tear

The shepherd is by far the most extensive and significant image of Christ in Songs of Innocence. Blake fuses Man and God into an entity which Man can realize only through the mature innocence of one like the shepherd. One particular poem in Innocence, perhaps troublesome for its reference to God the Father (often a symbol of tyranny in Blake) instead of Christ, nonetheless can be accepted as a doctrinal work of Blake8 s early years. In 6,The Divine Image*' we find an explicit statement of Blake's God-Man conceptions

For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love Is God, our father dear, And Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love Is Man, his child and care.

For Mercy has a human heart, Pity a human face. And Love, the human force divine, And Peace, the human dress...

And all must love the human form, 1 In heathen, turk, or jew; Where Mercy, Love, & Pity dwell There God is dwelling t o o , 3-2

In Songs of Experience Blake illustrates the recurring Fall of Man, the cycle within a cycle. As a human being grows into adulthood, he finds the youthful bloom of imaginative innocence being slowly taken from him. Those who strip Man of his imagination and replace it with Law and Mystery are Antichrist in Blake's symbolism.

These manifestations of Antichrist in the degenerate stage of the

Jesus cycle include Church, State, philosophical empiricism and deism, which work to obscure and hold down the imaginative energies which Man carries inside him. In Experience, therefore, we see the world's imaginative energies in a state of oppression. Gone are the child's happy innocence and the shepherd's compassionate Godliness.

We now see manifestations of bound energy; we hear the agonized cries of the oppressed.

To Antichrist, who is in control of the modern world, this imaginative energy represents the disruptive forces of revolution, 20 anarchy and immorality. Perhaps Blake wanted us to understand that it was Antichrist who saw the lurking shadows of a horrible form, and wondered to himself8

lygerl Tygeri burning bright In the forests of the night. What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry? ^

An important personification of Antichrist which appears in the modern world is that of Jehovah, the law-giver and vengeful "God** of the Old Testament. In Experience Jehovah is in power, and battles the bound imaginative energy of Christ continually. Jehovah in­

evitably wins these battles. He has suppressed the very Earth itselfg

Earth rais’d up her head From the darkness dread & drear. Her light fled. Stony dread! . 0 . And her locks cover’d with grey despair... [Earth says] "Selfish father of men! "Cruel, jealous, selfish fear! "Can delight, "Chained in night, "The virgins of youth and morning bear?.».

"Break this heavy chain "That does freeze my bones around. "Selfish! Vain! "Eternal bane! "That free Love with bondage bound.^

Blake sees the Christian "Church" as a pernicious growth which capi­

talizes on the Commandmentsof Jehovah in order to tyrannize Han and

dilute his energies, one of which is sexual loves

I went to the Garden of Love, And saw what I never had seen: A Chapel was built in the midst, Where I used to play on the green. 21

And. the gates of this Chapel were shut. And ,$Thou shalt not65 writ over the door...

And Priests in black gowns were walking their rounds. And binding with briars my joys & desires.15

In "A Little Girl Lost55, the innocent maiden loves in joy, but:

To her father white Came the maiden bright. But his loving look. Like the holy book. All her tender limbs with terror s h o o k .

Here, of course, Blake has combined the image of Jehovah with the

real father of the child.

Man under the spell of Jehovah and his Hpriests55 is not

only victim, but also tool for the perpetration of more evils

A Little black thing among the snow. Crying 'weepI 9weep18 in notes of woe) i9Mhere are thy father & mother? say?" "They are both gone up to the church to pray.».

"And are gone to^praise God & his Priest & King, "Who make up a heaven of our misery."17

The Law overpowers most of those who would cry against it,

and the weapons it uses are fear and reason. The Church and State

take care of the fear, while science and "heathen Philosophy"

convince by reason that, if God exists, he is "other", and mystical

union with God through the imaginative powers is unreal, illogical

and contrary to the general welfare.

Keeping in mind that history is cyclic, however, we realize

that revolt against tyranny will inevitably manifest itself again in

time. Some men will feel the prevalence of their imaginative wills

to a greater degree than others. These will be the prophets of modern society9 just as the Old Testament prophets who spoke to the decaying nation of Israel.

The young potential prophet who realizes his gifts must, like

Jesus, leave the oppressive environment of his fallen parents and find

God alone. The young prophet tells his mother in "To Tirzah"

Whate’er is Born of Mortal Birth Must be consumed with the Earth To rise from Generation frees Then what have I to do with thee?...

Thou, Mother of my Mortal part, With cruelty didst mould my Heart, .And with false self-deceiving tears Didst bind my Nostrils, Eyes, & Ears;

Didst close my Tongue in senseless clay. And me to Mortal Life betray. The Death of Jesus set me frees Then what have I to do with thee?^-9

Christ leaves his parents at twelve and later becomes a prophet. The would-be sage of "To Tirzah" goes through the same procedure, since he ultimately reappears as the Bard of "Introduction".

As America and France showed signs of leading the world in uprising against the forces of tyranny, Blake, in the period after 1791, a- bandoned lyric poetry in favor of prophecies which heralded the second coming of Christ. The shepherds and children of Innocence and Experi­ ence give way to the visionary and revolutionary powers that have been lying dormant since Christ’s first coming. Christ will come the second time as he did the first time, as a spirit of revolt against the ruling order. .CHAPTER III

THE EARLY PROPHECIES

Blake says that Christ’s uniqueness lies in the doctrine of forgiveness of sin.

There is not one Moral Virtue that Jesus Inculcated but Plato & Cicero did Inculcate before him; what then did.Christ Inculcate? Forgiveness of Sins. This alone is the Gospel, & this is the Life & Immortality brought to Light by Jesus.,

Still, the poetry supplies little dramatic reflection of this doctrine in actual practice. In a short lyric, l8The Little Vagabond88, Blake perhaps comes closest to expressing his concept of Christian for­ giveness, The "Vagabond" wishes religion could be a more pleasant

things

Dear Mother, dbar Mother the Church is cold. But the Ale-House is healthy & pleasant & warm...

If the severe atmosphere of the church could become more like a jolly

ale-houses

W e ’d sing and we’d pray all the live-long day, Nor ever once wish from the Church to stray.

Then the Parson might preach & drink, & sing, And we’d be as happy as birds in the spring...

And God, like a father rejoicing to see His children as pleasant and happy as he, Would have no more quarrel with the Devil or the Barrel, But kiss him, & give him both drink and apparel.^

23 24

The doctrine of forgiveness is never shown elsewhere in Blake's poetry so powerfully as here. The illustration in Blake's original

engraving depicts God comforting a repentant devil. The "Vagabond" who imagines this act of forgiveness is no child of innocence, but is perhaps as full of worldly wisdom as a child can be.

The forgiveness of incarnate evil is a powerful theme which perhaps moved across Blake's mind only long enough for him to have written this poem. It appears no more thereafter in the poetry.

For at least five years (1791-1795) Blake was concerned with developing two major symbols of Messianic Christ; Los, the spirit of imaginative prophecy and his son, Ore,3 the revolutionary destroyer.

Ore becomes the central symbol of the earlier prophecies of the period, America and Europe. In Blake's cyclic view of human history, Ore symbolizes the revolutionary renewal of the true religion,

the imaginative energy, from the bonds of tyranny represented by

Urizen,

Urizen and Los are contraries in the world. Urizen represents

the tendency to abstract reason, science and non-imaginative thinking in the mind of fallen Man.» Los represents the tendency of Man to

regain his lost divinity. Los is manifested in prophetic spirit and

imaginative artistic creativity.

Ore, the symbol we see centrally in America and Europe«, is the natural son of Los (who is the imaginative, visionary seer of ^the world

in its Urizenic decay). Los is father to Ore, the active, revolutionary

spirit which tries to overthrow Urizenic rule. 25

In Blake8s cyclic view of human history the persons and events which start new historical cycles are manifestations of Los and Ore.

Moses„ mho leads the Israelites out of Egypt9 is both the imaginative vision (Los) and the active revolutionary (Ore). So is Jesus, mho comes to renew, to 68fulfill the word88 of Moses.^

By extension, we could say that any manifestation of imaginative energy in the world is Los and Ore who combine to produce not only the monumental figures like Christ and Moses, but also the budding prophet of "To Tirzahif, the "Chimney Sweep", and the fleeting cycle of the

"Little Girl Lost" mho loves in imaginative innocence and is quickly suppressed.

The works written between 1791 and 1795 deal first with Ore centrally (especially in America and Europe) and then with Los centrally (in the Song of Los and Book of Los). These prophecies hint of a nearing Apocalypse, but it is left for the later works (those finished after 1800, and including The Four Zoas, Milton, and Jerusalem) to elaborate upon Apocalyptic behavior.

The works of 1791-1795 are concerned with the early rumblings of an awakening, gigantic Ore, the Los Spirit of prophecy which perceives him, and the attempt of Urizen to suppress them both.

The earliest of these works, The French Revolution (1791)? is by no means the most important, although it does show Blake’s interest in the libertarian temper of the age. The'French Revolution was intended as a seven book epic prophecy, but only the first book has come down to us. If the other six books were written, Blake probably 26 destroyed them after the Revolution in France proved a failure. The work was not published until 1913°^

In The French Revolution Blake had not yet developed his comprehensive Ore and Los symbols * and thus the work lacks the universality of later prophecies. Blake stays close to historical sources in this work, describing in prophetic terms the collapse of

French monarchial rule.^ David Erdman sees, in the figure of French republican hero Fayette, a transition figure who prepares the way for

Ore.

Politically The French Revolution.,.is thor­ oughly republican in its emphasis on the frat­ ernity of citizens and its prophecy that the scepter is 6no more to be swayed by the visible hand,’ The treatment of LaFayette as a sort of George Washington shielding women and child­ ren from the armies of despotism may be consid­ ered as transitional between the Champion or Deliverer of Poetical Sketches and the subord­ ination in America of historical figures such as Washington and Pain to the theomorphic spirit of revolution, Ore.7

At any rate, Ore himself does not appear until America (1793) and at that point we properly begin the study of Blake6s symbolic prophecies,

America is, like The French Revolution, a prophecy of revolt against tyranny which will finally lead to Apocalypse. In America, however, the historical elements are pushed to the background and

Blake gives freer rein to the imaginative, Apocalyptic element.

Ore originates here, and becomes immediately a comprehensive symbol of imaginative revolt. From this fspint Blake9s symbolism ' develops until, in the prophecies after 1800, we have what amounts 2? to a complete symbolic cosmos. The symbol of imaginative energy remains an important element throughout Blake8 s prophetic works 9 and an under­ standing of the symbol from its inception is an important key to un­ raveling the complexities of the author’s mind.

As America openss we find. Ore chained under Mt, Atlas in Africa.

He breaks loose and generates a sexual communion with the 65shadowy daughter of Urthona6’ (who here represents imagination in the liber­ ated female as Ore is instinctive revolutionary power). Revolutionary power and imagination are thus united, and Ore comes to life in

America with such violence that the Urizenic empire of Europe quakes in fear at this terrible destructive power. Ore becomes, to those who are in power, the very same terror which Jesus represented to the

Romans and Pharisees. Ore hurls a warning at Urizen’s kingdom:

...!,I am Ore, wreath’d round the ' accursed trees The times are ended.; shadows pass, the morning ’gins to break; The fiery joy, that Urizen perverted to ten commands, What night he led the starry hosts thro’ the wide wilderness, That stony law I stamp to dust; and scatter religion abroad . To the four winds as a torn book, & none shall gather the leaves; But they shall rot on desart sands, & consume in bottomless deeps...

This is the essential message of America, and the likeness of

Ore to Blake’s Jesus and Urizen to Jehovah is clear.^ It must be remembered, however, that although Ore is part of the imaginative renewal Blake associates with Jesus, he represents only the revo­ lutionary, destructive aspect of this renewal. Ore talks not of 28 forgiveness or fulfillment, but of destruction and a new ,ffiery joy„: '•

The reappearance of an unchained 0rc in America is a sign of Christ's second coming, but when the whole true spirit of Christ does return, it will entail much more than the instinctive imaginative power of Ore,

Mention must be made of another work finished in 1793 which has a strong bearing on Blake's Christology, The Marriage of Heaven and

Hell. This work is a satire rather than a prophecy, since it repre­ sents the debunking of the visions of Swedenborg, Blake's earlier theological master.

"Heaven" here is the sterile abode of after-life which Urizenic

Reason and Morality have set up as paradise. "Hell" is the dark power of Energy more compatible with Blake's idea of paradise, but which becomes a fearful, fiery pit to the tyrannized populace.

Blake's voice is that of the devil in one long passage that il­ lustrates the vitality of imaginative religion:

[ The Devil Speaks]

All Bibles or sacred codes have been the causes of the following Errors: 1. That Man has two real existing principles: Viz: a Body & a Soul. 2. That Energy, call'd Evil, is alone from the Body; & that Reason, call'd Good, is alone from the Soul. 3. That God will torment Man in eternity for following his Energies. But the following Contraries of these are True: 1.Man has not Body distinct from his Soul; for that call'd Body is a portion of Soul discern'd by the five Senses, the chief inlets of Soul in . this age, ' 2. Energy is the only life, and is from the Body; and Reason is the bound or outward circumference of Energy. 3.Energy is Eternal Delight. Those who restrain desires do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained; and the restrain­ er or reason .usurps its place & governs the unwilling„ And being restrain6d it by degrees becomes passive, till it is only the shadow of desire« The history of this is written in Paradise Lost, & the Governor or Reason is call'd Mess­ iah e o e But in the Book of Job, Milton's Messiah is call'd Satan... It indeed appear'd to Reason as if Desire was east out; but the Devil's account is, that the Messiah fell, & formed a heaven of what he stole from the Abyss. This is shewn in the Gospel, where he prays to the Father to send the comforter, or Desire, that Reason may have Ideas to build on; the Jehovah of the Bible being no other than he who dwells in flaming fire...10

Later Blake scathes the complacent world of Urizen with a few

"Proverbs of Hell" such as!

Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of religion. The pride of the peacock is the glory of God. The lust of the goat is the bounty of God. The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God. The nakedness of woman is the work of God..

A short course in the history of religion during the Jehovah cycle follows shortly!

The ancient Poets animated all sensible objects with Gods or Geniuses.«. Till a system was formed, which some took advantage of, & enslav'd the vulgar by attempt­ ing to realize or abstract the mental deities from their objects: thus began Priesthood; Choosing forms of worship from poetic tales. And at length they prondunc'd that the Gods had ordered such things. Thus men forgot that All deities reside in the human breast.12

And finally, the last "Memorable Fancy," a dialogue between a Devil

(Blake) and an Angel, deserves to be quoted extensively, since the 30 portrait of Christ is perhaps the most vivid in Blake6 s poetrys

[The Devil Speaks]

,sThe worship of God is: Honouring his gifts in other men, each according to his genius, and loving the greatest men bests those who envy or calumniate the great men hate God; for there is no other God.i9.«. The Angel speaks "Thou Idolater! is not God One? & is not he visible in J esus Christ? and has not Jesus Christ given his sanction to the law of ten commandments? and are not all other men fools, sinners, & nothings?" The Devil answer'd: "bray a fool in morter with wheat, yet shall not his folly be beaten out of him; if Jesus Christ is the greatest man, you ought to love him in the greatest degree; now hear how he has given his sanction to the law of ten commandments: did he not mock at the sabbath and so mock the sabbath's God? murder those who were murder'd because of him? turn away the law from the woman taken in adultery? steal the labor of others to support him/ bear false witness when he pray'd for his disciples, and when he bid them shake off the dust of their feet against such as refused to lodge them? I" tell you, no virtue can exist without breaking these ten commandments, Jesus was all virtue^ and acted from impulse, not from rules.61.. .^-3

In many ways Europe (179*0 is simply a continuation of America.

The imaginative revolution has spread across the sea, and all Europe now has broken loose from Urizen's chains. In Europe, however, we find one important theme not before explicitly dealt with by Blake; the contrast between Christ's first and second coming.^

Christ's first coming is the most important event of history to date, but the second coming will pale all preceding events, since then Christ will come to complete what merely had been a furtive

Ore cycle eighteen hundred years ago. Blake contrasts the first and second coming along lines parallel to his contrast of immature and 31 mature innocence. When Christ first came it was (symbolically) as an infant in restrictive swaddling bands, This restricted infancy is symbolic of Christ’s helpless singularity, i.e., he was doomed to quick destruction by the forces of Urizen. The prophecy of Europe opens with a hint of Milton’s Nativity Odes

The deep of winter came What time the secret child Descended thro6 the orient gates of eternal days War ceas’d & all the troops like ishadows fled to their abodes.15

Unlike Milton, Blake does not see in Christ’s nativity the fulfillment of the world, but only the emergence of a defenseless babe with whom the forces of Urizen can deal easily. At Christ’s birth, Los (the spirit of prophecy whom we will deal with in detail later) heralds in a new ages

Awake the thunders of the deepI Arise, 0 Ore, from thy deep den!...

And. we will crown thy head with garlands...1^

But Los’ wife, Enitharmon, has become an agent of U r i z e n , and she acts quickly to stifle the messiahS

Then Enitharmon down descended into his red light. And thus her voice rose to her childrens the distant heavens replys

’’Now comes the night of Enitharmon6s joy! Who shall I call? Who shall D send, That Woman, lovely Woman, may have dominion?... Go! tell the Human race that Woman’s love is Sin; That 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.^ 32

Bnitharaon thus partly represents the old Mosaic law which incorporated itself into the Christian Church. The Christian Church is that bodyj formulated upon the death of Christ, which has at­ tempted to chain Man by its laws. This Church is part of Urizen, and has ruled long in complacency, just as ?9Enitharmon slept eight­ een hundred years.**19

Jesus, in his first coming, was a reappearance of Ore which represented a challenge to Urizen, This coming was easily dealt with by the non-imaginative ruling force. But where Christ was then a small voice in the multitude, he has now announced his second coming in the world revolution begun by France-and America, Christ comes the second time not as an infant but as a force of destruction which shall topple the ruling orders

But terrible Ore, when he beheld the morning in the east, Shot from the heights of Enitharmon. And in the vineyards of red France appear'd the light of his fury. 1

The sun glow'd fiery redI The furious terrors flew around On golden chariots raging with red wheels dropping with blood5 The Lions lash their wrathful tailst The Tigers couch upon the prey & suck the ruddy tide. And Enitharmon groans & cries in anguish and dismay.

Then Los arose; his head he rear'd in snaky thunders clad; And with a cry that shook all nature to the utmost P®--® 9 on Call'd all his sons to the strife of blood.

And with the thundrous rising of Los, it is perhaps an oppor­ tune place to begin discussion of this second major Christ symbol of the early Prophetic Books, Los is most clearly visualized and centrally important in the two prophecies bearing his name 9 The Book

of Los and The Song of Los, both composed in 1795•

Los is the spirit of prophecy which hails the coming of Ore,

and rejoices in him. There have been many Ore cycles in the history

of Man, and the spirit of prophecy has been an integral part of them

all,

Blake calls Los the father of Ore, and what he essentially means by it is this S. the idea is father to the a c t i o n . Los

symbolizes the imaginative vision in Man, that quality which allows him to be a true poet, to see the world wholly and clearly. The

imagination is creative, and it creates Ore. Imagination and

68 creation69 equal the same thing in Blake, and it is the imaginative

or creative quality in which Man shows his Godliness. The whole

process is devoid of external "otherness". The entire of Blake’s

symbolism resides within the human mind or minds.

In reality, Los is an independent, permanent quality of the

universe, whereas Ore is a temporal manifestation whose raison d ’etre

is as a weapon against the tyrannical Urizen. Without Urizen there

would be no need for Ore any more than without■cold there would be

any need for manufactured heat,

Los and Ore thus reside often in the single human breast,

Jesus is, the perfect example, since he is basically an imaginative

poet who stirs revolution. In his first coming, however, the forces

of Urizen against him were so great that he was as a mere babe, a

helpless fly to be brushed away, as we saw in Europe. While

Enitharmon slept, however, the mind of Christ sank deeper into the minds of all men. The political revolutions were a sign that the imaginative minds of men were stirring9 that Los was creating a new army of Ores at a phantastic pace, and that in his second coming Christ would appear to the forces of Urizen not as a struggling infant, but full blown and powerful, with an army at his back.

Blake sees himself as Los, the true prophetic poet. His work

thus takes on monumental significance, since it becomes, in its own

limited way, a catalytic organ of God by spreading the spirit of Los

and thus helping unleash the terrible ppwer of a renewed Ore.

In The Book of Los, Blake relates the history of this pro- 22 phetic spirit. Eno begins, wailing over the fallen worlds

8t0 Times remote! When Love & Joy were adoration, And none impure were deemed...

6Till Covet broke his locks & bars And slept with open doors; Envy sung at the rich man8s feast...

Los became part of this fallen worlds

The Eternal Prophet, bound in a chain Compelled to watch Urizen8s shadow...

Los lost his eternal state, and became part of the void by

plunging to the abyss S

Falling, falling, Los fell & fell. Sunk precipitant, heavy, down, down, Times on times, night on night, day on day— Truth has bounds. Error none— -falling, falling... ^

Los begins to collect his senses, and consciously creates

a visible world from the darkness. He begins to organize crude life,

then turns to organizing conscious life and human form,^ Los

perceives SiThe Back bone of Urizen andl 35 Los, astonish’d and terrified, built Furnaces; he formed an Anvil, A Hammer of adamants then began The binding of Urizen day and night...

the Prophet Of Eternity beat on his iron links... '

Los, with his Furnace and Anvil, becomes a blacksmith, a divine artificer. With the Furnace, Hammer and Anvil of imagination pO the prophet binds Urizen. Northrup Frye finds several interesting analogues to Los the blacksmith, some of which Blake had possibly heards

Los is thus one of the divine smiths whom we often meet in mythology. We are reminded of the smith-god Hephaistos, one of the binders of Prome­ theus in Aeschylus, who escaped Prometheus8 fate because his work in fire has been done for immortal gods rather than mortal men...In Thor, whose hammer carves out valleys and whose strength was almost, though not quite, sufficient to tear the world- serpent loose, we are close to Los. Certain taboos on iron in the Old Testament and the fact that the Israelites under the tyranny of the Phili­ stines were denied smiths (a passage refered to in the Areonagitica) fit the same pattern. The vision of regenerating the universe by some process carried on with metal and fire is the central conception of alchemic philosophy, and this is linked with the fact that Blake8~ ' rocess is an art employing metal

In The Song of Los we see the hero at work much later, during revolutionary uprisings in Africa and Asia. Los and Urizen have been battling since the beginning of time. How Los, through Blake, is celebrating his great moment in anticipation of Christ’s second coming:

I will sing you a song of Los, the Eternal Prophets He sung it to four harps at the tables of Eternity. In heart-formed Africa Urizen faded$ Ariston shuddered?

The Kings of Asia heard The howl rise up from Europe.„« r And cried in bitterness of soul:

MShall not the king call for Famine from the heath];,. Shall not the Councellor throw his curb Of Poverty on the laborious, To fix the price of labour, To invent allegoric riches?.,.

■The Song ends triumphantly, and !,Urizen Wept68 to see his world falling

to destruction.

This chapter has been mainly concerned with the analysis of

two major symbols in Blake's early prophetic books, Los and Ore, with

an attempt to show how these symbols are organically One with the

figure of Jesus Christ, the poet's major prophetic image. It would

be misleading to give the impression that Blake's only concern during

this period was with these few symbols, Blake's entire career is one

of constant experimentation. His work represents an abiding interest

in developing new symbols, new vehicles of communication for his pro­

found visions. Consequently, in reading Blake's poetry one comes

across a multitude of symbolic names, some comprehensible, others

completely mystifying. Blake used other symbols for Christ, but often

used each only once or twice, discarding it after some inadequacy in

the symbol was shown. For example, Fuzon appears in The Book of Ahania

as an opponent of Urizen. Fuzon is a revolutionary whose spear

..,Tore through That beaten mass, keeping its direction The cold loins of Urizen dividing... 31

Urizen, however, succeeds in confusing and finally killing Fuzon and 37

On the accursed Tree of Mystery On the topmost stem of this Tree, Urizen nail9d Fuzon’s c o r s e . ^2

Puson has unmistakable connection with Christ and Ore, but Blake undoubtedly felt that Fuzon was a symbol inadequate for further development since we see no more of him. The symbols that interest us most are those which we can trace through many stages of Blake’s poetic career, Los, Ore and Urizen are such symbols,

To understand these, and for that matter all of Blake’s symbols, it is necessary to perceive the levels of reality on which they operate.

Los, Ore and Urizen are operative in the physical world, as mani­

festations like the Hebrew prophets (Los), Jesus Christ (both Los and

Ore) and empirical philosophy (Urizen), Since Man perceives these

operatives in the world, they also have a reality within his single

brain. A man has the potential to live in the mind of Christ (i.e.,

be both Los and Ore) but his potentials are imprisoned by the powers

of Reason and Selfness in this fallen world.

Perhaps the second most important point to grasp is the inter­

acting relationships between the forces of Los, Ore and Urizen. In

early works, like ’’The Tyger69, we see an Ore symbol that seems to have

a nature of independence, an absolute value. This is also true of the

early Los symbols found in the two introductory poems of Songs of

Innocence and Experience, which could well be called ’’The Piper” and

’’The Bard”. In reading these poems we feel that the Ore and Los

symbols are independent creations, working perhaps for the same

ultimate end but by different means, one a poetic visionary, the other

a terrifying force of destruction. 38

But the truth is that Ore is a natural child of Los and

Enitharmon. In The Book of Urizen we are told that fallen Los

perceives the female Enitharmon (the "otherness^ of Nature) and pities

her. Los and Enitharmon beget Ore, at this time only 89a Worm within

her Womb.'*^^ Ore evolves to human form within the womb and later, of

course, is useful to Los in his battle with U r i z e n . ^ Los and Urizen

have existed from eternity, first in an unfallen state, where they

had split into warring factions with Los striving to regain unity and

Urizen striving to retain separation. With these relationships in

mind we will proceed to a short chapter concerning itself with the

prophecies written after 1800.

) CHAPTER IV

THE LATER PROPHECIES

The later prophecies of William Blake consist of three long poems9 The Four Zoas. Milton«■ and Jerusalem, all finished between

1800 and 1805» They are longer9 more epic in flavor, and wider in scope than the early prophecies, but they essentially deal with the same basic Los-Orc-Urizen combination we have been discussing.

The Four -Zoas is the first of the triad. In this poem

Blake tried to envision the history of Man from the Fall to

Apocalypsei The poet9s notion of human history has already been discussed in Chapters I and III. Two relatively minor Christ images emerge in The Four Zoas to supplement Los and Ore, These are

Urthona and Luvah, who are in reality only other names for Los and

Ore respectively. Blake used Urthona and Luvah to give his epic wider scope, to stress the difference between eternal forms (Urthona and Luvah) and temporal, earthly forms (Los and Ore).

Los was the fourth immortal starry one Zoa , & in the Earth Of a bright Universe, Empery attended day & night, Days & nights of revolving joy. Urthona was his name In Eden; in the Auricular Nerves of Human Life, Which is the Earth of Eden, he his Emanations propagated...

Urthona (Los) and his emanation Enitharmon produce Luvah (Ore) and his female principle Vala.

l?The Fallen Man takes his repose, Urizen sleeps in the porch,

39 40

MLuvah and Vala wake & fly up from the Human Heart "Into the brain from thence; upon the pillow Vala slumber "And Luvah seized the Horses of Light & rose into the Chariot of D a y . 3

However, the very attempt at creating a Christian metaphysics obscures

.and betrays the non-metaphysical nature of Christ. Therefore,

although Urthona and Luvah are attempts to represent Los and Ore metaphysically, they d.o not really have anything to do with Christ himself, and to treat them as Christ figures would be to confuse the

essence of all that has gone before. The mind of Christ is a real, physical force in the world, not an abstraction. Blake loathed all

abstractions and turned to them in the later prophecies only in an

attempt to describe the universe as he saw it.

The Four Zoas is a poem in nine, parts (called "Eights81 by

Blake) which describes the Fall and subsequent history of Man. History

is the result of interaction between four principles (Zoas) within

Man. These four Zoas are as follows5 Urizen. the single vision in

which Man is capable only of a rational, abstract thought. This is

Ulro, or hell. Abstract thinkers like mathematicians and logicians

could be living quite within the bounds of Urizen; Ore (or, in the

metaphysical form, Luvah) the two-fold vision. This is the world we

know by our senses. It consists of the mind and what the mind

perceives in the natural world. Ore without Los is imprisoned in

this two-fold vision, e.g., as he was chained under Mt. Atlas in

America; Tharmas, the imaginative world of human love and pastoral

delight. This three-fold vision transcends the subject-object world,

but does not equal the paradise of imaginative creation; Los (or, in 41 the metaphysical form, Urthona) the creative imagination, the vision in which subject and object fuse. This is Eden, or Paradise, and is the four-fold vision incorporating itself and the other three.^

These principles act together in human history and produce the progression of The Four Zoas. A capsule description of these Zoas is contained in a letter to Blake’s friend Thomas Butts.

Mow I a fourfold vision see. And a fourfold vision is given to me; *Tis fourfold in my supreme delight And threefold in soft Beulah’s night And twofold always. May God us keep From Single vision & Mewton’s sleep.5

The nine parts of The Four Zoas are easily distinguishable.

Mights I-III describe the Fall; Nights 17-VII, the cyclical nature of history with reference to the interaction of Los, Ore and Urizens

Night VIII, the emergence of Christ and. Antichrist as principles following the crucifixtion (i.e., the manifestations of Los and Ore as against Church theology, rational philosophy, etc., in the modern world); Might IX, the Apocalypse. Blake has essentially gathered the fragmentary material of his earlier poetry and reworked it into one long poem. The new parts are the metaphysical trappings and stress on Apocalypse at the end, neither of which have much to do with the

6 ' living, working Christ.

Jerusalem is in many ways another Four Zoas. We have the same relation of history from Fall to Apocalypse, but this time nationalism creeps in, as Albion66 (England) is made an integral symbol of the new Jerusalem, or heavenly city of Apocalypse. 42

J erusalem is essentially an elaborate description of Blake6 s

cyclical theory of history. Each cycle of history is an Ore cycle, and Jesus becomes the seventh and last of an Ore cycle, and Jesus becomes the seventh and last of these. One interesting point to dwell

on here is ma k e ' s conception of 61 orthodox1'4 Jesus, the man of meek­ ness, passion and resurrection. For Blake, the true Jesus is a vision

of energy not passion. He effects forgiveness through brilliance of imagination not through meekness or pity. The vision of J esus as

piteous, meek and. humble is a manifestation of Antichrist, and be­

comes a. weapon by which Antichrist (the Church morality and secular

government especially) may keep the populace in subjection. Why then

did Jesus, at times, present himself as a figure of meekness? Blake

reasons that he did this only to consolidate error, and became the

56Satanic body of Holiness** to illustrate, for Man, that contraries

exist within the single human breastI^

Los cries g **Ho Individual ought to appropriate to Himself Or to his Emanation any of the Universal Characteristics Of Davis or of Eve, of the Woman or of the Lord. Of Reuben or of Benjamin, of Joseph of Judah or Levi. Those who dare appropriate to themselves Universal Attributes Are the Blasphemous Selfhoods, & must be broken asunder. A vegetated Christ & a Virgin Even are the Herma­ phroditic Blasphemy, by his Maternal Birth he is that evil one [Italics mine] And his Maternal Humanity must be put off literally. Lest the Sexual Generation swallow up Regeneration. Come Lord Jesus, take on thee the Satanic Body of Holiness! 6e8 Jesus throws off his 6lvegetatedee nature, and, in doing so, becomes, in death, MsatanicM himself. The key for Man lies in separating the Christ from the .Antichrist, and this can be done only through the power of imagination. To cr.eate the New Jerusalem on

England's shore, Man must accept the Jesus of action and dismiss the meek Jesus.

. Milton, the middle poem of the three chronologically, is the most important for this study. 9 it j.s not an historical epic like

J erusalem or The Four Zoas. Instead of dwelling upon an obscure metaphysics which does little but cloud the issue, in Milton Blake returns to the more concrete world of his own personal experience.

In the early prophecies Blake was able to anchor his imaginative ideas in the. social ferment of the times. In Milton, he turns away from the rhapsodic description of Creation and Apocalypse. Blake instead deals with the relationships between four forces— himself,

Milton, Antichrist (in the form of his one-time patron, Hayley) and

J esus-Los.

Milton represents Blake’s most important thoughts on the organic unity of poetry and religion. All real poetry is a form of prophecy, i.e., a manifestation of Los. Jesus Christ was the greatest poet, the purest fusion of poetry and religion. The Hebrew prophets, led by Moses, were the greatest poets before Jesus. Since Jesus, the greatest poet has been Milton. Jesus was the zenith of poetry, while both the Hebrew prophets and Milton represent incomplete poetic vision.

Milton opens with a Preface which celebrates the greatness of

Biblical, Hebrew poetry over the essentially Hrizenic work of the 44 classical tradition i

The Stolen and Perverted Writings of Homer & Ovid, Of Plato & Cicero,-which all men ought to contemn, are set up by artifice against the sublime of the Bible...10

John Milton8s problem was that he became too much influenced by this pernicious traditions

Shakespeare & Milton were both curb’d by the general malady & infection from the Silly 1 Greek & Latin slaves of the Sword...11

What budding poets must now do is return poetry to its former greatness;

We do not want either Greek or Roman Models if we are but just & true to our own Imag­ inations, those Worlds of Eternity in which we shall live for ever in JESUS OUR LORD...I2

In Book the First, Milton succeeds in reincarnating himself in Blake, Milton, ’"who walk’d about in Eternity/One hundred years, 13 pond8ring the intricate mazes of Providence" realizes how incom­ plete his poetry had been when he was on Earth. He resolves to redeem himself by returning to the world in the body of Blake.

Milton and Blake unite to produce a super poet capable of fusing with

Christ, and thus becoming an integral part of Mis second coming.

Before Blake-Milton can unite with Christ, however, Blake must destroy the symbol of Antichrist in himself. This Satanic element is represented by Hayley, Blake’s narrow-minded patron during the years at Felpham. Hayley becomes a repressor of Blake’s genius, and when the poet revolts at bondage, "Satan" Hayley

Accus’d Palamabron [Blake] before the Assembly of ingratitude, of malice. 45

He created Seven deadly Sins, drawing out his infernal scroll Of Moral laws and cruel punishments upon the clouds of Jehovah.» .

Satan-Hayley is thus poignantly linked with the pernicious law-giver,.Jehovah. This is perhaps the most bizarre argument against patronage in the history of literature.

Milton and Blake unite and become a comprehensive Los. Book the Second deals with the destruction of Satan within this union and the subsequent preparation for Apocalypse. In this sense, Milton is a mere prelude to J erusalem, in which Apocalypse is finally achieved.

Milton-Blake becomes a herald of Christ’s second coming. In fact, the Miltonic descent into the physical world represents a re­ currence of the Christian myth 'itself. Milton comes, as Christ, to redeem the vision of God. The Milton who wrote Paradise Lost is analogous to Moses. Both were imperfect prophets because they stressed morality instead of imaginative energy. Milton’s God in Paradise Lost is a moralizeri

...in the Book of Job, Milton’s Messiah is call’d Satan...in Milton, the Father is Destiny, the Son a Ratio of the five senses, & the Holy-ghost Vacuum... 45

But Milton was a great poet, and his portrait of Satan shows its

The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels & God, and at liberty when of Devils & Hell, is because he was a true Poe£ and of the • Devil’s party without knowing it,-*-0

In Eternity, Milton realizes his errors and returns to Earth, like

Christ, to redeem and fulfill mankind. kG

In Blake6 s theosophy the poet-prophet thus becomes the most

important single figure in the world. He is a combination of Los

(prophecy) and Ore (revolt), and because of this fusion, he becomes

One with Christ, who, in the physical world, is this same fusion.

Blake9s energetic, almost fanatic preoccupation with prophetic

poetry can thus easily be understood. The poet considered himself to be Christ and, as such, the redeemer of the world. To Blake, his

prophecies were perhaps the most important thing to happen in the world

since the life of Jesus himself. Blake9s genius was an unwieldy one, however, and perhaps discouragement from friends and public led him to 1*7 stop producing prophecies after 1804. He turned more and more to his other artistic pursuits in the following years. The next, and

last, significant poem was The Everlasting Gospel, written in 1818.

This poem is .perhaps the most valuable of all Blake9 s works for its

explication of his idea of Jesus. It probably represents his final

thoughts on the subject, and, in the next chapter, we shall try to

determine what those thoughts were. CHAEFER V

THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL

The Everlasting Gospel, the name given to a fragmentary, disjoined group of verses found scattered through the Rosetti MS, probably represents William Blake’s final words on the Christ figure he had been so preoccupied with during his lifetime. Very little of Blake’s essential viewpoint seems to have changed in the thirty years between The Songs of Innocence and the Gospel. The vital, living image of Christ which Blake had conjured up out of his own psyche for wThe Tyger” or MNightw remained quite unchanged throughtthe prophetic books to the time of his death.

The key word to an understanding of Blake’s Christ is vitality, an endowment of brilliant energy which Blake found em­ bedded in himself, and in which he discovered a spark of divinity to be defended, pursued, and preached about for the rest of his life.

The Everlasting Gospel is perhaps Blake’s most extreme indictment of orthodox Christianity and modern morality in general. His power is intense, his tone cutting and angry.

In the poem, Blake explains the Christian, “Everlasting81 gospels

What can this Gospel of Jesus be? What Life & Immortality, What was it that he brought to Light That Plato & Cicero did not write? The Heathen Deities wrote them all,

4? X

These Moral 'Virtues, great & small. What is the Accusation of Sin But Moral Virtues9 deadly Gin? The Moral Virtues in their Pride Did o ’er the World triumphant ride In Wars and Sacrifice for Sin, And Souls to Hell ran trooping in. The Accuser, Holy God of All This Pharisaic, Worldly Ball, Amidst them in his Glory Beams Upon the Rivers & the Streams, Then Jesus rose & said to Me, "Thy Sins are all forgiven thee,"

J esus brought forgiveness of sins where there had been only morality

before among the Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans, When Jesus comes to

break the old moral law, the powers of Urizen rise to crush the re­

formers

Loud Pilate Howl’d, loud Caiaphas yell’d When they the Gospel Light beheld,,, The Moral Virtues in Great fear Formed the Cross & Nails & Spear, And the Accuser standing by Cried out, "CrucifyS Crucify$",.. The fruit of my [Satan’s] Mysterious Tree Of Good & Evil & Misery And Death & Hell, which now begin On everyone who Forgives Sin, <>.3

Christ dies on the Tree of Mystery, and all "mysteries" which have

become part of the degenerate Christian religion are part of this

same Tree, Blake taunts the orthodox Christian, whose viewpoint he

feels is really the viewpoint of .Antichrist I

The Vision of Christ that thou dost see Is my Vision’s Greatest Enemy: ' Thine has a great hook nose like thine, Mine has a snub nose like to mine,,. Thine loves the same world that mine hates, Thy heaven doors are my Hell gates,,. 49

Christ is bom, and from the time of youth he begins to flout the old law of Urizen and mold himself into a new Orc-Losl

When twelve years old he ran away And left his parents in dismay,,. ■ Satan gloried in his pride, ,,ComeM said Satan, "come away... "Obedient fall down, worship me.""'

Jesus refuses mundane temptation and, as Ore, breaks loose from cap­ tivity!

The God of this World raged in vain! He [Christ] bound Old Satan in his Chain,., He curs’d the Scribe and Pharisee, Trampling down Hipocrisy... He took on Sin in the Virgin’s Womb, And put it off on the Cross & Tomb ^ To be worshipped by the Church of Rome.

Blake again attacks the notion that Christ was humble and meek. Christ really represented himself as being humble so as to avoid "The Miser’s net & the Glutton’s trap." God is not humble, but proud!

He who Roves-his Enemies, hates his Friends! This is surely not what Jesus intends... But he acts with triumphant, honest pride, And this is the Reason Jesus died. If he had been Antichrist, Creeping Jesus, He’d have done anything to please us... God wants not Man to humble himself! This is the Trick of the Ancient Elf... "If thou humbles thyself, thou humblest me; "Thou also dwelst in Eternity. "Thou art a Man, God is no more, "Thine own Humanity learn to Adore,.."'

The section on the Christian holy family is vivid, even

shocking, in its attacks on the traditional notions of Jesus and

Mary as chaste individuals! 50

Was J esus Chaste? or did he Give any Lessons of Chastity? The morning blush’d fiery red; „ Mary was found in Adulterous bed;

Jesus takes on the form of fallen Man; therefore, he should come even as the result tof worldly woes

Was Jesus Born of a Virgin Pure With narrow Soul & looks demure? If he intended to take on Sin The Mother should an Harlot been...9

The Gospel, as we have it, ends with the irony of Caiaphas6 denunciation of Jesus as an immoral, lawless criminals

,?He mock’d the Sabbath, & he mock’d ’’The Sabbath’s God, & he unlock’d ’’The Evil spirits from their Shrines. „. ”0’erturned the Tent of Secret Sins... ”He scorn’d Earth’s Parents, scorn’d Earth’s God, "And mock’d the one & the other’s Rod; "His Seventy Disciples sent "Against Religion & Government... "He left his Father’s trade to roam "A wand’ring Vagrant without Home; "And thus he other’s labour stole "That he might live above Controll. "The Publicans & Harlots he "Selected for his Company, "And from the Adulteress turn’d away "God’s righteous Law, that lost its Prey."-®

The mind of Caiaphas still lives, as an embodiment of Urizen.

The same sins which Jesus committed are being punishfed in eighteenth century England, as they were in the degenerate Roman-Hebrew civi­ lization of occupied Israel.

But in this obvious exaggeration of facts, the poet makes his enduring points moral religion is with us and has been with us since the Fall of Man. The very religion which pretends to follow the teachings of Jesus is in reality this moral religion over again. CmCLTJSXON

The forgoing discussion of the Christ image in Blake’s poetry is by no means complete but is, I hope, thorough enough in essence to give a clear picture of the poet’s thoughts on Jesus Christ, who is perhaps the most compelling figure in the history of Man.

There has been no attempt to analyze completely the later

prophecies. That would be a major undertaking in itself; and, as has been shown in many attempts to explicate these prophecies entirely,

it is often an exasperating impossibility.

Fortunately, the. later prophecies, or at least as much of

them as I can understand with any degree of certainty, have little

material on the figure of Christ which had not been previously noted

in the early books. For some interesting theories (that often dissolve

into wild, if interesting, conjecture) I refer the reader especially

to Northrop Frye’s Fearful Symmetry (pp. 269-^03) and. David Erdman’s

Blake: Prophet Against Empire (parts five, six and seven).

Whether we can agree or not with Blake’s notion of Jesus Christ,

it must be admitted that the portrait of the Christian saviour in

Blake’s poetry is compelling, profound and powerful, Blake molded his ■

vision of Christ into the projection of his own personality. Christ-

Blake was firmly convinced, that 'all restraint of Man’s preternatural

desire was evil. This desire, whatever form it could take in the eyes

of fallen, reasonable society, was essentially the urge to imaginative

51 52 union with God. Blake9 and Blake6s Christ, could see only one solution to the fallen world’s dilemma— — imaginative revolution which would eventually lead to Apocalypse, the interaction of Los and Ore purified by the vision of Jesus Christ which would result in ever­ lasting life. BOTES TO CHAPTER I

\ 1 0 Blake seems to use the names "Jesus," "Christ,68 and "Jesus Christ" indiscriminately„ I have tended to do the same in this paperc

2e Henry Crabb Robinson, Blaken Coleridgen Wordsworth. lamb, etc. edited by Edith J . Morley (Manchester, 1922) p. 3«.

3. Most of Frye9s material on Blake9s vision of history is found in the chapter entitled "The City of God," especially pp. 360-380. Since the material is here often condensed I have omitted footnotes to avoid confusion except where Frye is cited directly.

4. "Prophetic" as used in this paper refers to the visionary, mystical comprehension of reality, not to prediction of future events.

5. William Blake, Vala, or The Four Zoas, Poetry and Prose of William Blake, edited by Geoffrey Keynes, the lonesuch one volume edition^London, 1932) p. 286. All quotations from Blake9s works are from this edition unless otherwise stated. I have retained the spelling, capitalization and punctuation of this edition.

6. Horthrup Frye, Fearful Symmetry (Boston, 1962) p. 360.

7° ffagt i m l a g & M Gospel, p. 132. 8 . Ibid.« p. 138

9. Here, for all intents and purposes, Vala represents Mother Nature.

10. Vala, or The Four Zoas, p. 322.

11. Frye, p. 75.

12. Blake9s Annotations to "Poems" by William Wordsworth, p. 1024.

13. Blake9 s Annotations to Berkeley9 s "Siris88- pp. 1022-23.

14. There is No Natural Religion, pp. 147-48.

53 15o See especially David Erdman9s Blake i Prophet Against Empire5 Mark 5choreres Slakes The Politics of Visions and Jacob Bronowski8s Man Without a Mask, NOTES TO CHAPTER II

1. See especially Fester Damonas William Blake 8 M s Philosophy and Symbols and Joseph Wieksteed® s Blake0s Innocence E x B g M e n c e .

2, Songs of Innocence and of Experiencea p. 31=

3= Ibid. a p. 51=

4, The Everlasting Gospel„ p. 1^2.

6. Gospela p. 133=

?. Innoeenee0 “Spring 9 61 p. 61.

8. Ibid.. “The Shepherd,“ p. 52.

9= Ibid. o “Night,61 p. 6l.

10. Ibid.. “A Dream,61 pp. 61-62.

11. Ibid.. 81 On Another®s Sorrow,66 p. 6 3 .

12. Ibid., “The Divine Image,61 p. 58.

13. Experience. “The Tyger,11 pp. 72-73=

14. Ibid.. “Earth®s Answer,61 pp. 65-66.

15. Ibid. $ “The Garden of Love,65 p.

16. Ibid.. “A Little Girl Lost,65 p. 7 8 .

17. Ibid.. “The Chimney Sweeper,11 p. 70.

18. Refer again to Frye, Chapter Nine, (see note 3 to Chapter One).

19= Experience. “To Tirzah,45 p. 79=

55 NOTES TO CHAPTER III

I- The Everlasting Gospel, p. 131.

2. Experienceo ^The Little Vagabonds,’6 PP» 74-75»

3= Possibly from the Latin #oreusM or the Anglo-Saxon ’’ore-neas.”

4o Frye9 Chapter II (see my Chapter I 9 note three).

5. Wilson9 pp. 47-48.

6. Frye, p. 204.

?. David Erdman, Blakes Prophet Against Empire. (London, 1954) p. 150. The ’’Deliverer of Poetical Sketches” refers perhaps to Gordred in the ballad ’’Grains, King of Norraay,” In the poem Grain is supported by the nobility, and together they oppress the poor. Gordred leads the poor in revolution, and later kills Grain. Other material in the Sketches shows Blake9s interest in political and social revolution, e.g., ’’King Edward the Third” and ’’Prologue to King John.” (for Erdman8s material on Grain and Gordred, see especially pp. 19-28). I cannot, however, find evidence to show that this early work has any connection with the later religious and philosophical poetry of revolution.

8 . America, p. 220.

9. It must always be stressed that we are concerned only with Blake9s idea of Jesus. The ’’real” historical Jesus may have been quite different from Blake’s notion of him, but that is immaterial for the creative artist. The Everlasting Gospel (especially section i, pp. 142-43) provides an interesting parallel to the above quoted portion of America.

10. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, pp. 191-92.

11. Ibid.. p. 192.

12. Ibid.. p. 195.

13. Ibid.. p. 202.

14. This general exegesis of Europe is based on Erdman9s account. See Erdman, pp. 244-249.

56 57

15® Europea p 0 234.

16. Ibid.9 p. 235®

1?. This goes back ultimately to the idea of -'female will 0 58

18. Europe, p. 235®

19® Ibid.$ p. 236.

20. Ibid. y p. 241 .M®

21. this I refer to a notion found in philosophical idealism which roughly states that the truth of reality lies in the mental idea.

22. See this paper$ p. 1.

23® 'The Book of Los, p. 26?.

24. Ibid.j p. 2680

25® Ibid.. o. 269.

26, Fryes p. 257®

27® The Book of Los, p. 271

28. Frye5 p. 252.

29. Ibid.. p. 252=53®

30® The Song of Los, pp. 273-75®

31® The Book of ihania. p. 259®

32. Ibid.. p. 262.

33® The First Book of Urizen.p. 253°

34. In The First Book of Prizen Blake relates how Orewas b o m the natural son of Los and Enitharmon (who ultimately represents the' negative pity and female will into which Man has allowed himself to fall). Los8 fear of Urizen and pity for Mankind are reason enough to create this imperfect force called Ore. (see Fryes pp. 257-59)» NOTES TO CHAPTER I?

1« Frye9 p„ 269»

2. The Four Zoas*, p» 278=

3<> Ibid., p. 288,

4. Frye9 pp. 48-50; p. 272.

5= Letter to Thomas Butts9 p. 1068.

6. Frye, p. 278.

7o Ibid.o p. 28?«

8, Jerusalem, pp. 734^35-

9» This discussion of Milton draws heavily from Chapter 10 of Frye9 MComas Agonistes.66

10. Milton, p. 464.

11. Ibid., p. 464.

12. Ibid., p. 464

130 Ibid,, p. 466.

14. Ibid.. p. 4780

15» The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, p. 192,

16. Ibid.. p. 192.

I?. Chapters VI, VII and VIII of Wilson6s biography are good on the later years of Blake6s life, i.e. the period after 1804, MOTES TO CHAPTER V

1. Wilson, p. 335o

2, The Everlasting Gospel, p. 132,

3» Ibid,, p, 132»33<. 4, Ibid,. P. 133,

5« Ibid, ,' p. 133.

6, Ibid,, p. 13^-35.

7 , Ibid,, p, 1 3 5 -3 6 .

8, Ibid., p. 139-

9, Ibid., p. 142.

10. Ibid,, p. 14 2 = 4 3 .

59 ,BIBLIOGRAPHI

Blake9 ¥iHiam<> Letters„ Edited by Geoffrey Keynes» lew forks MacMillan9 1956,

Poetry and Prose of William Blake. Edited by Geoffrey Keynes. Complete in one volume. London! Nonesuch Press9 1932.

Bronowskij, Jacob. William Blake 1757=1827% A Man Without a Mask. Londons Selkert and Warburg® 1944,

Davies9 John Gordon. The Theology of William Blake. Oxfords Clarendon Press® 194-8.

Erdman, David V. Blake. Prophet Against Empire. Princetons iii;.:;:: : ■ Princeton University Press® 1954.

Frye® lorthrop. Fearful Symmetry. Prineetons Princeton University Press® 1947,

Hamblen® Emily S. On the Minor Prophecies of William Blake. London and Torontos J * M. Dent & Sons Ltd; Hew forks E. P. Dutton & Co.® 1930. Harper® George Mills. The Meoolatomism of William Blake. Chapel Hill; University of Horth Carolina Press® 1961.

Korteling® Jacomina. Mysticism in Blake and Wordsworth. Amsterdam! H. J. Paris® 1928. ,

Morton® Arthur Leslie. Hie Everlasting Gospel. Londons Lawrence Wishart® 1958.

Hurmi® Martin K. Blake0s Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Kent® Ohio; Kent State University® 1957.

Robinson® Henry Crabb. Blake. Wordsworth. Lamb, etc. Edited by Edith J. Morley. ' Manchester! The University Press; London® Hew fork® etc; Longmans® Green & Co.® 1922.

Schorer® Mark, The Polities of Vision. Hew forks H. Holt and Co.® 1946.

Wieksteed® Joseph Hartley. Blake9s Innocence and Experience. London & Toronto; J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd® Hew forks E. P. Dutton & Go.® 1928.

C 60 Wilson, Mona. The Life:of William Blake. Londons R® Hart"Davies, 1948c ' . -