sign in sign up
<<
Home , All Religions are One

1

『英米文化』47, 1–12 (2017) ISSN: 0917–3536

The Unity of Contraries in William ’s World of Vegetation

NAKAYAMA Fumi

Abstract

William Blake, English-romantic poet and copperplate artist, often compares human to vegetable organism in his late prophetic books. This paper is an attempt to ana- lyze the unity of ‘contraries’ through the association between Blake’s world of vegetation and the Bible, especially, The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel. First, I trace the sources of inspi- ration for Blake in Celtic culture, Christianity and philosophy. And next, I discuss the unity of contraries into ‘the Poetic Genius’ as Blake’s dialectic in his world of vegetation. Around the time when Blake wrote “To the Muses” in his first work, , muses were the very existence of scholarship. But gradually his confidence in muses began to waver. Muses are the daughters of ‘Mnemosyne’ and so Blake regarded the works inspired by muses as not exactly a good art. For Blake, ‘the Poetic Genius’ is the most important existence. As for the common terms between Blake’s and The Book of Ezekiel, I deal with two specific examples, the analogy of human likened to vegetable and ‘four.’ Both also have the similar plot, the division and unity of the personified ‘Jerusalem,’ and the process in which Jerusalem went to ruin, and later it was rebuilt as a theocracy.

1. Introduction

William Blake (1757–1827) is an English-romantic poet and copperplate engraving artist, and in his works, human is often compared to vegetable organism. This imagery is read par- ticularly in his late prophetic books, The Four Zoas (1795–1804), Milton (1804–08) and Jerusalem (1804–20). Before dealing with his world of vegetation, I trace the sources of inspiration for Blake in this chapter. In the opening of “Introduction” in Songs of Experience (1789–94), ‘the voice of the 2 『英米文化』47 (2017)

Bard,’ which Blake inspires us to hear, gives inspiration to him, and by using his imagina- tion he begins to create works. Imagination is the power which enables Blake’s visionary sensitivity, and in his prophetic books, ‘’ which personifies imagination branches out in the sky and vegetates to be a gigantic tree. “Introduction” of Songs of Experience begins with its narrator, “Hear the voice of the Bard! / 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;. . . .”1 Bards, which were sometimes confused with Druids, were Celtic poet-prophets, of great antiquity and authority.2 Bards have the same origin, ‘speculation,’ as Druids.3 As noted below, Evan Evans (1702–65), one of the most influential Welsh scholars of his day, provides a more interesting suggestion in De Bardis Dissertatio (1764). “The word Bâr means something like madness, that is to say the poetical frenzy by which the Bards felt that they were possessed. . . and which bears, without doubt, some analogy to that poetic fury or enthusiasm with which the poets fancied themselves, or might feign to be inspired.”4 And Evans follows, “Poetic inspiration was hardly a new idea.”5 Around the time when Blake wrote “To the Muses” in his first work, Poetical Sketches (1769–78), muses are the very existence of scholarship and all the more, he makes an appeal to them, “Fair Nine, forsaking Poetry! / How have you left the antient [ancient] love / That bards of old enjoy’d in you!”6 After he wrote “A work of Genius is a Work ‘Not to be obtain’d by the Invocation of Memory & her Syren Daughters, but by Devout prayer to the Eternal Spirit...’,”7 his confidence in muses began to waver. Muses are the daughters of ‘Mnemosyne (Memory)’ and so Blake regarded the works inspired by muses as not exactly a good art. In The Four Zoas, one of his late prophetic books, there is the following passage, “Daughter of , Sing / His fall into Division & his Resurrection to Unity:. . . .”8 ‘Beulah’ was the name given to Palestine when it was restored to God’s favor: “thy land [shall be called] Beulah: for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married” (Isaiah, 62:4). In Blake’s prophecy, it is the realm of the subconscious and the source of poetic inspiration and dreams.9 But from the time Blake considered ‘the Poetic Genius’ more important than the others, his way of thinking gradually changed. As will in the conclusion of this paper hereinafter be described in detail, this Poetic Genius is taken as synonymous with imagination, which is active in his prophecy as ‘Los.’ The vegetative ‘Los’ is read as a sign that Blake places NAKAYAMA Fumi The Unity of Contraries in William Blake’s World of Vegetation 3 emphasis on imagination. As described in , God created the universe, in the beginning the heavens and earth, the light and darkness on the first day, and the vault on the second day. On the third day, preceding the creation of human, that of the plants starts.

Then God said, ‘Let the earth produce growing things; let there be on the earth plants that bear seed, and trees bearing fruit each with its own kind of seed.’ So it was; the earth produced growing things: plants bearing their own kind of seed and trees bearing fruit, each with its own kind of seed; and God saw that it was good. Evening came, and morning came, the third day.” (Genesis, 1:11–13)10

The Bible is in some way a poetry which was compiled with a poetic talent, creativity and imagination. It has a consistent style of writing with figurative and symbolic expressions. Blake writes in The Laocoön (c.1820), “The Old & New Testaments are the Great Code of Art. Art is the Tree of Life. God is Jesus. Science is the Tree of Death.”11 The energy, which creates a variety of arts, is a poetic talent and imagination. And for Blake, this energy stems from the imagery of the trees. In the next chapter, I attempt to discuss the Blake’s world of vegetation12 in the associa- tion with The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel.

2. The world of ‘Vegetation’

There is the following passage in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (c.1790–93).

The Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel dined with me, and I asked them how they dared so roundly to assert that God spake to them; and whether they did not think at the time that they would be misunderstood, & so be the cause of imposition. (Keynes 153)

According to Thomas Wright’s (1928), in his boyhood days, Blake is quoted as saying to his father that he saw Ezekiel sitting behind blue tree branch.13 That seemed the old, tortured man, and Blake was sincerely sympathetic to his grievous cry. Since the age of four, he has seen ‘a vision,’ which was severely criticized by father. Nevertheless, Ezekiel had a profound effect on him. In the Blake’s favorite 4 『英米文化』47 (2017) books were The Book of Ezekiel, Isaiah, Daniel and Job. Of all the major prophets, Ezekiel was the most imaginative. Blake quotes Ezekiel and The Book of Ezekiel in his several pro- phetic books, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Jerusalem and so on. Jerusalem, believed as ‘the very centre of the world,’14 was invaded by Babylonian forces, and Ezekiel was taken away with the king and other leaders. While he was carried into Bab- ylonian captivity B.C.597, the heavens were opened and he saw the visions from God on the bank of the river Kebar. The Lord said to him, “O man, I am sending you to the Israelites, rebels who have rebelled against me. . . You are to say to them, ‘There are the words of the Lord God,’. . . .”(Ezekiel, 2:3–5) The writing style of The Book of Ezekiel abounds with alle- gories, parables, and visions. The plot is the process in which Jerusalem went to ruin, and later it was rebuilt as a theocracy. Jerusalem by Blake also has the similar plot, the division and unity of the personified ‘Jerusalem.’ In understanding the influence from Ezekiel with specific examples, at first, I deal with the analogy of human likened to vegetable, and in the next chapter, the other common terms between The Book of Ezekiel and Blake’s works.

Example 1 The Lord God says: As the wood of the vine among all kinds of wood from the for- est is useful only for burning, even so I treat the inhabitants of Jerusalem. (emphasis added) (Ezekiel, 15:6) Example 2 ‘Your mother was a vine planted by the waterside. It grew fruitful and luxuriant, for there was water in plenty. It had stout branches, scepters for those who bear rule. It grew tall, finding its way through the foliage; it was conspicuous for its height and many boughs. (emphasis added) (Ezekiel, 19:10–11) Example 3 This word of the Lord came to me: ‘O man, take one leaf of a wooden tablet and write on it, “Judah and the Israelites associated with him”. Then take another leaf and write on it, “Joseph, the leaf of Ephraim and all the Israelite tribes”. Now bring the two together to form one tablet; then they will be a folding tablet in your hand.15 (emphasis added) (Ezekiel, 37:15–19)

As stated above, there are several examples in which human is compared to vegetable in NAKAYAMA Fumi The Unity of Contraries in William Blake’s World of Vegetation 5

The Book of Ezekiel. And the following examples are shown in the Blake’s Jerusalem.

Example 1 Hand stood between Reuben & Merlin, as the Reasoning / Stands between the Vegetative Man & his Immortal Imagination. (emphasis added) (Keynes 663) Example 2 This World is all a Cradle for the erred wandering Phantom, / Rock’d by Year, Month, Day & Hour; and every two Moments / Between dwells a Daughter of Beulah to feed the Human Vegetable. (emphasis added) (Keynes 688) Example 3 And every Human Vegetated Form in its inward recesses / Is a house of ple[as]antness & a garden of delight Built by the Sons & Daughters of Los in Bowlahoola & in Cathedron. (emphasis added) (Keynes 714)

The words such as ‘vegetative,’ ‘vegetable’ and ‘vegetate’ are derived from the Latin ‘vegetāre, ’ which means ‘animate and enliven.’ In Blake’s prophecy, they mean the living death of the earthly existence.16 What is the underlying assumption of Blake’s world of veg- etation? In The Book of Ezekiel and Jerusalem, there are similar analogies of human compared to vegetable. As already stated, both works also have the similar plot, the ruin and recovery of Jerusalem, and the division and unity of the personified ‘Jerusalem.’ As Blake himself drew in Temptation and Fall, Paradise Lost (1808), the trees, such as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life, have abundant energy, which stimulates his creative mind. But on the other hand, in the process of vegetation, human beings on the earth are the crea- tures in chains of ‘Body.’ This suggests that he regards the works inspired by muses as not exactly a good art. For Blake, human being in chains of ‘Body’ overlaps muses as the daugh- ters of ‘Mnemosyne (Memory). ’ In the next chapter, I try to see the other common terms between The Book of Ezekiel and Blake’s work, The Four Zoas.

3. The world of ‘Four’

The Four Zoas (originally named , or the Death and Judgement of the Ancient Man) 6 『英米文化』47 (2017) is for nine nights, in which laid in the center falls into a deadly sleep. On the basis that this dream begins with addressing nine Muses, “Fair Nine, forsaking Poetry!...,” this work can be a prophecy. In the context of this prophecy, I deal with the following pas- sage from The Book of Ezekiel.

. . . the word of the Lord came to the priest Ezekiel son of Buzi, in Chaldaea by the river Kebar, and there the Lord’s hand was upon him. In my vision I saw a storm-wind coming from the north, a vast cloud with flashes of fire and brilliant light about it; and within was a radiance like brass, glowing in the heart of the flames. In the fire was the likeness of four living creatures in human form. Each had four faces and each four wings;. . . Under the wings on each of the four sides were human hands; all four creatures had faces and wings, and the wings of one touched those of another. (emphasis added) (Ezekiel, 1:3–9)

Blake paints the four living creatures appearing to Ezekiel in Ezekiel’s Vision (c.1800– 05). These fourfold vision described in his prophecy consists of the four Zoas ─ Los, with the face of an eagle; , with the face of an ox; , with the face of a man; and , with the face of a lion. Each of them personifies imagination, body, emotions and .17 Ezekiel’s fourfold vision by the Kebar directly inspired Blake’s four Zoas. The same story as the above quotation of The Four Zoas is as follows.

And the Four Points are thus beheld on Great Eternity: / West, the Circumference: South, the Zenith: North, / The Nadir: East, the Center, unapproachable for ever. / These are the four Faces towards the Four Worlds of Humanity / In every Man. Ezekiel saw them by Chebar’s flood. / And the Eyes are the South, and the Nostrils are the East, / And the Tongue is the West, and the Ear is the North. (emphasis added) (Keynes 632)

In Jewish and Christian religion, ‘four’ is the sacred and lucky number. ‘JHWH’ in Hebrew notation and ‘Adam’ consist of four letters. In the , there are four , and in Genesis there are four streams as follows, “There was a river flowing from Eden to water the garden, and from there it branched into four streams.”18 In The Book of Ezekiel, ‘four’ means ‘perfect’. ‘Zoa’ (‘ςωά’ in plural Greek), Blake uses as an English singular, means ‘life or beast.’ The NAKAYAMA Fumi The Unity of Contraries in William Blake’s World of Vegetation 7 vegetative ‘Los,’ who embodies imagination, starts to build the city.

Here, on the banks of the Thames, Los builded , / Outside of the Gates of the Human Heart beneath Beulah / In the midst of the rocks of the Altars of Albion. In fears / He builded it, in rage & in fury. It is the Spiritual Fourfold / London, continu- ally building & continually decaying desolate. (emphasis added) (Keynes 684)

London is the place where Los creates Jerusalem, and it is named ‘Golgonooza.’ ‘Golgo- nooza’ is the city of art, in which the conflict among the four Zoas is repeated. The division (fall) and unity (resurrection) of the four Zoas are equivalent to that of Jerusalem in Blake’s Jerusalem. In the “ the First,” there is a passage, “Four Mighty Ones are in every Man; a Perfect Unity / Cannot Exist but from the Universal Brotherhood of Eden, . . . .”19 Blake rewrote this longest poem, adding new passages, but never finished it. The above part with an underline overlaps Blake’s own creative activity. The Four Zoas itself was not engraved and completed in the end. In this paper, I began with tracing the source of Blake’s muses and his vegetative world in the Old Testament. In the final chapter, I discuss the further integration of ‘four’ into ‘one.’

4. Conclusion

Jacob Bronowski refers to the title The Marriage of Heaven and Hell in his study, Wil- liam Blake: A Man Without a Mask (1944), as follows, “The book is named to show the pro- gression of its contraries, and of Swedenborg’s. And it shows that Blake made for himself, twenty years before Hegel, the dialectic of Hegel’s formal thought.”20 In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–93), Blake says, “Without Contraries is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence.”21 Around the same time, since about 1796, Hegel deals with the definition of ‘contraries’ in his book. ‘Dialectic’ is the theory considered to have been established by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831). Blake was senior to Hegel by only thirteen years, and they were the thinkers of the same generation. Blake himself didn’t use the term ‘Dialectic’ in his works, but did he aim for the establishment of his own dialectic? In this final chapter, by using the keyword ‘the Poetic Genius,’ I discuss the unity of ‘contraries.’ As already cited in the introductory chapter, the existence which inspires Blake changes 8 『英米文化』47 (2017) from ‘Muses’ to ‘Bards,’ and afterward, ‘imagination’ is the most important for him. He iden- tifies ‘the Poetic Genius’ with imagination.22 Let us see the description about Ezekiel again.

Then Ezekiel said: “The philosophy of the east taught the first principles of human perception: some nations held one principle for the origin, & some another: we of Israel taught that the Poetic Genius (as you now call it) was the first principle and all the others merely derivative, . . . .” (Keynes 153)

‘The Poetic Genius’ considered as ‘the first principles of human perception’ is described in All Religions Are One (c.1788) as follows.

The Jewish & Christian Testaments are An original derivation from the Poetic Genius; this is necessary from the confined nature of bodily sensation. . . . As all men are alike (tho’ infinitely various), So all Religions &, as all similars, have one source. The true Man is the source, he being the Poetic Genius. (Keynes 98)

‘The Poetic Genius,’ which outweighs Muses for Blake, vegetates as ‘Los’ in his prophecy. Imagination he called ‘the Poetic Genius’ branches out in the sky and vegetates to be a gigantic tree.

. . . Los his vegetable hands / Outstretch’d; his right hand, branching out in fibrous strength, / Siez’d the Sun; His left hand, like dark roots, cover’d the Moon, / And tore them down, cracking the heavens across from immense to immense. (Keynes 357)

As Blake says, “The Whole Bible is fill’d with Imagination & Visions from End to End. . .,”23 he was deeply attracted to The Book of Ezekiel filled with the figurative expres- sions. The main theme of this book is the process in which Jerusalem falls and is rebuilt again. Blake’s Jerusalem has the similarity, the division and unity of the personified ‘Jerusa- lem.’ When Songs of Innocence and Experience (c.1789–94) was published as the complete work, the subtitle “Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul” was added. And in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, there is the following passage. NAKAYAMA Fumi The Unity of Contraries in William Blake’s World of Vegetation 9

Without Contraries is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence. From these contraries what the religious call Good & Evil. Good is the pas- sive that obeys Reason. Evil is the active springing from Energy. Good is Heaven. Evil is Hell. (Keynes 149)

‘Contraries’ is regarded as one of the key words related to the dialectic, and it exists in different worlds of religion, society and humanity. In the system ‘Dialectic,’ of which both Blake and Hegel aimed for the establishment, ‘contraries’ is necessary for progression. What is the destination of the unity of ‘contraries’? ‘Dialectic’ consists of three phases, ‘thesis,’ ‘antithesis’ and ‘synthesis.’ ‘Aufheben,’ which is used in Hegelian dialectic, has two contradictory implications, ‘keep’ and ‘abolish.’ Hegel’s predecessor is thought of as Elea school, Heraclitus (c.B.C. 540–480) and Plato (c.B.C. 427–347). In Phänomenologie des Geistes (1807), Hegel uses to convey his meaning being drawn from biology. The growth and continuity of truth, comparable to that of an organism, requires different stages, the latter supplanting yet completing the earlier.24 He compares three stages to ‘bud,’ ‘blossom’ and ‘fruit’ in the total life of the plant.25 As bud and blossom are related to each other in the total life of the plant, the latter fulfilling the former by super- seding it, so, too, in the total life of reason, when conceived in dynamic terms, incompatible ideas or beliefs lose their wonted opposition and become mutually implicative.26 This dia- lectic process is associated with Blake’s world of vegetation. As mentioned in the second chapter, ‘vegetation’ is the living death of the earthly exis- tence in Blake’s works. The situation of ‘Los (of imagination)’ taking root in the earth means that he is bound to the ground. This world is the mortal one, so human being cannot enter in eternity. This reveals the two sides of things. In Jerusalem, the personified ‘Jerusalem’ is divided and later united again. The synthesis of Hegelian dialectic is true of the unity of the mythological symbols in Blake’s prophecy. The unity of contraries for Blake, that is, Blake’s synthesis, changes shape based on the situ- ation but it is unified into ‘the Poetic Genius.’ This can be said to be Blake’s dialectic pro- cess. I began with tracing the source of inspiration for Blake in Celtic culture (Bards), Christi- anity (the Old Testament) and philosophy, and discussed the unity of contraries into ‘the 10 『英米文化』47 (2017)

Poetic Genius’ in Blake’s world of vegetation. In the end of this paper, I quote from A Vision of the Last Judgment (1810).

This world of Imagination is the world of Eternity; it is the divine bosom into which we shall all go after the death of the Vegetated body. This World of Imagination is Infi- nite & Eternal, whereas the world of Generation, or Vegetation, is Finite & ［for a small moment del.］ Temporal. (Keynes 605)

Despite the same existence bound to the earth as ‘Los’ taking root in the world of vegeta- tion, Blake wanted to free himself from this mortal world and live in imagination.

Notes

1 Blake: Complete Writings 210 2 A Blake Dictionary 36 3 cf., William Blake and the Myths of Britain 4 William Blake and the Myths of Britain 60–61 5 ibid., 61 6 Blake: Complete Writings 11 7 ibid., 457. Blake quotes this passage from The Reason of Church Government (1641) written by John Milton (1608–74). 8 Blake: Complete Writings 264 9 cf., A Blake Dictionary 10 The Revised English Bible 1 Hereinafter, as for the quotations from the Bible, The Revised English Bible with the apocrypha is used. 11 Blake: Complete Writings 777 12 “This World of Imagination is Infinite & Eternal, whereas the world of Generation, or Vegetation, is Finite & [for a small moment del.]”(Keynes 605) 13 cf., Blake no Shogai to Sakuhin 14 “You will expect to come plundering, spoiling, and stripping bare the settlements which once lay in ruins, but are now inhabited by a people gathered out of the nations, a people acquiring live- stock and goods, and making their home at the very centre of the world.” (emphasis added) (The Book of Ezekiel, 38:12) NAKAYAMA Fumi The Unity of Contraries in William Blake’s World of Vegetation 11

15 “When your fellow countrymen ask you to tell them what you mean by this, say to them: The Lord God has said: I am taking the leaf of Joseph, which belongs to Ephraim and the other tribes of Israel, and joining to it the leaf of Judah. Thus I shall make them one tablet, and they will be one in my hand.” (emphasis added) (The Book of Ezekiel, 37:18–19) 16 cf., A Blake Dictionary “Vegetate is one of Taylor’s favorite expressions to describe the living death of the earthly existence.” (The Neoplatonism of William Blake 163) 17 cf., William Blake: The Seer and His Visions 18 Genesis, 2:8–10 19 Blake: Complete Writings 264 20 cf., William Blake: A Man Without a Mask 21 Blake: Complete Writings 149 22 cf., “. . . Blake picked his phrase‘Poetic Genius’ as a synonym for the imagination.” (Fearful Sym- metry 172) 23 Blake: Complete Writings 774 24 Hegel’s Phenomenology 3 25 cf., Seishin Genshogaku 26 Hegel’s Phenomenology 3

References

The Revised English Bible with the apocrypha. Oxford and Cambridge: Oxford UP and Cambridge UP, 1989. Loewenberg, Jacob. Hegel’s Phenomenology: Dialogues on The Life of Mind. La Salle Ill.: The Open Court Pub. Co., 1965. Blunt, Anthony. The Art of William Blake. Columbia: Columbia UP, 1959. Bronowski, Jacob. William Blake: A Man Without a Mask. New York: Haskell House, 1967. Carley, Keith W. The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1974. Higuchi, Susumu. Ezekiel sho. Tokyo: Shinkyo shuppansha, 1980. Damon, S. Foster. A Blake Dictionary: The Ideas and Symbols of William Blake. Hanover and London: UP of New England, 1988. Erdman, David V. ed. A Concordance to the Writings of William Blake. New York: Cornell UP, 1967. Frye, Northrop. : A Study of William Blake. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1969. Harper, George Mills. The Neoplatonism of William Blake. London: The University of North Carolina 12 『英米文化』47 (2017)

Press, 1961. Keynes, Geoffrey. ed. Blake: Complete Writings. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1972. Klonsky, Milton. William Blake: The Seer and His Visions. New York: Harmony Books, 1977. Whittaker, Jason. William Blake and the Myths of Britain. London: Macmillan, 1999. Kashiyama, Kinshiro. Seishin Genshogaku. Tokyo: Kawade shobo shinsha, 1966. Namikawa, Ryo. Blake no Shogai to Sakuhin. Tokyo: Hara shobo, 1979.