Anyone may learn to know and love William Blake. Small steps include reading, asking questions, making comments about posts made here (or anywhere else for that matter). We are ordinary people interested in Blake and anxious to meet and converse with any others. Tip: The primary text for Blake is on line. The url is Contents.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Blake's Gospel

               The Everlasting Gospel (A portion)

          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 is the Friend of all Mankind;
          Mine speaks in parables to the blind.
          Thine loves the same world that mine hates;
          Thy heaven doors are my hell gates.
          Socrates taught what Meletus
          Loath'd as a nation's bitterest curse,
          And Caiaphas was in his own mind
          A benefactor to mankind.
          Both read the Bible day and night,
      But thou read'st black where I read white.

The rest of this poem is difficult for the new reader.
After about a dozen readings it may begin to yield more
and more meaning. In this respect Blake is much like the
Bible, and in fact Northrup Frye referred to him as a
'Bible soaked protestant'. His approach to the Bible is
arcane, but it will yield meanings that you never dreamed
of before.

 Taken from chapter 3 of the website

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