GOUGED

I haven't found any definitive information on what caused Blake such anguish that he gouged out the words of love and friendship, and the Greek quotation from Matthew 28 on the engraved copper Plate 3 of Jerusalem. Although it is obvious when looking at the plate that lines have been aggressively removed, there isn't much mention of it. Erdman reconstructed the lines and the are included in The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake edited by David V. Erdman. Deletions are seen below in italics.

Jerusalem, Plate 3, (E 145)
"SHEEP....................................................... GOATS

To the Public
After my three years slumber on the banks of the Ocean, I
again display my Giant forms to the Public: My former Giants &
Fairies having reciev'd the highest reward possible: the
[love] and [friendship] of those with whom to
be connected, is to be [blessed]: I cannot doubt that
this more consolidated & extended Work, will be as kindly
recieved
The Enthusiasm of the following Poem, the Author hopes
[no Reader will think presumptuousness or arroganc[e] when he
is reminded that the Ancients acknowledge their love to their
Deities, to the full as Enthusiastically as I have who
Acknowledge mine for my Saviour and Lord, for they were wholly
absorb'd in their Gods.] I also hope the Reader will
be with me, wholly One in Jesus our Lord, who is the God [of
Fire] and Lord [of Love] to whom the Ancients
look'd and saw his day afar off, with trembling & amazement.
The Spirit of Jesus is continual forgiveness of Sin: he who
waits to be righteous before he enters into the Saviours kingdom,
the Divine Body; will never enter there. I am perhaps the most
sinful of men! I pretend not to holiness! yet I pretend to love,
to see, to converse with daily, as man with man, & the more to
have an interest in the Friend of Sinners. Therefore
[Dear] Reader, [forgive] what you do not
approve, & [love] me for this energetic exertion of my
talent.

Reader! [lover] of books! [lover] of
heaven,
And of that God from whom [all books are given,]
Who in mysterious Sinais awful cave
To Man the wond'rous art of writing gave,
Again he speaks in thunder and in fire!
Thunder of Thought, & flames of fierce desire:
Even from the depths of Hell his voice I hear,
Within the unfathomd caverns of my Ear.
Therefore I print; nor vain my types shall be:
Heaven, Earth & Hell, henceforth shall live in harmony

Of the Measure, in which
the following Poem is written

We who dwell on Earth can do nothing of ourselves, every
thing is conducted by Spirits, no less than Digestion or Sleep."
[to Note the last words of Jesus, E*do*O*n *mo*i
p*a*s*a *e*zo*u*s*i*a *e*n o*u*r*a*n*o k*a*i *e*p*i *g*e*s]
[(Matthew 28.18, the first words of Jesus' final address to his disciples: "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth").]

The missing lines came to my attention when I came across this article about the anguish artists experience in conjunction with producing their work and the reception of it. It is a powerful statement from the heart.

Jerusalem Blake
.

THEL II

Blake's pictures in The Book of Thel supplement the ideas he presents in the text. In this copy of the Book of Thel from the Library of Congress, Rare Books Collection, we can read the text and view the pictures together as they were meant to be understood.

Book of Thel

First you may notice that although Blake talks of clouds, lilies, worms and clods he pictures human beings. This reinforces the idea that he is not talking about nature in general or specific parts of it, but about humans and aspects of the psyche. So the answers given by the lily and her associates are our answers, the way we explain the puzzling inconsistencies of our experience to ourselves. We may open or close ourselves to Blake's reasonings, or we may try them on for size before searching elsewhere.

On the title page we notice that Thel, the shepherdess is the observer not the participant. The sexual imagery which many people notice in Thel is apparent in the male and female soaring images on this page. Erdman (The Illuminated Blake) says 'these lovers are the human form of the Dew and the Cloud'. The flowers on this page are not the lilies of the poetry but the pasqueflower 'said to require the wind to open the petals' for fertilization.

The images surrounding the word Thel at the top of the page 3 bring to mind the four Zoas although the characters remain to be fully developed as Blake continues to write. You may recognize the soaring lady with the flying infant from the Preludium to the First Book of Urizen - it is not Urizen but a tie to his book. The man in the sky reaching for the eagle is a reminder of Los who like the eagle can represent imagination. To the right carrying shield and flaming sword is the Zoa of emotions, Luvah, who for the first time is mentioned in this poem. Reclining on the seedpod of grain is a figure in a position reminiscent of the 'renovated man' who appears above the man entering death's door in the engraving for Blair's The Grave. The picture for The Grave and the appearance of Tharmas as man's body will be later inventions but the fourfold split is already present.

Plate 4 shows Thel looking very much like the Lilly with whom she converses. Plate 5 is all text. On Plate 6 which concerns the worm, we see an image of an infant on the ground and the matron clod soaring in the air as she discusses with Thel how 'we live not for ourselves.' Thel demonstrates her astonishment. In plate 7 Thel, the observer as usual, watches the mother and child, clod and worm, as they play together. Children happily ride the serpent as the poem ends with
plate 8.

If this poem is seen to address the issues which specifically face women, those of being expected to be gentle and receptive rather than assertive and active, we may contrast it to the poem "how sweet I roamed". The latter poem represents the adolescent beginning to be aware of opportunities and abilities and facing society's limitations on the expanding possibilities. In the poem Thel, the young woman seems to be offered limited possibilities to begin with: humility and service, basking in another's attention, not reasoning, and living for others instead of for herself. This may be what Thel rejects: accepting a subservient role in a household or in a society that undervalues women. Was Blake commenting on the role of women as well as the human condition of being born into the material world?

The poem does not specifically mention the world of Generation, but the images present Generation as the world to which Thel is invited. The rejection of the feminine role or the fear of sexuality may be impediments to Thel's accepting the opportunity to enter the material world. Read the words, read the pictures, read in the context of Blake's work, read according to your own light.

Thel I

LOST TRAVELLER

Blake's first level of vision, single vision, is fairly easily transcended. We learn to see beyond the level of material into the level of thought, ideas, reason. And this becomes our mindset, we develop rules, structures and a point of view - an engineer thinks like an engineer and a lawyer thinks like a lawyer. Blake isn't satisfied to let us stay there; he sees it as a prison as much as single vision was. So of each level of vision.

In the Epilogue to Gates of Paradise Blake is trying to force us to another level of thought altogether:

"To The Accuser Who is
The God of This World

Truly My Satan thou art but a Dunce
And dost not know the Garment from the Man
Every Harlot was a Virgin once
Nor canst thou ever change Kate into Nan

Tho thou art Worshipd by the Names Divine
Of Jesus & Jehovah thou art still
The Son of Morn in weary Nights decline
The lost Travellers Dream under the Hill"

He addresses this to 'the accuser' who is in charge of seeing that the law is obeyed; who ferrets out the lawbreakers and begins the process of meting out punishment. The world has made this accuser its God. But this accuser can't even be trusted to distinguish between the underlying humanity and the facade which he presents. He is not aware of the Identity of man which is Eternal and moves through the states without losing his essential nature. The accuser doesn't know that he hasn't the power to touch that which is real or Eternal within man.

Although the accuser takes on the Divine names he is without the substance. His time of strength and power is closing, the unreal illusion which he has sustained in his wanderings will be buried.

Whatever image he has created is only an image, a new image must arise and replace it.

From: Rare Books, Library of Congress, http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage

Erdman in the Illuminated Blake says: "A sleeping traveller, naked, his hand on his staff though a spider has spun his web on the top, lies under a hill beyond which dawn is breaking on all sides. The deity which has resided in his sleeping breast, a black nightmare vision of Satan pretending to power over sun, moon, stars, must vanish like a raven of dawn since shown up as a mere Dunce - yet a Lucifer (feckless but better than no dreams at all) for temporarily lost travellers."

Using some of the same images, these verses in Isaiah resemble Blake's verses quoted above, and the Satan Blake described in other passages. The fall and death of the King of Babylon parallels the fall and death of Satan who has lost his place in the bosom of the Lost Traveler.

Isaiah 14:11-19
3 On the day the LORD gives you relief from suffering and turmoil and cruel bondage, 4 you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has come to an end! How his fury has ended!

11 All your pomp has been brought down to the grave, along with the noise of your harps; maggots are spread out beneath you and worms cover you. 12 How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! 13 You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. 14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High." 15 But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit. 16 Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate: "Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble, 17 the man who made the world a desert, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home?" 18 All the kings of the nations lie in state, each in his own tomb. 19 But you are cast out of your tomb like a rejected branch; you are covered with the slain, with those pierced by the sword, those who descend to the stones of the pit. Like a corpse trampled underfoot,

Previous post on Gates of Paradise

MILTON'S TASK

In The Illuminated Blake, Erdman goes through the illuminated works of William Blake plate by plate describing what he sees. This is not a commentary on the text, but on the images. But the text illuminates the pictures, just as the pictures illuminate the text.

Let's have a look at Milton, Plate 19, (E 110). Click on image and page down for enlarged view.

Without Erdman's explanation this image at the bottom of the page would be difficult to understand. Says Erdman, "Los shoots his limbs forth 'like the roots of trees' - and we see that he is almost headless...Urizen, nothing but head, peers from the ground and beholds 'the immortal Man'...Milton's task is to annihilate their separation...Looking at Plate 18 we can see that Milton is replacing Urizen's head."

Erdman considers this to be a representation of events in the poem, but also commentary on the politics of England. Milton was a supporter of the Civil War of 1649 which separated England's 'head and body'; "But the naked Milton now confronts the problem of making whole what is already asunder, of resurrecting the Spiritual Body."

So this is another expression of the old task of reconciling the division between Los and Urizen, imagination and reason, spirit and body, as well as the republicans and the monarchists.

Read more about it in Chapter 24 of Erdman's Prophet Against Empire including, "The moral is that Satan must be forgiven or vengeful slaughter will never end."

PERILOUS PATH

June Singer, in her book Seeing Through the Visible World, explores Blake's 'perilous path' in conjunction with Jung's individuation (although she doesn't doesn't mention that term). She associates the dangers of exploring deeper levels of consciousness with encountering the lonely and uncertain struggles of the 'just man'. The reversals of definitions and values which occur as we explore the hidden aspects of the psyche are reflected by the 'just man's' journey on the perilous path.

MHH, Plate 2, (E 33)

She further uses plate 17 of MHH to illuminate the threats in the"struggles between the side of ego-consciousness and the lesser known shadow side, or in the conflict between inner opposites of the masculine and the feminine, or in the battle between oneself and the tribal gods with their repeated demands for fealty, devotion, and sacrifice."

Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Plate 17, (E 40)
"An Angel came to me and said. O pitiable foolish young man! O horrible! O dreadful state! consider the hot burning dungeon thou art preparing for thyself to all eternity, to which thou art going in such career.
I said. perhaps you will be willing to shew me my eternal lot & we will contemplate together upon it and see whether your lot or mine is most desirable
So he took me thro' a stable & thro' a church & down into the church vault at the end of which was a mill: thro' the mill we went, and came to a cave. down the winding cavern we groped our tedious way till a void boundless as a nether sky appeard beneath us & we held by the roots of trees and hung over this immensity; but I said, if you please we will commit ourselves to this void and see whether providence is here also, if you will not I will? but he answerd. do not presume O young-man but as we here remain behold thy lot which will soon appear when the darkness passes away
So I remaind with him sitting in the twisted root of an oak. he was suspended in a fungus which hung with the head downward into the deep:"

Blake gives an apt warning of the difficulty and danger of undertaking the alteration of the psyche which is initiated by choosing to explore the invisible world.

Which will we choose: the 'perilous path' or the 'paths of ease.'

In the Illuminated Blake, Erdman uses these words to describe this image; "A living form from the abyss".

Left the Paths of Ease

You'll find this as a link at the end of the last post. The following re the meek man... is taken from an April 11, 2009 post to the Yahoo Group WmBlake:

Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Plate 2, (E 32)

Blake writes in a language that few people today know, so maybe we need an interpreter. I happen to be reading The Unholy Bible, by June Singer. It's largely an (Jungian) interpretation of MHH. Here are some of her interpretations:

"Rintrah is the personification of rage against the status quo" (and an apt description of the young Blake). Revolution was in the air, and Blake writes about a change (very timely!). The meek man is Joe Six Pack; he hasn't learned to read; his social, political, moral consciousness is minimal, and his exploitation by the 'villain' (let's say bankers) has driven Joe out into the wilderness, but "he's sick and tired, and he's not gonna take it any more." Times will be hard for everybody now.

The meek man and the villain: man is not one, but two. He's "Adam and the serpent, Jacob and Esau, outraged honesty and sneaking hypocrisy".

Speaking of Revolution: France was being bathed in blood, and America had already thrown off the sneaking villain.

So much for the political dimension (Erdman's Blake Prophet Against Empire has more). Psychologically the meek man is the good unconscious church goer; the villain is the Voltarian priest (the first priest was the first villain who met the first fool.) The meek man must some day wake up and gain a critical dimension.

Well I've just scratched the surface. This is poetry; poetry is
never (or at least rarely) about the literal; it's about the
intellectual, the spiritual. The Bible is poetry: beginning to end; not about material events; about spiritual events; events in your consciousness. Blake taught me how to read the Bible. One of his greatest gifts to me.

What does Blake (or the Bible) mean? That depends on you- and me.

Justin said: Justin has left a new comment on your post "Left the Paths of Ease":

This is a strange pronouncement: "poetry is
never (or at least rarely) about the literal; it's about the
intellectual, the spiritual." It's even stranger if you replace poetry with the more general literature: "Literature is never about the literal." But I think it's true somehow. Poetry is the contortion of the literal into the spiritual.

7 PERSPECTIVES

The seven writers who have been of the most help to me in attempting to understand Blake's poetry and thought have dramatically different perspectives on discerning the meaning in Blake's work.

Northrup Frey, Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake - reveals the symbolic language of Blake within a literary context.

David V. Erdman, Blake: Prophet against Empire - explores historical and political significance of Blake's writing.

Milton O. Percival, William Blake's Circle of Destiny - relates Blake's myth to esoteric symbols, including those in the Bible, Alchemy, and Astrology.

George Wingfield Digby, William Blake: Symbol and Image - sheds light on psychological implications and symbolic meanings through commentary on The Gates of Paradise and the Arlington Tempera.

John Middleton Murry, William Blake - expounds the teachings of Blake and includes the influence of Blake's personal experience on his work.

S. Foster Damon, A Blake Dictionary: The Ideas and Symbols of William Blake - provides information on the major ideas in Blake's writing with references to locations of passages where they occur.

Kathleen Raine, Blake and Tradition - shows classical and literary sources and influences for Blake's ideas and images by placing him within traditional metaphysics.

It is because Blake thought and wrote over as broad a field of intellectual knowledge as was possible in London in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, that scholars have been able to study his work from so many points of view. These authors have immersed themselves in the whole body of Blake's work and found themselves able to focus on specific areas where their interest and expertise could shed light onto what Blake communicated. There are more books to be written, perhaps you will write one.

You are invited to read Larry Clayton's unpublished book, Ram Horn'd with Gold, focusing on Blake's spiritual development.

Writing Books

AMERICA

Erdman wrote a book explicating the political and historical implications of Blake's poetry. This post relates to his insights on Blake's poem America which Blake published in 1793.

Blake: Prophet Against Empire, David V. Erdman, Page 24,25 . Erdman writes:

"It is important to recognize this passage (America, plate 6 [8]) as Blake's poetic paraphrase of the Declaration of Independence because he frequently alludes to by repeating one or two of its central images,...The page is illuminated with a picture of a naked (resurrected) man sitting on the grave of his dead past and gazing confidently into the heavens."

America a Prophecy, Plate 6 [8], (E 53)
02 The morning comes, the night decays, the watchmen leave
03 their stations;
04 The grave is burst, the spices shed, the linen wrapped up;
05 The bones of death, the cov'ring clay, the sinews shrunk & dry'd.
06 Reviving shake. inspiring move, breathing! awakening!
07 Spring like redeemed captives when their bonds & bars are burst;
08 Let the slave grinding at the mill, run out into the field;
09 Let him look up into the heavens & laugh in the bright air;
10 Let the inchained soul shut up in darkness and in sighing,
11 Whose face has never seen a smile in thirty weary years;
12 Rise and look out, his chains are loose, his dungeon doors are open.
13 And let his wife and children return from the opressors scourge;
14 They look behind at every step & believe it is a dream.
15 Singing. The Sun has left his blackness, & has found a fresher morning
16 And the fair Moon rejoices in the clear & cloudless night;
17 For Empire is no more, and now the Lion & Wolf shall cease.

Quoting Erdman: "That document holds that all men are endowed with 'certain inalienable rights,' including:

life - "The morning comes...The grave is burst"
liberty - "Let the slave grinding at the mill, run out into the field"; "Let the inchained soul...look out"; "let his wife and children return from the opressors scourge."
and the pursuit of happiness - "Let him look up into the heavens & laugh...Whose face has never seen a smile in thirty weary years", the reunited family "look behind at every step & believe it is a dream. Singing. The Sun has left his blackness, & has found a fresher morning."
...it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such a government...having in direct object the establishment of a absolute Tyranny - "For Empire is no more, and now the Lion & Wolf shall cease."

Blake's interest in the American Revolution centered around the establishment of liberty and justice. But he also saw revolution as a sign of the coming apocalypse. America is strewn with images suggesting that the new nation is a sign of a new beginning in world history where the Eternal breaks into the affairs of men.

I found this passage in Joseph Campbell's The Inner Reaches of Outer Space. In describing Great Seal of the United States, he shows the birth of America as symbolizing the kind of transformation Blake anticipated. Campbell, like Blake, is able to present the images embedded in experience.

Joseph Campbell, The Inner Reaches of Outer Space, Page 126:

Figure 16. Reverse, Great Seal of the United States.

"The present pyramid is not, however, of that first creation, but of a second, a 'new order of the world' (novus ordo seclorum), represented here as constituted of exactly 13 courses allegorical of our 13 original states. And whereas behind the new pyramid there is only a desert to be seen, before and around it are the sprouting signs of a new and fresh beginning, dated 1776: 1+7+7+6=21. Mankind, that is to say, has herewith come of age and taken to itself responsibility and authority for the shaping of human lives according to Reason.

"Moreover, between the dated course at the pyramid's base, which tells of an occurrence in Time, and the Eye at the top, which is of Eternity, there are 12 courses, this being the number of the belt of the zodiac as defining the limits of the physical world. The number 13, accordingly, which is that dated course at the base, represents a creative transcendence of the boundary: not death, as appears in the popular superstition of 13 at table, but an achieved life beyond death, as signified in the model of the table of the Last Supper, where the 12 Apostles were of the number of the signs of the belt of the zodiac by which the physical world is bounded, whereas the incarnate God who was about to die, though indeed among them in the field of Time, was of Eternity, beyond the pale of death. Thus the number 13 of our 13 originating states is here interpreted and celebrated as the sign of a resurrection of life out of death, fresh leaves from a desert, a wholesome gift of of the light of Reason as an awakener to maturity of the mind in its social conscience."

LAST YEARS

Third Temptation of Christ

In addition to editing the Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake, and producing The Illuminated Blake: William Blake's Complete Illuminated Works with a Plate by Plate Commentary, David V. Erdman, wrote Blake: Prophet Against Empire. On page 494 of this volume we read:
"Pleasant labors occupied Blake's final years - the printing and illumination of Jerusalem in two or three black and white copies and as many more colored ones; the recollection of the rural delights of Felpham in a series of woodcuts for a Virgilian Eclogue; the organization of the Book of Job into an emblematic epic; the illustration of Paradise Lost and of the Divine Comedy - though Blake found in Dante vanity and hate - and of Genesis and the apocalyptic Book of Enoch, not finished at his death. During his last two years Blake had the pleasure of a worshipful following among the younger painters Palmer, Calvert, Richmond, Walter, and Finch. These disciples took Blake into the countryside and learned from him to see through the eye, to see the pastures and cottages of Sussex and Kent as corners of Paradise."

Here in Jerusalem, Blake is using the images of his world to open our eyes to Eternal truth.

Jerusalem (E 170) PLATE 26:
"SUCH VISIONS HAVE APPEARD TO ME
AS I MY ORDERD RACE HAVE RUN
JERUSALEM IS NAMED LIBERTY
AMONG THE SONS OF ALBION"

PLATE 27,"To the Jews....
The fields from Islington to Marybone,
To Primrose Hill and Saint Johns Wood:
Were builded over with pillars of gold,
And there Jerusalems pillars stood.

Her Little-ones ran on the fields
The Lamb of God among them seen
And fair Jerusalem his Bride:
Among the little meadows green.

Pancrass & Kentish-town repose
Among her golden pillars high:
Among her golden arches which
Shine upon the starry sky.

The Jews-harp-house & the Green Man;
The Ponds where Boys to bathe delight:
The fields of Cows by Willans farm:
Shine in Jerusalems pleasant sight.

She walks upon our meadows green:
The Lamb of God walks by her side:
And every English Child is seen,
Children of Jesus & his Bride,...

The Divine Vision still was seen
Still was the Human Form, Divine
Weeping in weak & mortal clay
O Jesus still the Form was thine.

And thine the Human Face & thine
The Human Hands & Feet & Breath
Entering thro' the Gates of Birth
And passing thro' the Gates of Death

And O thou Lamb of God, whom I
Slew in my dark self-righteous pride:
Art thou return'd to Albions Land!
And is Jerusalem thy Bride?

Come to my arms & never more
Depart; but dwell for ever here:
Create my Spirit to thy Love:
Subdue my Spectre to thy Fear,

Spectre of Albion! warlike Fiend!
In clouds of blood & ruin roll'd:
I here reclaim thee as my own
My Selfhood! Satan! armd in gold...

A mans worst enemies are those
Of his own house & family;
And he who makes his law a curse,
By his own law shall surely die.

In my Exchanges every Land
Shall walk, & mine in every Land,
Mutual shall build Jerusalem:
Both heart in heart & hand in hand.

BEYOND EXPERIENCE

In later copies of Songs of Innocence and Experience, the last three poems are TO TIRZA, THE SCHOOL BOY, and THE VOICE OF THE ANCIENT BARD. In his The Illuminated Blake, Erdman postulates that, this "arrangement of the concluding plates impl[ies] an apocalyptic metamorphosis at the end of the series of emblems, beyond Innocence and Experience." Erdman suggests "that the Eternal Man 'has risen' out of the realm of' 'Contrary States.'

TO TIRZA picture

TO TIRZA text

So looking at these three poems as a group, we ask why they are chosen to conclude Songs of Innocence and Experience. TO TIRZA represents the realization that mortal life has been a temporary substitute for the real thing in Eternity. The mortal body is to be raised a spiritual body. The picture recalls to my mind both the Good Samaritan and the Raising of Lazarus, two stories of healing and recovery.

SCHOOL BOY text

SCHOOL BOY picture

The School Boy strikes me as autobiographical. Young William was not forced to attend school, and his imagination benefited from the freedom he was allowed. He asks how can the adult have the resources to go beyond innocence and experience if the imagination has not been fed and nourished on the sights and sounds and simple joys of unfettered thought and play. He illustrates this by a delightful group of children playing marbles, stretching, climbing, swinging and reading. This plate was originally in Songs of Innocence; now we see it illustrating the stage beyond Experience where the contraries have been resolved through recognition, love and forgiveness. Blake himself has survived the 'blasts of winter' mentioned in the plate, and made us better for it.

The Ancient Bard completes the series on an ambivalent note. The old man is singing and playing his song, and gathers a new generation about him, but he wears a shackle on his ankle. The faces of the children reveal anxiety as they are invited to the new morn and warned about past mistakes. Only if they can avoid being led by those who are not qualified, can they avoid repeating the cycle of despair which the previous generation followed. Blake's unstated answer to the children is that they should trust their own imaginations to provide them with the thread that connects them to the infinite.

So perhaps as a group the three poems are meant to be an invitation to go beyond Experience into Blake's favorite place, the world of Imagination and Vision.

BARD picture

BARD text

BEYOND EXPERIENCE

In later copies of Songs of Innocence and Experience, the last three poems are TO TIRZA, THE SCHOOL BOY, and THE VOICE OF THE ANCIENT BARD. In his The Illuminated Blake, Erdman postulates that, this "arrangement of the concluding plates impl[ies] an apocalyptic metamorphosis at the end of the series of emblems, beyond Innocence and Experience." Erdman suggests "that the Eternal Man 'has risen' out of the realm of' 'Contrary States.'

TO TIRZA picture

TO TIRZA text

So looking at these three poems as a group, we ask why they are chosen to conclude Songs of Innocence and Experience. TO TIRZA represents the realization that mortal life has been a temporary substitute for the real thing in Eternity. The mortal body is to be raised a spiritual body. The picture recalls to my mind both the Good Samaritan and the Raising of Lazarus, two stories of healing and recovery.

SCHOOL BOY text

SCHOOL BOY picture

The School Boy strikes me as autobiographical. Young William was not forced to attend school, and his imagination benefited from the freedom he was allowed. He asks how can the adult have the resources to go beyond innocence and experience if the imagination has not been fed and nourished on the sights and sounds and simple joys of unfettered thought and play. He illustrates this by a delightful group of children playing marbles, stretching, climbing, swinging and reading. This plate was originally in Songs of Innocence; now we see it illustrating the stage beyond Experience where the contraries have been resolved through recognition, love and forgiveness. Blake himself has survived the 'blasts of winter' mentioned in the plate, and made us better for it.

The Ancient Bard completes the series on an ambivalent note. The old man is singing and playing his song, and gathers a new generation about him, but he wears a shackle on his ankle. The faces of the children reveal anxiety as they are invited to the new morn and warned about past mistakes. Only if they can avoid being led by those who are not qualified, can they avoid repeating the cycle of despair which the previous generation followed. Blake's unstated answer to the children is that they should trust their own imaginations to provide them with the thread that connects them to the infinite.

So perhaps as a group the three poems are meant to be an invitation to go beyond Experience into Blake's favorite place, the world of Imagination and Vision.

BARD picture

BARD text

Awakenings

In the Gospel of John, Nicodemus heard Jesus say, "you
must be born again" representing the most significant
event in a person's life-- their awakening from a purely
physical, materialistic life to a Perception of the Infinite
(MHH, Plate 13, lines 21-23, E39).

A person with inherent gifts of imagination and insight
into their psyche may be susceptible to moments of new
insight that seem like a rebirth. (Three seminary
professors told this student that 'you must be born
again, and again, and again'.)

Such a rebirth for our poet occurred in 1804, and he
immediately reported it to his (corporeal) friend and
physical benefactor, William Hayley; in Letter 51,
dated 23 October 1804 (Erdman 756) Blake wrote:

"Suddenly, on the day after visiting the Truchsessian
Gallery of pictures, I was again enlightened with the
light I enjoyed in my youth, and which has for exactly
twenty years been closed from me as by a door and by
window-shutters." (This letter is well worth reading
but I skipped the first three paragraphs.)

Although the experience had brought Blake a
significant increase in his creative powers, you may
envision even more significant ones in the years before:

Letter 16 to Butts (Oct 2, 1800), mentioned often
recently, which I called first vision of light, appeared
to me to be more critical in Blake's spiritual development.
It was the word from God that empowered him to the
magnificent statement of faith that his great poems
represented.

The letter to Hayley was of another genre; we might call
it an attempt to express his own spiritual attitude in a
way acceptable to the 'non-spirtual friend'. In
contrast Blake poured out his heart to his really
supportive friend, Butts.

All 91 of the letters, printed on 85 pages of Erdman's
Complete Poetry and Prose... reward the reader. You may
become weary from coping with the continuous barrage of
metaphors, figures, images, etc in Blake's works of art;
turn to the letters, which offer few obstacles to good
understanding.

We read and study Blake many different ways. The 91
letters might provide other 'visions of light'.

Awakenings

In the Gospel of John, Nicodemus heard Jesus say, "you
must be born again" representing the most significant
event in a person's life-- their awakening from a purely
physical, materialistic life to a Perception of the Infinite
(MHH, Plate 13, lines 21-23, E39).

A person with inherent gifts of imagination and insight
into their psyche may be susceptible to moments of new
insight that seem like a rebirth. (Three seminary
professors told this student that 'you must be born
again, and again, and again'.)

Such a rebirth for our poet occurred in 1804, and he
immediately reported it to his (corporeal) friend and
physical benefactor, William Hayley; in Letter 51,
dated 23 October 1804 (Erdman 756) Blake wrote:

"Suddenly, on the day after visiting the Truchsessian
Gallery of pictures, I was again enlightened with the
light I enjoyed in my youth, and which has for exactly
twenty years been closed from me as by a door and by
window-shutters." (This letter is well worth reading
but I skipped the first three paragraphs.)

Although the experience had brought Blake a
significant increase in his creative powers, you may
envision even more significant ones in the years before:

Letter 16 to Butts (Oct 2, 1800), mentioned often
recently, which I called first vision of light, appeared
to me to be more critical in Blake's spiritual development.
It was the word from God that empowered him to the
magnificent statement of faith that his great poems
represented.

The letter to Hayley was of another genre; we might call
it an attempt to express his own spiritual attitude in a
way acceptable to the 'non-spirtual friend'. In
contrast Blake poured out his heart to his really
supportive friend, Butts.

All 91 of the letters, printed on 85 pages of Erdman's
Complete Poetry and Prose... reward the reader. You may
become weary from coping with the continuous barrage of
metaphors, figures, images, etc in Blake's works of art;
turn to the letters, which offer few obstacles to good
understanding.

We read and study Blake many different ways. The 91
letters might provide other 'visions of light'.

Sons of Los

Urizen is given credit for creation of the world,
but at least part of it actually goes to Los.

Look at Chapter IV of the Book of Urizen where in seven ages "in a state of dismal woe" Los proceeded to endow Urizen with the five senses.

Properly speaking Blake meant by sons of Los
just about everyone and everything:

"Thou seest the gorgeous clothed Flies that dance &; sport in summer
Upon the sunny brooks & meadows: every one the dance
Knows in its intricate mazes of delight artful to weave:
Each one to sound his instruments of music in the dance,
To touch each other & recede; to cross & change & return.
These are the Children of Los; thou seest the Trees on mountains
The wind blows heavy, loud they thunder thro' the darksom sky
Uttering prophecies & speaking instructive words to the sons Of men:
These are the Sons of Los! These the Visions of Eternity
But we see only as it were the hem of their garments (cf Matthew 9:20-22)
When with our vegetable eyes we view these wond'rous Visions."

(Milton, plate 26; Erdman, page 123)

Some Sons of Los

Reiger even claims the Holy Word a garment which may be called a Son of Los.
.

Sons of Los

Urizen is given credit for creation of the world,
but at least part of it actually goes to Los.

Look at Chapter IV of the Book of Urizen where in seven ages "in a state of dismal woe" Los proceeded to endow Urizen with the five senses.

Properly speaking Blake meant by sons of Los
just about everyone and everything:

"Thou seest the gorgeous clothed Flies that dance &; sport in summer
Upon the sunny brooks & meadows: every one the dance
Knows in its intricate mazes of delight artful to weave:
Each one to sound his instruments of music in the dance,
To touch each other & recede; to cross & change & return.
These are the Children of Los; thou seest the Trees on mountains
The wind blows heavy, loud they thunder thro' the darksom sky
Uttering prophecies & speaking instructive words to the sons Of men:
These are the Sons of Los! These the Visions of Eternity
But we see only as it were the hem of their garments (cf Matthew 9:20-22)
When with our vegetable eyes we view these wond'rous Visions."

(Milton, plate 26; Erdman, page 123)

Some Sons of Los

Reiger even claims the Holy Word a garment which may be called a Son of Los.
.

PICTURES ADDED

We have added pictures links to many of the older posts. These are not necessarily images which appear with the text quoted, but other of Blake's pictures which illustrate some aspect of the material treated in the post. Many of the links are to the Blake Archive but we also link to the Tate, the Huntington, other museums, and to a site called the Complete Blake.

Blake continued to produced watercolors, sketches, engravings and, temperas throughout his life. Much of his output is now in museum collections, and made available to the public through the internet. His poetry and pictures complement each other; they both focus our attention on his vision of the Infinite which he felt compelled to communicate.

To understand Blake it's best to read both the words and pictures.Jerusalem, Plate 40 Click on next link and then on the picture for Enlargement On the right margin of this image Erdman (in The Illuminated Blake) identifies the figures as Los and Enitharmon, but in their "mundane vehicles" as William and Catherine Blake. "Here he is walking in the line, which his right foot sends spiraling down to Catherine's arms and feet." Their exuberance in decorating this plate seems to come from these lines in the passage:
"But Glory to the Merciful One for he is of tender mercies!
And the Divine Family wept over him as One Man."

PICTURES ADDED

We have added pictures links to many of the older posts. These are not necessarily images which appear with the text quoted, but other of Blake's pictures which illustrate some aspect of the material treated in the post. Many of the links are to the Blake Archive but we also link to the Tate, the Huntington, other museums, and to a site called the Complete Blake.

Blake continued to produced watercolors, sketches, engravings and, temperas throughout his life. Much of his output is now in museum collections, and made available to the public through the internet. His poetry and pictures complement each other; they both focus our attention on his vision of the Infinite which he felt compelled to communicate.

To understand Blake it's best to read both the words and pictures.Jerusalem, Plate 40 Click on next link and then on the picture for Enlargement On the right margin of this image Erdman (in The Illuminated Blake) identifies the figures as Los and Enitharmon, but in their "mundane vehicles" as William and Catherine Blake. "Here he is walking in the line, which his right foot sends spiraling down to Catherine's arms and feet." Their exuberance in decorating this plate seems to come from these lines in the passage:
"But Glory to the Merciful One for he is of tender mercies!
And the Divine Family wept over him as One Man."

Four Zoas - 2

"Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Blake wrote this verse in Greek at the beginning of The Four Zoas. Sure enough in the thousands of words that follow he does (and we do) exactly that. The principalities and powers are within us. Our lives are made up of these wrestlings.

"Los was the fourth immortal starry one, & in the Earth Of a bright Universe Empery attended day & night Days & nights of revolving joy, Urthona was his name".

The fourth one! In Bloom's commentary in the back of Erdman, he points to an analogy between Los, the 'fourth immortal starry one' and the fourth one in the fiery furnace of the book of Daniel, "the form of the fourth is like the Son of God" (Daniel 3:25).

Los is the most hopeful of the Zoas - imaginative, intuitive, closely analogous to the Son of God, although his career in The Four Zoas is torturous, frequently destructive before becoming creative.

Blake started with a summary description of
Los, but then he 'began with parent power -- Tharmas.
As we read Blake we constantly encounter seeming contradiction of this sort. He began with Los, but then he began with Tharmas. Did he do that to confuse us? to provoke us into the use of our own imagination? Who knows?

Four Zoas - 2

"Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Blake wrote this verse in Greek at the beginning of The Four Zoas. Sure enough in the thousands of words that follow he does (and we do) exactly that. The principalities and powers are within us. Our lives are made up of these wrestlings.

"Los was the fourth immortal starry one, & in the Earth Of a bright Universe Empery attended day & night Days & nights of revolving joy, Urthona was his name".

The fourth one! In Bloom's commentary in the back of Erdman, he points to an analogy between Los, the 'fourth immortal starry one' and the fourth one in the fiery furnace of the book of Daniel, "the form of the fourth is like the Son of God" (Daniel 3:25).

Los is the most hopeful of the Zoas - imaginative, intuitive, closely analogous to the Son of God, although his career in The Four Zoas is torturous, frequently destructive before becoming creative.

Blake started with a summary description of
Los, but then he 'began with parent power -- Tharmas.
As we read Blake we constantly encounter seeming contradiction of this sort. He began with Los, but then he began with Tharmas. Did he do that to confuse us? to provoke us into the use of our own imagination? Who knows?

SPIRITUAL DESCENDENTS

Apparently Blake eventually realized that he had been
blessed and singled out to give what he had received,
not to to the small circle of folks around him, but
to the generations which would follow. The furious
effort that he put into his work in spite of the
slight affirmation he received, indicates to me that
he believed that his influence could penetrate
history as psychological development caught up with
him. He could look back at Homer, Jesus and Paul
(among others), who produced not for their
contemporaries but for their spiritual descendants,
and seek to be among them.
__________________________________________
Of this frontispiece for JERUSALEM, Erdman says: "We may suppose that Los in his London human form as William Blake, is entering a dark place with his illumination, as Jesus enters Hell with his key; that he is leading us toward a scene of action; that his arresting hand invites our attention; that he is preparing to give himself, as Milton on the title page of Milton." Los Entering The Grave