Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion

I don't imagine I understood half of it, but it's glorious verse.

I guess I'm not the only one having trouble with this book. It clearly belongs to Blake’s mature period (1804), but this makes it considerably more hermetic than his other work, which is already very difficult to access. What is striking is the epic character of this longer book, with a complete doctrine of salvation and his own vision of the universe in the background. Formally there is the very pathetic quality, with constant exclamations and an almost continuous verbal flow, often also of geographical names. Blake revisits a number of themes from his early work; thus Urizen (the enforcer of order and reason) and Los emerge again. Even more than before, Albion, the mythical name of Great Britain, is present, and on a superficial show more reading this seems like a patriotic writing (cf. the much-quoted lines “And did those feet in ancient time/Walk upon England's mountains green” ). Nothing could be further from the truth, as John Higgs (Blake versus the World) taught me. The fervent praise of Christianity (not that of the churches, however) and the outbursts against the Enlightened deists are other ingredients. So there's a lot of meat on the bone. Best to read with extensive, expert commentary show less