Jerusalem

Description

The poem was inspired by the apocryphal story that a young Jesus, accompanied by his uncle Joseph of Arimathea, a tin merchant, travelled to what is now England and visited Glastonbury during the unknown years of Jesus. The legend is linked to an idea in the Book of Revelation describing a Second Coming, wherein Jesus establishes a new Jerusalem. The Christian Church in general, and the English Church in particular, has long used Jerusalem as a metaphor for Heaven, a place of universal love and peace. In the most common interpretation of the poem, Blake implies that a visit by Jesus would briefly create heaven in England, in contrast to the "dark Satanic Mills" of the Industrial Revolution. Blake's poem asks questions rather than asserting the historical truth of Christ's visit. Thus the poem merely implies that there may, or may not, have been a divine visit, when there was briefly heaven in England.

Subjects

Series Statement

• Blake's illuminated books ;

Other Editions

• Jerusalem: the emanation of the giant AlbionWilliam Blake Trust/Princeton University Press1991-01-01
• JerusalemMicroformPrinted by W. Blake1804-01-01
• JerusalemJohn Pearson1877-01-01
• The prophetic books of William BlakeA.H. Bullen1904-01-01
• Jerusalem.Trianon Press1950-01-01
• Jerusalem.Published by the Trianon Press for the William Blake Trust, London1951-01-01