Jerusalem: I see the Four-fold Man, The Humanity in deadly sleep

Jerusalem: I see the Four-fold Man, The Humanity in deadly sleep

Original Text
William Blake, Jerusalem (1804).
3I see the Past, Present and Future existing all at once
4Before me. O Divine Spirit, sustain me on thy wings,
7Like iron scourges over Albion: reasonings like vast serpents
8Infold around my limbs, bruising my minute articulations.
9I turn my eyes to the schools and universities of Europe
10And there behold the Loom of Locke, whose Woof rages dire,
11Wash'd by the Water-wheels of Newton: black the cloth
12In heavy wreaths folds over every nation: cruel works
13Of many Wheels I view, wheel without wheel, with cogs tyrannic
14Moving by compulsion each other, not as those in Eden, which,

Notes

1] Jerusalem was first engraved by Blake in or shortly after 1818, although it bears the date 1804 on its title-page. It is in four parts and comprises one hundred plates. Six copies survive, one in colour. This extract is from Plate 15 in the first part.
Four-fold Man: man in his complete or unfallen state, when he is identical with God, and with all of his four main faculties ("Zoas," see note above) properly functioning. Back to Line
2] Emanation: Nature as a field of human creation symbolized as female.
Spectre: the withdrawn subjective mind.
Shadow: the objective counterpart of the Spectre. Back to Line
5] Albion: humanity seen as a single Man, identified with England. The theme of Jerusalem is the separation and eventual reuniting of Albion with his "Emanation," Jerusalem, the City of God. Back to Line
6] Bacon and Newton. Blake regarded the philosophical outlooks of Bacon, Newton, and Locke (line 10) as part of the religion of Urizen (see above). Back to Line
15] Wheel within wheel: Cf. Ezek. 1: 16. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1818
Publication Notes
ca. 1818 (notwithstanding the stated date of printing)
RPO poem Editors
Northrop Frye
RPO Edition
3RP 2.298.
Rhyme