Today's Topics:
Lamb, Jesus, Clods...
No Natural Religion
Re: remove
Historical Chimney Sweepers
The Cunliffe Jerusalem
Re:Remove
remove
Re: remove
Re: Jesus as artist (was Re: The Integrity of the Zoas)
Re: Elohim -Reply/ Who are the Eternals?
Remove
Devine (Tom) Perceptions
Blake sighting
perceptions
Divine Perceptions
Blake citing
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 14:38:44 -0400
From: albright@world.std.com (R.H. Albright)
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Lamb, Jesus, Clods...
Message-Id:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Little Lamb, Who Made Thee?
"Having escaped restraint, [the sheep] were, like some people we know of,
afraid of their freedom, did not know what to do with it, and seemed glad
to get bck into the old familiar bondage."
---John Muir, June 17, 1869, _My First Summer in the Sierra_, 1911, p.77
"Jesus loves me,
that I know,
because the Bible tells me so."
---anyone know who said that?
Or how about "The Unknown Citizen" by W.H. Auden?
"...in the modern sense of an old fashioned word,
he was a saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community....
Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard."
========
Paul Tarry writes:
>Monsieur, of course Jesus is an artist, the grandest grand master of
>life itself.
Mais bien sur! For Blake, that is. For others, he was a philosopher. For
others, a faith-healer. For yet others, the Son of God. Then there are
others who get bothered by the martyr aspect... but then I heard of a
performance artist who literally used to nail himself to a car in Berlin in
the late 1970s.........
>You don't experience your own
>existence behind a desk. It is only when we act -and make
>significant choices- that we relate to our own existance.
I would drink to that!
========
And of course you all know the REAL meaning to "The Clod and The Pebble",
don't you? The pebble is Freud's id/libido, and the clod is the
ego/super-ego. Or, if you don't like Freud, try William James's
delineations between the "bodily self-seeking", "social self-seeking", and
"spiritual self-seeking" in "The Self" chapter of _The Principles of
Psychology_.
Although we must aspire toward a higher self, we must also remember our roots!
========
Question Authority.
It's a bumper sticker.
It's also a good thing to keep in mind
while reading William Blake's message
at its best.
-Randall Albright
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 14:38:40 -0400
From: albright@world.std.com (R.H. Albright)
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: No Natural Religion
Message-Id:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>"There is No Natural Religion" by William Blake (c. 1795)
Absolutely! That's why people like Rousseau and Levi-Strauss are so naive!
>I - Mans perceptions are not bounded by organs of perception, he
>perceives more than sense (tho' ever so acute) can discover
Perceptions are also bound by the constructions of the values, time, and
place a person lives in, as well as, perhaps, the "Zoas" which dominate a
person's personality. And more.
>II - Reason or the ratio of all we have already known. is not the
>same that it shall be when we know more
Maybe that's why Thomas Jefferson said he was more interested in the
history of the future than the history of the past, in a letter to his old
friend (and one-time political rival), John Adams, shortly before his
death.
>IV - The bounded is loathed by its possessor, The same dull round
>even of a universe would soon become a mill with complicated wheels.
And yet we're always setting bounds. Historical frames, cross-referential
frames, imaginative frames, testing the water to see how far off-base that
which is perceived is true. It is through frames that we can capture the
moment, not just let it be a stream of consciousness that is left
unremembered. There is a difference between taking a picture of a
butterfly, and choosing an appropriate frame for it, with putting it in a
jar, even with holes in the lid that would let it breathe! But the frame is
not an end. It is the process of discovery, and the use of frames, that
goes forever on.
>V - If the many become the same as the few, when possess'd, More!
>More! is the cry of a mistaken soul, less than All cannot satisfy
>Man
Hmmmm....
>VI - If any could desire what he is incapable of possessing. despair
>must be his eternal lot
I may never reach the stars, but my aspiration may get me somewhere else,
instead.
>VII - The desire of Man being Infinite the possession is Infinite &
>himself Infinite
Really?
"Most people who are born into the world remain babies all their
lives, their development being arrested like sun-dried seeds."
--John Muir, March 1, 1873,
_Life and Letters of John Muir_, vol. 1, 24, 1924
>Conclusion - If it were not for the Poetic or Prophetic character,
>the Philosophic & Experimental would soon be at the ratio of all
>things. & stand still, unable to do other than repeat the same dull
>round over again
And that's why the dreaded triad of Locke/Bacon/Newton, and flawed
documents like _The Declaration of Independence_ or Darwin's _The Origin of
the Species_ have kept us in such stagnant, poison water!
>Application - He who sees the infinite in all things, sees God. He
>who sees the Ratio only sees himself only
"We might live free, rich, comfortable lives just as well as not.
Yet how hard most people work for mere dust and ashes and care, taking no
thought of growing in knowledge and grace, never having time to get in
sight of their vast ignorance."
---John Muir, 1912, _Life and Letters of John Muir_, vol. 1, 50, 1924
>Therefore - God becomes as we are, that we may be as he is
If we are to expand our limited conceptions of others, in whom are also
attributes of God, we must not lapse into mere solipsism or satisfaction of
the known.
-Randall Albright
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 11:31:59 -0700 (PDT)
From: Kerry McKeever
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: remove
Message-Id:
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
remove
On Tue, 27 May 1997, Tim Linnell wrote:
> >Dear Friend,
> >
> >Do you want to improve your health and well being, plus cut your medical
> >and prescription bills ?
> >
> >There now maybe a way to help you.
> >
> >You can benefit immediately from this simple, safe, effective and
> >non-intrusive self-help
> >treatment that already has helped thousands of people.
> >
> >In fact, this amazing, all-natural treatment can reduce the problems
> >associated with dozens of ailments, including the most common health problems.
> >
> >Curious ?
> >
> >Just send a message to our autoresponder at auriculo-info@spica.net, put
> >'Info', without quotes
> >in subject line and body of message, for more information.
> >There's no cost or obligation. And it just may change your life!
> >
> >Thank you for your time.
> >
> >Colleen Barnard. MAA. Dip Lic Ac (AUR).
> >
> >
> >
> >If you wish to be removed from this mailing list, please hit reply, and put
> >'remove' in the
> >subject line, and you will not hear from us again.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>HEALTHWISE<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > AURICULOTHERAPY
> > Use of the outer ear for therapeutic purposes
> > PO Box 584. Southampton. SO18 2ZQ. UK
> > Tele: 44 01703 323439
> > http://www.auriculo.co.uk
> > e-mail: auriculo@spica.net
> >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >
> >
>
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 14:41:43 -0400
From: albright@world.std.com (R.H. Albright)
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Historical Chimney Sweepers
Message-Id:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Tom Dillingham frames the two Chimney Sweepers poems well, don't you think?
Much of it is based on historical context. Jennifer Michael previously
pointed out, again in an historical reading of the poem, the humane
legislation that was defeated (Jennifer, correct me if I'm wrong) which
could have outlawed this practice because it was... no longer needed? So
why did Parliament continue to keep it? Keep the kids "employed" and not
just begging?
Does anyone think "The Grapes of Wrath" by Steinbeck (pulling the poems
into another historical context) has anything to say on this same subject
of exploitation?
-Randall Albright
======
>There are, indeed, two poems by Blake about the chimney sweeper. One is
>from Songs of Innocence, the other from Songs of Experience. While
>Blake did not completely match the songs from the two books, a number
>of such pairings occur (the most famous is the Lamb/Tyger pair) and
>the contrasts between the paired poems represent the differing angles of
>perception on them identified in the titles of the collections. From the
>perspective of "innocence," the chimney sweeper may "weep," but he
>goes about his business in a "cheerful" way and "need not fear harm."
>In this poem, especially, the "innocent" view is unusually naive and
>unrealistic, since chimney sweeps in real life were subject to horrible
>oppression and physical danger--they shaved off their hair so it would
>not catch fire in the chimneys, but many still were burned by pockets of
>burning soot, many suffocated in the chimneys, and as David Erdman pointed
>out, testicular cancer was very common among them (along with other kinds
>of cancers and glandular malfunctions)because of their exposure to toxic
>chemicals. Blake, of course, did not know the epidemiology of these
>problems, but he saw their effects and knew the horrors of child labor.
>The corresponding poem in "experience" is extremely ironic, of course,
>and recognizes the realities of the sweeps' condition--they do not,in
>fact, end up in heaven. It is the exploiters (the mother and father who
>go to church to pray while the child is working and who "make up a heaven
>of our misery"--representing the society that benefits from such
>oppression and *pretends* that the children are safe and happy) who
>are exposed in the second poem.
>I might add that "weep, weep" is the street cry that chimney sweepers used
>to notify householders that they were in the street and available for work.
>So that adds another fairly obvious irony to the poem.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 27 May 97 12:51:50 -0800
From: Tom Devine
To:
Subject: The Cunliffe Jerusalem
Message-Id: <199705271949.MAA13682@scv2.apple.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
(Note: I am forwarding this message from Gloudina, since her and Izak's
computer has been having technical problems sending messages to Blake
Online. -- Tom Devine)
It seems appropriate, while a lot of people
are oohing and aahing over the Stirling copy
of Jerusalem now on view at Yale, to remember
the existence of the Cunliffe copy of the first
chapter of Jerusalem which is also in colour and
according to Keynes, possibly the earliest copy
of all. As far as I am concerned, I prefer the
more subdued and more detailed first 24 plates
of the Cunliffe Jerusalem (which I can view
only in a Blake Trust facsimile) to the more brash
colours of the Stirling copy (which I also have
unfortunately so far viewed only in facsimile.)
Keynes says of the Cunliffe copy: "The colouring
is subdued, giving the plates a subtle beauty
sometimes lost in the greater brilliance and
precision of the later version."
I am, however, puzzled in the Cunliffe facsimile
by the isolated very dark plate 11 (with the swan-
woman at the top.) Is it possible that there are un-
expected flaws in some of the copies of the Blake
Trust facsimiles, or is plate 11 dark also in the
original Cunliffe copy? It is in such sharp contrast
with the clarity of most of the other plates.
Talking of flaws: What is the status of the rumour
that was floating around a number of years ago that
there had been some hanky-panky going on with the
production of the presumably acid-free paper for the
Jerusalem facsimiles of the Blake Trust? The story
was that some French contractors for the paper had
not kept some of the paper entirely acid-free, and
that some of the facsimiles would therefore not have
the long lifespan projected for them (unless taken
apart and given a bath to rid them of the acid.) Was
this more than a rumour, and are other facsimiles of
the Blake Trust also suspect?
Gloudina Bouwer
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 13:24:19 -0700
From: Beverly Shrieve
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re:Remove
Message-Id:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
>
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 17:14:53 -0400 (EDT)
From: Morgan7400@aol.com
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: remove
Message-Id: <970527171223_156364155@emout19.mail.aol.com>
please remove me from your mailing list
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 27 May 97 15:02:50 -0700
From: Seth T. Ross
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: remove
Message-Id: <9705272202.AA07536@albion.com>
Content-Type: text/plain
One of the ways to fight spam is to call up the spammer and let them know
personally how much inconvenience spam causes. I would call Ms. Colleen
Barnard, if it weren't for the international toll call (this tactic works best
with 800/888 toll-free numbers ;-). Perhaps one of our UK-based subscribers
could let Ms. Barnard how damaging it is to spam Internet mailing lists and
ask her not to spam Blake@albion.com again. She was kind enough to leave us
her number in her sig.
--Seth Ross
PS Please direct correspondence on this matter to my personal attention at
seth@albion.com.
> >Colleen Barnard. MAA. Dip Lic Ac (AUR).
> >
> >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>HEALTHWISE<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > AURICULOTHERAPY
> > Use of the outer ear for therapeutic purposes
> > PO Box 584. Southampton. SO18 2ZQ. UK
> > Tele: 44 01703 323439
> > http://www.auriculo.co.uk
> > e-mail: auriculo@spica.net
> >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 22:50:56 -0400 (EDT)
From: TomD3456@aol.com
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: Jesus as artist (was Re: The Integrity of the Zoas)
Message-Id: <970527224901_-1062224570@emout17.mail.aol.com>
I'm with you, Paul. When Blake talks about Art, he's talking about an
approach to life, not about paintpots and technique. Well, OK, those too,
and music, and architecture. But as means to the end of living intensely and
building a more lively human community through mental wars and communication
of ideas. Art = the best expression of ideas. "Truth can never be told so
as to be understood and not be believed." Maybe Jerusalem is the redeemed
community of humans living in that way, and Golgonooza the structure they
live in?
>It is only when we act -and make
>significant choices- that we relate to our own existance.
This reminds me of the late poet William Stafford's words, "An artist is a
person who chooses." Chooses to put red here, yellow there; or to write this
word rather than that. He says this to would-be poets, to encourage them to
take the plunge, to make something, to break out of writer's block. (He also
has a famous recipe for ending writer's block: "Lower your standards." But
that deserves his friend Robert Bly's amendment: "Bill's right. But you
don't have to lower your standards so far that you PUBLISH it all.")
And to Pam, thanks for your report on Blake and Rasta in the student debates
in Durban. Yes, the real work is to apply all this to the real world. I
think Bob Marley had a pretty good understanding of Babylon and Jerusalem.
Of course, when various Fundamentalisms try to apply their scriptures to the
real world, the results are often disastrous. But Fundamentalists are
usually literalists too, and find it hard to go beyond the text or a single
received interpretation of it.
At least Blake has done a pretty good job of protecting us from any Blake
Fundamentalism.
--Tom Devine
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 28 May 1997 10:45:42 +0200
From: P Van Schaik
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: Elohim -Reply/ Who are the Eternals?
Message-Id:
I see the Eternals as all the other beings, who, like ALbion, are
constituted of four zoas which create four paradises around the four
tributaries of the river of life within themselvesin Innocence. Asia,
Europe, America and Africa are Eternals and, like ALbion, Africa is said
,once, nearly to have fallen into the dark abyss in his `Sleep'. Each City
within an Eternal also has a human form .. such as York, Oxford, Bath in
Albion.. but then all things have a divine human form... even the CLod of
CLay and Pebble when they participate in God's divine humanity. Pam
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 28 May 1997 15:06:01 +0100
From: N Cohen
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Remove
Message-Id:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>>>Dear Friend,
>>>
>>>Do you want to improve your health and well being, plus cut your medical
>>>and prescription bills ?
>>>
>>>There now maybe a way to help you.
>>>
>>>You can benefit immediately from this simple, safe, effective and
>>>non-intrusive self-help
>>>treatment that already has helped thousands of people.
>>>
>>>In fact, this amazing, all-natural treatment can reduce the problems
>>>associated with dozens of ailments, including the most common health
>>>problems.
>>>
>>>Curious ?
>>>
>>>Just send a message to our autoresponder at auriculo-info@spica.net, put
>>>'Info', without quotes
>>>in subject line and body of message, for more information.
>>>There's no cost or obligation. And it just may change your life!
>>>
>>>Thank you for your time.
>>>
>>>Colleen Barnard. MAA. Dip Lic Ac (AUR).
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>If you wish to be removed from this mailing list, please hit reply, and put
>>>'remove' in the
>>>subject line, and you will not hear from us again.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>HEALTHWISE<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>> AURICULOTHERAPY
>>> Use of the outer ear for therapeutic purposes
>>> PO Box 584. Southampton. SO18 2ZQ. UK
>>> Tele: 44 01703 323439
>>> http://www.auriculo.co.uk
>>> e-mail: auriculo@spica.net
>>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>>
>>>
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 28 May 1997 16:11:03 -0500 (EST)
From: WATT
To: Blake@albion.com
Subject: Devine (Tom) Perceptions
Message-Id: <2103111628051997/A90803/RUTH/11B5E40A3A00*@MHS>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT
Many thanks to Tom Devine for reminding us that Blake is a real (that is
didactic) artist, someone who takes art (that is life) and life (that is art)
seriously (that is he can joke about it).
And while it is certainly true that "truth can never be told so as to be
understood and not be believed" -- it is also the case that truth can
NEVER be told so as to be believed without being understood!
So art MUST be something greater than "the best communication of
ideas," ideas being restricted to the realm of Urizen (only 1/4 of the
whole (or "true") human.
As to Jerusalem being the redeemed community of humans living in that
way --I have the feeling that such a community would, as we Americans
like to say, "include Blake out." Not because trying to be human is
something too impossible to achieve, but because part of being human
is the (lamentable) propensity to confuse the map for the territory --after,
of course, first investing a prodigious amount of energy in the creation of
the map! But, as Tom says, W.B. has done a wonderful job of protecting
us from any such map. And this list is proof enough for me.
Bless you for including Bill Stafford's beautiful jest and Robert's riposte. And
let me add a piece of wisdom from Louise Gluck. In a beautiful essay,
"Against Sincerity," she warns against the kind of naive literalism Blake wars
against with all his might. She begins by noting the kind of sincere
identification which leads to many of the difficulties in art and criticism: "...
the work of Diane Wakoski fosters as intense identification of poet with
speaker as any body of work I can think of. But when a listener some
years ago praised Wakoski's courage, Wakoski was indignantly
dismissive. She reminded her audience that, after all, she decided what
she set down. So the "secret" content of the poems, the extreme
intimacy, was regularly transformed by acts of decision, which is to say by
assertions of power. The "I" on the page, the all-revealing Diane, was
her creation. The secrets we choose to betray lose power over us. To
recapitulate: the source of art is experience, the end product, truth, and
the artist, surveying the actual, constantly intervenes and manages, lies
and deletes, all in the service of truth." A couple of sentences later she
drops this little bomb: "There is, unfortunately, no test for truth. That is, in part,
why artists suffer."
I might add, and the Blake list (again) proves this: critics believe there is a
test for truth. That is why they suffer.
This got longer than I intended. But I wanted to publically thank Tom for
his publically building Jerusalem. Here. Now.
Jim Watt, Indianapolis, IN.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 28 May 1997 19:32:13 -0500
From: tomdill@wc.stephens.edu (TOM DILLINGHAM)
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Blake sighting
Message-Id: <97052819321381@wc.stephens.edu>
A brochure announcing a conference entitled "The Tradition of Metaphysical
Poetry and Belief" to take place in October at Brigham Young University
features Blake's "Ancient of Days" (frontispiece of _Europe_), an
image recently discussed (rather chaotically) on the list. The
conference is sponsored by the Center for the Study of Christian Values
in Literature and will feature papers on poets ranging from the
Metaphysicals (Donne, Herbert, et al) through Blake to such contemporaries
as Seamus Heaney and Robert Hass. Just fyi.
Tom Dillingham
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 29 May 1997 08:14:39 -0700
From: Hugh Walthall
To: Blake@albion.com
Subject: perceptions
Message-Id: <338D9D5F.2AF5@erols.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Pardon me for entering the China Shop of Beautiful Human Feelings as
Extrapolated from the Werk of Wilhelm Blake, but I cannot see his good
name linked to a self-aggrandizing nebbish like Robert Bly without
registering a tiny, respectful protest.
In any event, if you do succeed in establishing Skull City (a reasonable
translation of Golgonooza) in "Jerusalem". I hereby Promise, Pledge &
Vow to go on an extended Crime Spree.
Members of this list who feel attracted to or by Pam's Paradise where
the Roses have no Thorns should ask: where did the thorns go?
The world may explode, but it won't explode in Song.
Hugh Walthall hugwal@erols.com
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 29 May 1997 09:01:36 -0400
From: albright@world.std.com (R.H. Albright)
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Divine Perceptions
Message-Id:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Jim Watt and Tom Devine:
Although I appreciate your view on Blake's framing Jesus as an artist, and
warning against Blake "literalism" (smile.......), I again warn that that
is a doctrine by Blake. So... if there is there humor in that statement, as
well as the science-bashing that Blake made a lifelong task of assuming...
there is also an element of truth in there, too.
The enduring truth of Blake's Urizen, out of balance with the three other
Zoas, is that I think we still live under a Cartesian mindset too much.
People underestimate the power of those other Zoas, although hopefully with
baseball teams like Will Rosenthal's, maybe the 8th inning will get better!
In the meantime, I see once beautiful cities like Bangkok getting ruined by
"heartless" industrialization. They merely want to catch up. There, in
today's Dark Satanic Mills, kids are being sold into prostitution (like
Jerusalem being reduced to mere harlots?), or sold to sweat factories
(like the Chimney Sweepers), and by whom? By their own parents, merely
trying to make ends meet!
And I have to wonder... who am I to judge if they want roller blades, TV
sets lit up with American soap-box junk while indigenous art forms of what
I perceive to have far greater value (I'm now jump-shifting to Java and its
rapidly disappearing gamelon and wayung kulit traditions) get preserved
mainly for the tourist trade? It's rather disheartening! But it's a
conundrum, and I've often thought of Blake (as *I*, an artist, interpret
him) when I watch the ever-building concrete over once-beautiful canals in
places like that.
Jim Watt writes:
>And while it is certainly true that "truth can never be told so as to be
>understood and not be believed" -- it is also the case that truth can
>NEVER be told so as to be believed without being understood!
>
>So art MUST be something greater than "the best communication of
>ideas," ideas being restricted to the realm of Urizen (only 1/4 of the
>whole (or "true") human.
Well... ideas, if they are based on the full human, as well as human to
planet, experience, are still what can change the world. Art may frame
ideas. Then again, art may not. Rousseau can light a fire under the
relatively "common sense" of Locke and others, but without the underlying
principles...??? And was Rousseau an artist, too? (Mais bien sur, I hear
some of you saying!) Is "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" a blueprint like
the Constitution (based on paranoia of too much power concentrated in one
center), or merely a "Question Authority", "Keep Searching" piece of *art*
as we further kansei engineer nuts and bolts issues like law, what is
deemed "sane" and "proper" and more.
And then I come back to Jesus. "Turn the other cheek" works sometimes.
Other times, Hitler might have just taken over the world if people hadn't
fought back. As Jim was saying in an earlier post, not only Zoas, but
ideas, have both their limitations as well as time and place of setting up
"truth". This is, perhaps, why in "The Garden of Love", as much as Blake
bemoans the "Thou Shalt Nots" (what a drag, those Ten Commandments!)...
laws have their limits, but they also provide a certain groundwork for
something better than pure anarchy in which people coexist. Laws,
particularly Jeffersonian type ("the least government is the best")
actually protect the garden of love from having what one man-- was his name
Barry Commager?-- called "The Tragedy of the Commons" happen.
And all of this sounds more like issues studied in political science,
philosophy, and economics departments than either the English, art, or
religion departments, where many people might place Blake! Again, a
cross-disciplinary man.
-Randall Albright
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 29 May 1997 10:36:28 -0500
From: tomdill@wc.stephens.edu (TOM DILLINGHAM)
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Blake citing
Message-Id: <97052910362849@wc.stephens.edu>
Not a seeing, but a hearing in this case. In the opening segment of
the PBS series, _American Visions_, Robert Hughes features the genius
of Thomas Jefferson as architect and "the first do-it-yourselfer,"
emphasizing his habit of endlessly tinkering and re-designing.
(Terrible irony here in the aftermath of the sad event at the UVa
commencement.)
During Hughes's praise of Jefferson the maker, he asserts that the
man's character, constantly striving and improving, would probably
appeal to "the English poet, William Blake" and then he quotes the
words "Energy is Eternal Delight."
Now this is a fascinating connection. As many of you no doubt know,
Jefferson's name is conspicuously absent from Blake's writings, most
noticeably from _America A Prophecy_, which includes, however, the
names of a number of other American worthies and prominences. There is
one reference that may be interpreted as referring to Jefferson:
"The builder of Virginia throws his hammer down in fear"
(_America_ 14.16)
The hammer would certainly associate this "builder" with Los, as well
as would referring to him as a builder; in context, it is not clear to
me whether the reference to fear would be condemnatory or just descriptive.
But the questions abound. Why would Blake have refrained from naming
Jefferson (not less mellifluous a name than Washington or Franklin, nor
more complicated metrically) and how easily could we go along with
Robert Hughes's confidence that Jefferson's character would have
been appealing to Blake. As an admirer of Jefferson, I would probably
emphasize some of the same qualities Hughes has in mind (and it would
seem that Hughes carefully brackets his meaning, focusing on the
artistic creative aspect of Jefferson, excluding the slaveowner, though
he is very harsh about slaveowners in other contexts), but the question
of what Blake may or may not have known (perhaps very little) about
Jefferson's role in the revolution and founding of the republic would
probably be relevant to the other aspects of his views of Jefferson, if
he had any.
Because I am far more interested in Blake the radical political and social
thinker and champion of the power of the imagination than I am in the
mewling mystic that some insist on constructing, the question of
Jefferson is particularly interesting to me and I would be interestd
in any other information about it. (I have certainly not done a systematic
search, but my quick impression is that Jefferson is hardly mentioned in
Blake criticism, if indexes are to be trusted. But I may well just not
have the relevant study at my immediate disposal.)
On a different note (and I apologize if this has already been mentioned
on the list) it is not surprising that Harold Bloom's _Omens of
Millennium_ is decorated with a reproduction of the frontispiece of
Blake's illustrations to _The Grave_ (a design that also appears in
his illustrations to _Night Thoughts_--title page of Night the Second),
called "The Skeleton Reanimated."
Tom Dillingham
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End of blake-d Digest V1997 Issue #63
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