HUMAN FORM

 

Blake Archive

Illustrations to Milton's Paradise Lost

Butts Set

Christ Offers to Redeem Man

There are only two ultimate realities to Blake: the Divine Humanity and the Human Form.

Milton, Plate 32 [35], (E 131)

"the Spectre of Albion, who made himself a God &, destroyed the Human Form Divine.
But the Divine Humanity & Mercy gave us a Human Form" 

We are given life in the Human Form by the Divine Humanity. The Human Form we receive is Four-fold. It is not unified but divided into four Faces directed toward the four compass points. Each of the 'four mighty ones' manisfests in one of these psychological directions.

  

Jerusalem, Plate 15, (E 159)

"In every Nation of the Earth till the Twelve Sons of Albion
Enrooted into every Nation: a mighty Polypus growing
From Albion over the whole Earth: such is my awful Vision.   

I see the Four-fold Man. The Humanity in deadly sleep
And its fallen Emanation. The Spectre & its cruel Shadow.
I see the Past, Present & Future, existing all at once
Before me; O Divine Spirit sustain me on thy wings!
That I may awake Albion from His long & cold repose."       
So this is the arrrangement of the Four-fold Man: 

Humanity - Man's inmost part (North) 

Fallen Emanation (East) 

Spectre (South)

Cruel Shadow (West) 

The spiritual dimension of man is his Humanity, the God in whose image he is created. As a Zoa the Humanity corresponds to Urthona.

His fallen Emanation is the form that is expressed in the material world: feminine, passive, and capable of developing a separate will which seeks dominion over the male. It is in Luvah and his World, Beulah, that the fallen Emanation is most evident.

When the Emanation separates from the man, he is left "a selfish and ravening Spectre. His rational power, unchecked by his Emanation, dominates him."(Damon, page 121) The fallen Urizen, or Satan is analogous with the Spectre.

Tharmas must be the cruel shadow. This implies that the body and the senses are delusive reflections of the spirit and spiritual sensation.

Jerusalem, Plate 10, (E 153)

"The Spectre answer'd. Art thou not ashamd of those thy Sins

That thou callest thy Children? lo the Law of God commands
That they be offered upon his Altar: O cruelty & torment
For thine are also mine! I have kept silent hitherto,            
Concerning my chief delight: but thou hast broken silence
Now I will speak my mind! Where is my lovely Enitharmon
O thou my enemy, where is my Great Sin?  She is also thine
I said: Now is my grief at worst: incapable of being
Surpassed: but every moment it accumulates more & more           
It continues accumulating to eternity! the joys of God advance
For he is Righteous: he is not a Being of Pity & Compassion
He cannot feel Distress: he feeds on Sacrifice & Offering:
Delighting in cries & tears & clothed in Holiness & solitude
But my griefs advance also, for ever & ever without end          
O that I could cease to be! Despair! I am Despair
Created to be the great example of horror & agony: also my
Prayer is vain I called for compassion: compassion mockd
Mercy & pity threw the grave stone over me & with lead
And iron, bound it over me for ever: Life lives on my
Consuming: & the Almighty hath made me his Contrary
To be all evil, all reversed & for ever dead: knowing
And seeing life, yet living not; how can I then behold
And not tremble; how can I be beheld & not abhorrd

So spoke the Spectre shuddring, & dark tears ran down his shadowy face
Which Los wiped off, but comfort none could give! or beam of hope
Yet ceasd he not from labouring at the roarings of his Forge
With iron & brass Building Golgonooza in great contendings
Till his Sons & Daughters came forth from the Furnaces
At the sublime Labours for Los. compelld the invisible Spectre  

Plate 11
To labours mighty, with vast strength, with his mighty chains,
In pulsations of time, & extensions of space, like Urns of Beulah
With great labour upon his anvils, & in his ladles the Ore
He lifted, pouring it into the clay ground prepar'd with art;
Striving with Systems to deliver Individuals from those Systems; 
That whenever any Spectre began to devour the Dead,
He might feel the pain as if a man gnawd his own tender nerves.

Then Erin came forth from the Furnaces, & all the Daughters of Beulah
Came from the Furnaces, by Los's mighty power for Jerusalems
Sake: walking up and down among the Spaces of Erin:              
And the Sons and Daughters of Los came forth in perfection lovely!
And the Spaces of Erin reach'd from the starry heighth, to the starry depth.

Los wept with exceeding joy & all wept with joy together!
They feard they never more should see their Father, who
Was built in from Eternity, in the Cliffs of Albion."

Jerusalem, Plate 12, (E 156)

"And the Four Points are thus beheld in Great Eternity
West, the Circumference: South, the Zenith: North,               
The Nadir: East, the Center, unapproachable for ever.
These are the four Faces towards the Four Worlds of Humanity
In every Man. Ezekiel saw them by Chebars flood.
And the Eyes are the South, and the Nostrils are the East.
And the Tongue is the West, and the Ear is the North. 

Jerusalem, Plate 37 [41], (E 184)

[illustration, with inscription, reversed] 

"Each Man is in his Spectre's power
          Untill the arrival of that hour,
          When his Humanity awake
          And cast his Spectre into the Lake" 

Jerusalem, Plate 44 [30], (E 193)

"And the Divine hand was upon them bearing them thro darkness
Back safe to their Humanity as doves to their windows:
Therefore the Sons of Eden praise Urthonas Spectre in Songs
Because he kept the Divine Vision in time of trouble."

Jerusalem, Plate 79, ( E 236)

"O Vala! Humanity is far above
Sexual organization; & the Visions of the Night of Beulah"

Jerusalem, Plate 96, (E 255)

"Then Jesus appeared standing by Albion as the Good Shepherd
By the lost Sheep that he hath found & Albion knew that it
Was the Lord the Universal Humanity, & Albion saw his Form     
A Man. & they conversed as Man with Man, in Ages of Eternity

And the Divine Appearance was the likeness & similitude of Los"

Jerusalem, Plate 98, (E 257)

"Driving outward the Body of Death in an Eternal Death & Resurrection   
Awaking it to Life among the Flowers of Beulah rejoicing in Unity
In the Four Senses in the Outline the Circumference & Form, for ever
In Forgiveness of Sins which is Self Annihilation. it is the Covenant of Jehovah

The Four Living Creatures Chariots of Humanity Divine incomprehensible
In beautiful Paradises expand These are the Four Rivers of Paradise   
And the Four Faces of Humanity fronting the Four Cardinal Points
Of Heaven going forward forward irresistible from Eternity to Eternity
And they conversed together in Visionary forms dramatic"

Descriptive Catalogue, (E 536)

 "These Gods
are visions of the eternal attributes, or divine names, which,
when erected into gods, become destructive to humanity.
They ought to be the servants, and not the masters of man, or of
society.  They ought to be made to sacrifice to Man, and not man
compelled to sacrifice to them; for when separated from man or
humanity, who is Jesus the Saviour, the vine of eternity, they
are thieves and rebels, they are destroyers."

Last Judgement, (E 553)

"many Infants appear in the Glory
representing the Eternal Creation flowing from the Divine
Humanity in Jesus who opens the Scroll of Judgment upon his knees
before the Living & the Dead"

ORC

First posted February 2016

America

Plate 4

Enlarged Segment

 

Blake lived through an age of revolution. He was 19 years old when the American colonies declared their independence from the British Empire. When he was 36 the French executed their monarch. He observed the cycle and consequences of revolution at home and abroad. Blake's character Orc was developed in response to his observation of actual revolution.

Blake's first mention of Orc by name is in the Preludium to America published in 1793. Orc is portrayed as having reached maturity, burst his bonds a restraint and exploded into Revolution.
 

Yale Center for British Art

Urizen

Copy A, Plate 18

To Blake Orc originated through Los and Enitharmon. Los personified the voice of prophecy which spoke God's word to an alienated world. Enitharmon represented the world to which the prophecy was spoken. Their child Orc choose to ally himself with Enitharmon and her world. Orc like his father sought change but he hadn't the self restraint of Los. Orc's revolutionary powers were pitted against Urizen's restrictive efforts to construct a world which could not accommodate the unpredictability of imagination. Orc, however, eventually submitted to Urizen's dictates. Allied with Urizen's life-denying thinking, Orc's emotion-driven activities degenerated into terrorism and anarchy.

Yale Center for British Art
America
Plate 12, Copy A

 

 

In Fearful Symmetry Northrop Frye states on page 217:

"Revolution attracts sympathy more because it is revolution than because of what it proposes to substitute... But as Orc stiffens into Urizen, it becomes manifest that the world is so constituted that no cause can triumph in it and still preserve its imaginative integrity. The imagination is mental, and never has a preponderance of physical force on its side." Frye continues with this quote from Blake:  

Vision of Last Judgment, (E 564)  "The Whole Creation Groans to be deliverd there will always be as many Hypocrites born as Honest Men & they will always have superior Power in Mortal Things You cannot have Liberty in this World without what you call Moral Virtue & you cannot have Moral Virtue without the Slavery of that half of the Human Race who hate what you call Moral Virtue"
 

Paul had stated in the New Testament that we wait in hope for the ultimate transformation which will not come about by use of physical force.  
Romans 8
[22] For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
[23] And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
[24] For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
[25] But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

 

Yale Center for British Art
America
Plate 3, Copy A

Four Zoas, Night V, Page 60, (E 340)
"Tharmas laid the Foundations & Los finishd it in howling woe
But when fourteen summers & winters had revolved over   
Their solemn habitation Los beheld the ruddy boy 
Embracing his bright mother & beheld malignant fires 
In his young eyes discerning plain that Orc plotted his death 
Grief rose upon his ruddy brows. a tightening girdle grew 
Around his bosom like a bloody cord. in secret sobs 
He burst it, but next morn another girdle succeeds 
Around his bosom.  Every day he viewd the fiery youth 
With silent fear & his immortal cheeks grew deadly pale   
Till many a morn & many a night passd over in dire woe 
Forming a girdle in the day & bursting it at night   
The girdle was formd by day by night was burst in twain 
Falling down on the rock an iron chain link by link lockd   
Enitharmon beheld the bloody chain of nights & days 
Depending from the bosom of Los & how with griding pain 
He went each morning to his labours. with the spectre dark 
Calld it the chain of jealousy. Now Los began to speak 
His woes aloud to Enitharmon. since he could not hide 
His uncouth plague. He siezd the boy in his immortal hands

While Enitharmon followd him weeping in dismal woe              
Up to the iron mountains top & there the Jealous chain
Fell from his bosom on the mountain. The Spectre dark
Held the fierce boy Los naild him down binding around his limbs
The accursed chain O how bright Enitharmon howld & cried
Over her son. Obdurate Los bound down her loved joy" 

Milton, Plate 18 [20], (E 111)
"Orc answerd. Take not the Human Form O loveliest. Take not
Terror upon thee! Behold how I am & tremble lest thou also
Consume in my Consummation; but thou maist take a Form
Female & lovely, that cannot consume in Mans consummation
Wherefore dost thou Create & Weave this Satan for a Covering[?]  
When thou attemptest to put on the Human Form, my wrath  
Burns to the top of heaven against thee in Jealousy & Fear.
Then I rend thee asunder, then I howl over thy clay & ashes
When wilt thou put on the Female Form as in times of old
With a Garment of Pity & Compassion like the Garment of God      
His garments are long sufferings for the Children of Men
Jerusalem is his Garment & not thy Covering Cherub O lovely
Shadow of my delight who wanderest seeking for the prey."

So spoke Orc when Oothoon & Leutha hoverd over his Couch"

Milton, Plate 29 [31], (E 127)
"But Rintrah & Palamabron govern over Day & Night
In Allamanda & Entuthon Benython where Souls wail:
Where Orc incessant howls burning in fires of Eternal Youth,
Within the vegetated mortal Nerves; for every Man born is joined 
Within into One mighty  Polypus, and this Polypus is Orc.

But in the Optic vegetative Nerves Sleep was transformed
To Death in old time by Satan the father of Sin & Death
And Satan is the Spectre of Orc & Orc is the generate Luvah"

Milton, Plate 40 [46], (E 141)
"I heard Ololon say to Milton

I see thee strive upon the Brooks of Arnon. there a dread
And awful Man I see, oercoverd with the mantle of years.   
I behold Los & Urizen. I behold Orc & Tharmas;
The Four Zoa's of Albion & thy Spirit with them striving
In Self annihilation giving thy life to thy enemies"

Northrop Frye, Fearful Symmetry on Page 218:

"Orc is completely bound to the cyclic wheel of life. He cannot represent an entry into the new world, but only the power of renewing an exhausted form of the old one."

Christopher Z Hobson
The Chained Boy: Orc and Blake's Idea of Revolution

FOURFOLD HUMAN

First Posted Sept 2014. 

Yale Center for British Art

Jerusalem

Plate 92

Blake teaches that the human is Fourfold incorporating reason, emotions, body and imagination. The Sexual world of Generation is Threefold. The head, heart and loins are functioning but the imagination is dormant. Without the imagination the other aspects engage in selfish strife among the three.  

Blake's myth treats the fall from an original state of unity in Eden through the consequences of division which are many and devastating. Tharmas, the body, struggles in the flood of materiality to avoid losing his grasp on existence. Urizen, the reason, follows mistaken pursuits attempting to go it alone as the solitary arbitrator. Luvah, the emotions, is split between his powerful emanation Vala, and his revolutionary force, Orc. Urthona, the imagination, delegates his role to his materialized form, Los, who continually attempts to eliminate the errors which plague the divided man. Until the four work out their differences, see the value in the other, and relinquish aspirations of autonomy, they are condemned to a cycle of failure.

Although being fully human means being unified, achieving unity is facilitated through becoming conscious to the four forces which are active in the mind and in the outer world in which we live. An individual may unconsciously express in his behavior any of the four forces. Gaining an understanding of the dynamics of the interchanges of the four can enable the individual to quell the dissensions within and the conflicts encountered outwardly.

The image from near the end of Jerusalem when unity is being restored, shows the heads of four men emerging from the ground as if released to assume their proper places in the psyche of Albion.

 Milton, Plate 4, (E 97)
"Beneath the Plow of Rintrah & the harrow of the Almighty
In the hands of Palamabron. Where the Starry Mills of Satan
Are built beneath the Earth & Waters of the Mundane Shell
Here the Three Classes of Men take their Sexual texture Woven
The Sexual is Threefold: the Human is Fourfold"              

Jerusalem, Plate 12, (E 155)
"Go on, builders in hope: tho Jerusalem wanders far away,
Without the gate of Los: among the dark Satanic wheels.

Fourfold the Sons of Los in their divisions: and fourfold,       
The great City of Golgonooza: fourfold toward the north
And toward the south fourfold, & fourfold toward the east & west
Each within other toward the four points: that toward
Eden, and that toward the World of Generation,
And that toward Beulah, and that toward Ulro:                    
Ulro is the space of the terrible starry wheels of Albions sons:
But that toward Eden is walled up, till time of renovation:
Yet it is perfect in its building, ornaments & perfection."

Jerusalem, Plate 98, (E 258)
"The Sons & Daughters of Albion on soft clouds Waking from Sleep
Soon all around remote the Heavens burnt with flaming fires    
And Urizen & Luvah & Tharmas & Urthona arose into
Albions Bosom: Then Albion stood before Jesus in the Clouds
Of Heaven Fourfold among the Visions of God in Eternity"

Letters, To Thomas Butts, (E 722)
     "Now I a fourfold vision see
     And a fourfold vision is given to me
     Tis fourfold in my supreme delight
     And three fold in soft Beulahs night
     And twofold Always.  May God us keep
     From Single vision & Newtons sleep" 

SYMBOLISM

Wikipedia Commons

Book of Urizen

Plate 4, Copy A

Northrop Frye and Foster Damon each included in his definitive Blake book a helpful chart showing associations of symbols with the individual Zoas. Frye used The Four Zoas as his reference point whereas Damon used Jerusalem. Below are selected associations from their charts.

Fearful Symmetry, Frye, page 277:

In Four Zoas

1. Eternal Name    Luvah              Urizen            Tharmas            Urthona

2. Time Name        Orc                  Satan                C. Cherub            Fancy

3. Sense                 Nose                Eye                  Tongue                 Ear

4. Position              Center              Zenith              Circumference      Nadir

5. Nature                Stars                 Sun                 Moon                Mountains

6. Element              Fire                   Air                   Water                    Earth

7. Place                  Soil                   City                 Garden             Underground

8. Virtue                 Love                  Faith                Hope                   Vision 

9. Vice                    Hatred              Doubt               Despair             Dullness

 

A Blake Dictionary by Damon, page 212:

In Jerusalem - Fourfold Correspondence

1. Name             Urthona                 Luvah              Urizen               Tharmas 

2. Meanings       Imagination            Emotions            Reason            Senses         

3. Places             Nadir                     Center                Zenith              Circumference

4. Desires            Friendship             Love                   Hunger            Lust  

5. Worlds             Eternity                  Beulah                Ulro                 Generation

6. Sense               Ears                      Nostrils               Eyes                Tongue

7. Elements          Earth                      Fire                    Air                    Water

8. Symbols            Sun                        Moon                 Stars                Earth

---

Jerusalem, Plate 97, (E 256) 

 "Then Albion stretchd his hand into Infinitude.
And took his Bow. Fourfold the Vision for bright beaming Urizen
Layd his hand on the South & took a breathing Bow of carved Gold
Luvah his hand stretch'd to the East & bore a Silver Bow bright shining
Tharmas Westward a Bow of Brass pure flaming richly wrought   
Urthona Northward in thick storms a Bow of Iron terrible thundering.

And the Bow is a Male & Female & the Quiver of the Arrows of Love,
Are the Children of this Bow: a Bow of Mercy & Loving-kindness: laying
Open the hidden Heart in Wars of mutual Benevolence Wars of Love"

FOUR FACES OF MAN

 

Wikipedia Commons
Original in Library of Congress
Book of Urizen
Copy G, Plate 16

First posted Aug 2014

 Songs of Innocence, Song 32, (E 19)   
"Love seeketh not Itself to please,
Nor for itself hath any care;
But for another gives its ease,
And builds a Heaven in Hells despair."     

Blake sought to translate 'The Four Faces of Man' in Eternity into expressions in the world in which we live. His goal was to build a 'Heaven in Hells despair.' He sought to remove the impediments which prevent the eternal dimensions of Music, Poetry, Painting and Architecture from becoming apparent in himself, in his London and in his earthly home.

Each of the Faces of Man derived from one of the Zoas into which the total man could be analyzed for the sake of connecting the mind to the panoply of existence.  
 
Four Faces of Man:
Music - Luvah - emotion
Poetry - Urthona - imagination
Painting - Tharmas - senses
Architecture - Urizen - reason

Milton, Plate 27 [29], (E 125) 
"But in Eternity the Four Arts: Poetry, Painting, Music,          
And Architecture which is Science: are the Four Faces of Man.
Not so in Time & Space: there Three are shut out, and only
Science remains thro Mercy: & by means of Science, the Three
Become apparent in time & space, in the Three Professions

Poetry in Religion: Music, Law: Painting, in Physic & Surgery:

That Man may live upon Earth till the time of his awaking,
And from these Three, Science derives every Occupation of Men.
And Science is divided into Bowlahoola & Allamanda."

Music is the manifestation of Luvah.

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 134, (E 403)
"Attempting to be more than Man We become less said Luvah
As he arose from the bright feast drunk with the wine of ages
His crown of thorns fell from his head he hung his living Lyre
Behind the seat of the Eternal Man & took his way
Sounding the Song of Los descending to the Vineyards bright      

Poetry is the manifestation of Urthona.

Vision of Last Judgment, (E 554)
  "The Last Judgment is not Fable or Allegory
but   Vision[.] Fable or Allegory are a totally distinct & inferior
kind of Poetry.  Vision or Imagination is a Representation of
what Eternally Exists.  Really & Unchangeably.  Fable or Allegory
is Formd by the Daughters of Memory.  Imagination is Surrounded
by the daughters of Inspiration who in the aggregate are calld
Jerusalem" 
 
Annotations to Wordsworth, (E 665)
"One Power alone makes a Poet.-Imagination The Divine Vision" 

Painting is the manifestation of Tharmas.    

Descriptive Catalogue, (E 541)
"Poetry consists in these conceptions; and shall
Painting be confined to the sordid drudgery of facsimile 
representations of merely mortal and perishing substances, and
not be as poetry and music are, elevated into its own proper
sphere of invention and visionary conception? No, it shall not 
be so!  Painting, as well as poetry and music, exists and exults 
in immortal thoughts."    

Architecture is the manifestation of Urizen.

On Virgil, (E 270)
"Mathematic Form is Eternal in the Reasoning Memory.  Living
Form is Eternal Existence.
  Grecian is Mathematic Form
  Gothic is Living Form"

SPENSER

The Characters in Spencer's Faerie Queene
Fine Arts Prints

When in about 1825 Blake painted a large picture illustrating the Characters of Spenser's Faerie Queene, he included the minute detail which Spencer has lavished upon his poem. As usual when Blake illustrated his predecessors he was commenting on aspects of their thought with which he agreed and on what he found to be in error. Spenser was one of the authors whose work Blake found contained vision even though as an allegory it failed to represent what Exists in Eternity. 

Vision of Last Judgment, (E 554)
"The Last Judgment is not Fable or Allegory
but Vision Fable or Allegory are a totally distinct & inferiorkind of Poetry.
Vision or Imagination is a Representation of

what Eternally Exists.  Really & Unchangeably.  Fable or Allegory
is Formd by the Daughters of Memory.  Imagination is Surrounded
by the daughters of Inspiration who in the aggregate are calld
Jerusalem     Fable is Allegory but what Critics call The
Fable is Vision itself   The Hebrew Bible & the Gospel of
Jesus are not Allegory but Eternal Vision or Imagination of All
that Exists  Note here that Fable or Allegory is Seldom without
some Vision   Pilgrims Progress is full of it the Greek Poets the
same but 
Allegory & Vision& Visions of Imagination ought
to be known as Two Distinct Things & so calld for the Sake of
Eternal Life"  

The Blake Archive has published an article on Blake's The Characters in Spenser’s Faerie Queene. The authors John E. Grant Robert E. Brown have made a detailed analysis of the individuals in the picture which were included in the Faerie Queene. Blake included numerous Spencer characters, many of whom are not clearly visible. As Blake did in his illustration of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, he portrayed the essential identity of each individual as the author delineated them. Grant and Brown use Blake's illustration to make it possible to grasp a sense of Spenser's allegory through seeing men and women interacting with one another.

Here is a sample from the The Faerie Queene: Book I, Canto I provided by the Poetry Foundation 
By Edmund Spenser 

lv

Long after lay he musing at her mood,

Much griev'd to think that gentle Dame so light,

For whose defence he was to shed his blood.

At last dull wearinesse of former fight

Having yrockt a sleepe his irkesome spright,

That troublous dreame gan freshly tosse his braine,

With bowres, and beds, and Ladies deare delight:

But when he saw his labour all was vaine,

With that misformed spright he backe returnd againe.  

The Gutenberg Press published Book 1 of The Faerie Queene edited and introduced by George Armstrong Wauchope. He provides thorough introductory information on the setting, form and content of the work.

Wauchope writes:
"That the allegory of the poem is closely connected with its aim and ethical tendency is evident from the statement of the author that "the generall end therefore of all the booke is to fashion a gentleman or noble person in vertuous and gentle discipline. Which for that I conceived should be most plausible and pleasing, being coloured with an historical fiction, the which the most part of men delight to read, rather for varietie of matter then for profite of the ensample." The Faerie Queene is, therefore, according to the avowed purpose of its author, a poem of culture. Though it is one of the most highly artistic works in the language, it is at the same time one of the most didactic. 'It professes," says Mr. Church, "to be a veiled exposition of moral philosophy.'"

It easy to see how there would be much in Spenser's allegory which would not appeal to Blake's mythopoetic sensibilities.

Elizabeth Jane Darnill, in her thesis submitted to the University of Exeter, titled "Four-fold vision see": Allegory in the Poetry of Edmund Spenser and William Blake makes this statement which clarifies the relationship between imagination, seeing 'thru' the eye, and reading allegory for its visionary content:

"For Blake, the imagination is a continually lived experience, though he is fully aware of the extent to which readers fail to acknowledge and engage with their imaginations. Instead of seeing the “Infinite & Eternal,” readers often confine and limit their minds to the scope of the rational and sensible. A major theme within Blake’s verse, especially in Milton, The Four Zoas and Jerusalem, is the reawakening of the imagination, the awareness of alternative ways of viewing and interpreting. He sought to invite his readers to think and to see more deeply and profoundly. In this sense, the imagination working in partnership with allegory, guides and prompts a greater awareness of multiple levels of viewing. Just as Spenser’s allegorical work encourages readers to use their imagination, Blake’s imaginative verse inspires a deep interrogation of the text and the revelation of the allegorical meanings within it. Readers who see not 'with' but 'through' the eyes are using their minds – their imaginative faculties – when evaluating a scene, rather than relying purely upon the singular dimension of sight when reading the text (“Auguries of Innocence” ll. 125-26). Through allegorical-imaginative didacticism, Blake strives to convey the power of the human imagination."

Manchester City Gallery
Edmund Spenser
for William Hayley's Library

Blake's Style

Throughout the 19th Century the works of William Blake suffered almost total neglect. His message simply surpassed contemporary currents of thought. A voracious reader, Blake mastered (and used) the symbology of the Bible, Plato, the Neoplatonists, Greek mythology, Paracelsus, Boehme, and who knows what else.

During the 20th century his reputation as a poet and thinker steadily grew. His most popular collection of poems, 'Songs of Innocence and Experience', has won general recognition as a classic.

Blake's three largest works, called the major prophecies, still offer technical difficulties that may defeat the casual reader. Once they were thought to represent the eccentric vagaries of an unbalanced mind; many people considered Blake insane. Intensive Blake scholarship over the past eighty years has slowly deciphered the cryptograms and clarified (at least some of) the mysteries.

What had seemed the most insane passages often proved on closer examination to be the most rational and meaningful. A growing body of translation and interpretation has made the major prophecies accessible and rewarding to the reader willing to take reasonable pains with them. They are now about as accessible to the general reader as is the Bible. Those who share Blake's values (spiritual, psychological, political, religious, etc.) will certainly find it easier to enjoy than the generality of the population.

---

A systematic acquaintance with Blake's literary peculiarities will enhance the reader's enjoyment of his poetry. This chapter introduces a few guiding principles of his thought processes and literary and artistic style. First of all we should note that Blake combined word and picture in a unique synthesis.

Although he wrote unadorned poems and painted wordless pictures, his primary mode of expression was the illuminated manuscript, an intimate blend of graphic and verbal art. To provide a full exposition of this unique double form is beyond the modest goal of this work; the illuminated form is simply mentioned as a most distinctive facet of Blake's art.

One simple clue to reading Blake concerns his use of dialogue; he spoke with many voices. He exercised this freedom especially with the larger prophecies, the three major works. These on first reading may seem to present insuperable difficulties, but the reader who pays close attention to the identity of the speaker at each point may thereby break down the forest into manageable groves of trees. In his three long poems Blake gave titles to various elements or speeches; they became units, landmarks or guideposts, casting light on what at first seemed general confusion.

In Night I of The Four Zoas for example we find Enitharmon's Song of Death, the "Nuptial Song" of the "demons of the deep", and the message of the Daughters of Beulah, which they call the "Wars of Death Eternal". These three songs comprise three of the many selves of the human psyche; needless to say their ideas and attitudes vary immensely. They all describe the same event, but they see it, oh, so differently. They use the same words with different meanings. For example consider that what the daughters call "Death Eternal" the demons call marriage. In this way Blake challenges the reader and stretches his mind and immensely rewards whoever will accept the challenge. He gives us the end of a golden string.

Four Zoas, Night I, Page 13, (E 308)
"And Los & Enitharmon sat in discontent & scorn

The Nuptial Song arose from all the thousand thousand spirits  
Over the joyful Earth & Sea, and ascended into the Heavens
For Elemental Gods their thunderous Organs blew; creating
Delicious Viands. Demons of Waves their watry Eccho's woke!
Bright Souls of vegetative life, budding and blossoming    
Page 14
Stretch their immortal hands to smite the gold & silver Wires
And with immortal Voice soft warbling fill all Earth & Heaven.
With doubling Voices & loud Horns wound round sounding
Cavernous dwellers fill'd the enormous Revelry, Responsing!
And Spirits of Flaming fire on high, govern'd the mighty Song.   

And This the Song! sung at The Feast of Los & Enitharmon"

---------------------------------

"To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour." (Blake)

"we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal". (Apostle Paul) 



Blake Archive
Original in Library of Congress
Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Plate 12






 

In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (the 2nd Memorable Fancy) Blake placed in the mouth of Ezekiel a statement of his own primary purpose as an artist and as a man, "the desire of raising other men into a perception of the infinite". That basic aim pervades Blake's art; he was supremely interested in what he called the infinite or the eternal, and he believed that every man has access to it through his imagination.

.

ORC

America
Plate 4
Enlarged Segment

Blake lived through an age of revolution. He was 19 years old when the American colonies declared their independence from the British Empire. When he was 36 the French executed their monarch. He observed the cycle and consequences of revolution at home and abroad. Blake's character Orc was developed in response to his observation of actual revolution.
Blake's first mention of Orc by name is in the Preludium to America published in 1793. Orc is portrayed as having reached maturity, burst his bonds a restraint and exploded into Revolution

Yale Center for British Art
Urizen 
Copy A, Plate 18

To Blake Orc originated through Los and Enitharmon. Los personified the voice of prophecy which spoke God's word to an alienated world. Enitharmon represented the world to which the prophecy was spoken. Their child Orc choose to ally himself with Enitharmon and her world. Orc like his father sought change but he hadn't the self restraint of Los. Orc's revolutionary powers were pitted against Urizen's restrictive efforts to construct a world which could not accommodate the unpredictability of imagination. Orc, however, eventually submitted to Urizen's dictates. Allied with Urizen's life-denying thinking, Orc's emotion-driven activities degenerated into terrorism and anarchy.

Yale Center for British Art
America
Plate 12, Copy A

In Fearful Symmetry Northrop Frye states on page 217:
"Revolution attracts sympathy more because it is revolution than because of what it proposes to substitute... But as Orc stiffens into Urizen, it becomes manifest that the world is so constituted that no cause can triumph in it and still preserve its imaginative integrity. The imagination is mental, and never has a preponderance of physical force on its side."
Frye continues with this quote from Blake:

Vision of Last Judgment, (E 564) 
"The Whole Creation Groans to be deliverd there will always be as many Hypocrites born as Honest Men & they will always have superior Power in Mortal Things You cannot have Liberty in this World without what you call Moral Virtue & you cannot have Moral Virtue without the Slavery of that half of the Human Race who hate what you call Moral Virtue"

Paul had stated in the New Testament that we wait in hope for the ultimate transformation which will not come about by use of physical force.
Romans 8
[22] For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
[23] And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
[24] For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
[25] But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

Yale Center for British Art
America
Plate 3, Copy A

Four Zoas, Night V, Page 60, (E 340)
"Tharmas laid the Foundations & Los finishd it in howling woe 
 But when fourteen summers & winters had revolved over 
Their solemn habitation Los beheld the ruddy boy 
Embracing his bright mother & beheld malignant fires 
In his young eyes discerning plain that Orc plotted his death 
Grief rose upon his ruddy brows. a tightening girdle grew 
Around his bosom like a bloody cord. in secret sobs 
He burst it, but next morn another girdle succeeds 
Around his bosom.  Every day he viewd the fiery youth 
With silent fear & his immortal cheeks grew deadly pale 
Till many a morn & many a night passd over in dire woe 
Forming a girdle in the day & bursting it at night 
The girdle was formd by day by night was burst in twain 
Falling down on the rock an iron chain link by link lockd 
Enitharmon beheld the bloody chain of nights & days 
Depending from the bosom of Los & how with griding pain 
He went each morning to his labours. with the spectre dark 
Calld it the chain of jealousy. Now Los began to speak 
His woes aloud to Enitharmon. since he could not hide 
His uncouth plague. He siezd the boy in his immortal hands

While Enitharmon followd him weeping in dismal woe              
Up to the iron mountains top & there the Jealous chain
Fell from his bosom on the mountain. The Spectre dark
Held the fierce boy Los naild him down binding around his limbs
The accursed chain O how bright Enitharmon howld & cried
Over her son. Obdurate Los bound down her loved joy" 

Milton, Plate 18 [20], (E 111)
"Orc answerd. Take not the Human Form O loveliest. Take not
Terror upon thee! Behold how I am & tremble lest thou also
Consume in my Consummation; but thou maist take a Form
Female & lovely, that cannot consume in Mans consummation
Wherefore dost thou Create & Weave this Satan for a Covering[?]  
When thou attemptest to put on the Human Form, my wrath  
Burns to the top of heaven against thee in Jealousy & Fear.
Then I rend thee asunder, then I howl over thy clay & ashes
When wilt thou put on the Female Form as in times of old
With a Garment of Pity & Compassion like the Garment of God      
His garments are long sufferings for the Children of Men
Jerusalem is his Garment & not thy Covering Cherub O lovely
Shadow of my delight who wanderest seeking for the prey."

So spoke Orc when Oothoon & Leutha hoverd over his Couch"

Milton, Plate 29 [31], (E 127)
"But Rintrah & Palamabron govern over Day & Night
In Allamanda & Entuthon Benython where Souls wail:
Where Orc incessant howls burning in fires of Eternal Youth,
Within the vegetated mortal Nerves; for every Man born is joined 
Within into One mighty  Polypus, and this Polypus is Orc.

But in the Optic vegetative Nerves Sleep was transformed
To Death in old time by Satan the father of Sin & Death
And Satan is the Spectre of Orc & Orc is the generate Luvah"

Milton, Plate 40 [46], (E 141)
"I heard Ololon say to Milton

I see thee strive upon the Brooks of Arnon. there a dread
And awful Man I see, oercoverd with the mantle of years.   
I behold Los & Urizen. I behold Orc & Tharmas;
The Four Zoa's of Albion & thy Spirit with them striving
In Self annihilation giving thy life to thy enemies"

Northrop Frye, Fearful Symmetry on Page 218:

"Orc is completely bound to the cyclic wheel of life. He cannot represent an entry into the new world, but only the power of renewing an exhausted form of the old one."


Christopher Z Hobson
The Chained Boy: Orc and Blake's Idea of Revolution