Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion
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Jerusalem, subtitled The Emanation of the Giant Albion, was the last, longest and greatest in scope of the prophetic books written and illustrated by the poet, artist and engraver William Blake.
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[edit] Production technique
The poem, which was produced between 1804 and 1820, consists of 100 engraved and illustrated plates. This would be Blake's longest single work. The illustrated plates were made using Blake's self-devised technique of "illuminated printing". This required each copy to be individually coloured and produced plate by plate. Blake was not averse to changing the text of some plates between printings or changing the colouring, as a result of which no two original copies of the poem are the same. The sole extant color edition of this work is in the collection of the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut.
[edit] Summary of the poem
Jerusalem tells the story of the fall of Albion, Blake's embodiment of man, Britain or the western world as a whole.
The poetic narrative takes the form of a "drama of the psyche", couched in the dense symbolism of Blake's self-constructed mythology. Albion's fall results in (and also appears to be caused by) the division of his persona into four distinct aspects (known as "Zoas"). While not explicitly defined, most scholars agree that the Zoas can at a basic level be understood as personifications of various aspects of the human mind:
- Los (or Urthona) = Imagination
- Urizen = Reason
- Luvah = Emotion or Passion
- Tharmas = Perception or Instinct.
In turn, each of the Zoas eventually sub-divides to produce a female equivalent, or "Emanation": Los produces Enitharmon; Urizen, Ahania ; Luvah, Vala; and Tharmas, Enion. The greater part of the poem concerns the actions of the Zoas and their emanations and principally the conflict between Los (who wishes to re-form Albion) and Urizen (who wishes to attain "Self-hood", a state Blake equates with Satan).
As with all protagonists in Blake's prophetic books, the Zoas and their emanations should not however be understood as "characters" in the traditional sense: their behaviour and characteristics can be inconsistent or even self-contradictory and their actions do not always follow a linear narrative form.
At the end of the poem, the death and resurrection of Jesus allows Jerusalem, the Emanation of Albion himself, to reunite his various aspects into a single entity once more.
[edit] External link
Jerusalem scanned edition at BlakeArchive.org
[edit] Jerusalem (Hymn)
The lyric to the hymn Jerusalem, for which Blake is arguably best known, is not connected to this poem, but is in fact the preface from another of his "prophetic books", Milton: a Poem.
