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It's from a hymn describing the environmental destruction of the industrial revolution: And did those feet in ancient time \ Walk upon England’s mountains gre
by dipsplacemat 4y ago
It's from a hymn describing the environmental destruction of the industrial revolution:
And did those feet in ancient time \
Walk upon England’s mountains green? \
And was the holy Lamb of God \
On England’s pleasant pastures seen?
And did the Countenance Divine \
Shine forth upon our clouded hills? \
And was Jerusalem builded here \
Among these dark Satanic mills?
Bring me my bow of burning gold: \
Bring me my arrows of desire: \
Bring me my spear: O clouds unfold! \
Bring me my chariot of fire.
I will not cease from mental fight, \
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand \
Till we have built Jerusalem \
In England’s green and pleasant land.
- wing-_-nuts 4y agoDamn this sounds like William Blake
- nonrandomstring 4y agoAs I understood it Blake's Jerusalem didn't literally anticipate the inhumanity of the northern mills (child labour etc - which the phrase has since come to signify), but the orthodoxy of church, schools, law, and halls of Apollonian indoctrination which he saw as obstacles to a more fully human reality. He was, to use a term from Christopher Hitchens, an anti-theist in the fullest sense, against all theisms including those we would recognise today as "technological orthodoxies". While also arguably the worlds first multi-media artist, he eschewed the paper 'tygers' as Promethean follies. Rather prescient I would say.