Among these dark Satanic Mills? William Blake’s Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (from ‘Milton’)
by: William Blake (1757-1827)
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.
The poem Jerusalem (1804), by William Blake, is actually an excerpt from the preface to one of his “prophetic books”, Milton.
Jerusalem is here the symbolic residence of a humanity freed of the inter-related chains of commerce, British imperialism, and war. Blake’s “mental fight” is directed against these chains. In his Blake: Prophet Against Empire, David Erdman tells us that Blake’s “dark, Satanic Mills” are “mills that produce dark metal, iron and steel, for diabolic purposes . . . . London . . . was a war arsenal and the hub of the machinery of war, and Blake uses the symbol in that sense.” (via progressivliving.org)
One version of the transfer of labour from the farms, and also possibly from the estate of Blake himself, was that they were far better off in the Industrial towns, a steady wage and most important they were away from the authority of the land owning squire and the vicker of the church who was simply a mouthpeice of the establishment, i.e. the Court and government.Could it be that Blake was not only a early Greenie. but also a NIMBY.
Initially the missionary movement was to re-convert all the new town dwellers back to Christianity and to the farms and control. That failed, so all the dedicated young men and women were instead sent abroad, to convert the poor misguided savages to to the ideals of people like BLAKE..
Re the dark satanic mills ; cotton mills or university ?I vote university, all the other references are strong metaphors; why literal in last line ?