"And did those feet in ancient time" is a short poem by William Blake from the preface to his epic Milton a Poem. The date on the title page of 1804 for Milton is probably when the plates were begun but the poem was printed c. 1808.[1] Today it is best known as the hymn "Jerusalem", with music written by Sir Hubert Parry in 1916.
The poem was inspired by the apocryphal story that a young Jesus, accompanied by his uncle Joseph of Arimathea, travelled to the area that is now England and visited Glastonbury.[2] The legend is linked to an idea in the Book of Revelation (3:12 and 21:2) describing a Second Coming, wherein Jesus establishes a new Jerusalem. The Christian church in general, and the English Church in particular, used Jerusalem as a metaphor for Heaven, a place of universal love and peace. [3][citation needed]
In the most common interpretation of the poem, Blake implies that a visit of Jesus would briefly create heaven in England, in contrast to the "dark Satanic Mills" of the industrial-revolution. Analysts note that Blake asks four questions rather than stating a visit to be true. According to this view, the poem says that there may, or may not, have been a divine visit, when there was briefly heaven in England. But that was then; now, we are faced with the challenge of creating such a country once again.[citation needed]
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The original text is found on the preface Blake printed for inclusion with Milton, a Poem, following the lines beginning "The Stolen and Perverted Writings of Homer & Ovid: of Plato & Cicero, which all Men ought to contemn: ..."[4]
Blake's poem
And did those feet in ancient time.
Walk upon Englands mountains green:
And was the holy Lamb of God,
On Englands 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 Englands green & pleasant Land
Beneath this poem Blake inscribed "Would to God that all the Lords people were Prophets" and "Numbers XI. Ch 29. v., " .[4]
The term "dark Satanic Mills", which entered the English language from this poem, is interpreted as referring to the early Industrial Revolution and its destruction of nature and human relationships.[5] This view has been linked to the fate of the Albion Flour Mills, which was the first major factory in London, built in 1769 by Matthew Boulton and James Watt. It was powered by Watt's steam engines, and produced 6,000 bushels of flour a week. The factory could have driven independent traditional millers out of business, but it was destroyed, perhaps deliberately, by fire in 1791. London's independent millers celebrated with placards reading, "Success to the mills of ALBION but no Albion Mills."[2] Opponents referred to the factory as satanic, and accused its owners of adulterating flour and using cheap imports at the expense of British producers. An illustration of the fire published at the time shows a devil squatting on the building.[6] The mills were a short distance from Blake's home.
The phrase was especially poignant for the millions of workers employed in mills, who adopted the poem as a Socialist hymn.[7] The Bishop of Durham, N. T. Wright, speaking in a homily given before the singing of the hymn, proposed the view that the "dark satanic mills" refers to the "great churches". The incongruity of this could be seen as "a dangerously subversive act", Wright said, or by likening it to when "an old unreconstructed Marxist trade unionist is given a peerage and ends his days muttering his imprecations against The System from a somnolent posture on the back benches of the House of Lords."[8]
Blake's phrase resonates with a wider theme in his works, what he envisioned as a physically and spiritually repressive ideology based on a quantifiable reality. Blake saw the cotton mills and collieries of the period as a mechanism for the enslavement of millions, but the concepts underpinning the works had a wider application:[7][9]
"And all the Arts of Life they changed into the Arts of Death in Albion./...[10]"—Jerusalem Chapter 3. William Blake
Another contested view is that the Mills refer to churches of the established Church of England.[8] A similar approach sees the Satanic Mills as the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, which as the traditional seats of learning and thought in England, were heavily controlled by the Anglican church at the time.[11][citation needed]
An alternative theory is that Blake refers to Stonehenge; an illustration of it and other megaliths is featured in his work, Milton. However, he did not see ancient Britain as satanic, but rather saw the Druids and their supposed temple, Stonehenge, as precursors of Christianity.[2] Satan's "Mills" are referred to repeatedly in the main poem, and are first described in words which suggest neither industrialism nor ancient megaliths, but rather something more abstract: "the starry Mills of Satan/ Are built beneath the earth and waters of the Mundane Shell...To Mortals thy Mills seem everything, and the Harrow of Shaddai / A scheme of human conduct invisible and incomprehensible".[12]
The line from the poem, "Bring me my Chariot of fire!" draws on the story of 2 Kings 2:11, where the Old Testament prophet Elijah is taken directly to heaven: "And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven."
Blake lived in London for most of his life, but wrote much of Milton when he was living in the village of Felpham in Sussex. Amanda Gilroy argues that the poem is informed by Blake's "evident pleasure" in the Felpham countryside.[13]
Several of Blake's poems and paintings express a notion of universal humanity: "As all men are alike (tho' infinitely various)". He retained an active interest in social and political events for all his life, but was often forced to resort to cloaking social idealism and political statements in Protestant mystical allegory. Even though the poem was written during the Napoleonic Wars, Blake was an outspoken supporter of the French Revolution, whose successor Napoleon claimed to be.[14] The poem expressed his desire for radical change without overt sedition. (In 1803 Blake was charged at Chichester with high treason for having 'uttered seditious and treasonable expressions' but was acquitted[15].) The poem is followed in the preface by a quotation from Numbers ch. 11, v. 29: "Would to God that all the Lord's people were prophets." Christopher Rowland, a Professor of Theology at Oxford University, has argued that this includes "everyone in the task of speaking out about what they saw. Prophecy for Blake, however, was not a prediction of the end of the world, but telling the truth as best a person can about what he or she sees, fortified by insight and an honest persuasion that with personal struggle, things could be improved."[16] The words of the poem "stress the importance of people taking responsibility for change and building a better society in England's green and pleasant land".
The Hymn: "Jerusalem"[17]
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 those 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, which was little known during the century which followed its writing, was included in a patriotic anthology of verse published in 1916, a time when morale had begun to decline due to the high number of casualties in World War I and the perception that there was no end in sight.
Under these circumstances, the poem came to symbolise what England was fighting for. Therefore, Robert Bridges, the Poet Laureate, asked Sir Hubert Parry to put it to music at a Fight for Right campaign meeting in London's Queen's Hall. The aims of this organisation were "to brace the spirit of the nation that the people of Great Britain, knowing that they are fighting for the best interests of humanity, may refuse any temptation, however insidious, to conclude a premature peace, and may accept with cheerfulness all the sacrifices necessary to bring the war to a satisfactory conclusion".[18] Bridges asked Parry to supply the verse with "suitable, simple music that an audience could take up and join in". The score was conducted by Parry's student Walford Davies; Parry afterward released it to him, saying "There you are, my boy, do what you like with it." Davies had it published by Curwen and began teaching the tune.[18] Originally Parry intended the first verse to be sung by a solo female voice, but this is rare in contemporary performances. The most famous version was orchestrated by Sir Edward Elgar in 1922 for a large orchestra at the Leeds Festival.[19] Upon hearing the orchestral version for the first time, King George V said that he preferred "Jerusalem" over "God Save the King", the National Anthem.
Jerusalem is considered to be England's most popular patriotic song; The New York Times has called it "Fast becoming an alternative national anthem," [20] and there have even been calls to give it official status.[21] England has no official anthem and so uses the British National Anthem "God Save the Queen" for some national occasions, such as before English international football matches. However, some sports, including cricket, rugby union, and rugby league use "Jerusalem" as the English anthem. Questions in Parliament have not clarified the situation, as answers from the relevant minister say that each sport must make its own decision. Critics of the song have said that its reference to a foreign city and its non-secular basis make it unsuitable.
The poem's idealistic theme or subtext accounts for its popularity across the philosophical spectrum. It was used as a campaign slogan by the Labour Party in the 1945 general election; Clement Attlee said they would build "a new Jerusalem"[22]. It has been sung at conferences of the British Conservative Party, at the Glee Club of the British Liberal Assembly, the British Labour Party and by the British Liberal Democrats.
It is frequently sung as an office or recessional hymn in English cathedrals, churches and chapels on St George's Day. The hymn is also sung in some churches on Jerusalem Sunday, a day set aside to celebrate the holy city, in Anglican Churches throughout the world and even in some Episcopal Churches in the U.S. However some vicars in the Church of England, according to the BBC TV programme "Jerusalem: An Anthem for England", have said that the song is not technically a hymn, as it is not a prayer to God (which hymns always are). Consequently, it is not sung in some churches in England.[23]
Parry's tune is so well liked that the song is not only sung in many schools, especially public schools in the UK (it was used as the title music for the BBC's 1979 series 'Public School' at Radley College) , but also at several private schools in New England and Canada. Some attempts have also been made to increase its use elsewhere with other words. The established Church of Scotland debated altering the words of the hymn to read "Albion" instead of England to make it more locally relevant.[citation needed]
The popularity of Parry's setting has resulted in many hundreds of recordings being made, too numerous to list, of both traditional choral performances and new interpretations by popular music artists. Consequently only its most notable live performances are listed below.
Blake's lyrics have also been set to music by other composers without reference to Parry's melody. The words, with some variations, are used in the track Jerusalem on Bruce Dickinson's album The Chemical Wedding, which also includes lines from book two of Milton. Finn Coren also created a different musical setting for the poem on his album The Blake Project: Spring.
"Bring me my chariot of fire" inspired the title of the film Chariots of Fire.[26] A church congregation sings "Jerusalem" at the close of the film and a performance appears on the Chariots of Fire soundtrack performed by the Ambrosian Singers overlaid partly by a composition by Vangelis. The film's working title was "Running" until Colin Welland saw a TV programme, Songs of Praise, featuring the hymn and decided to change the title.[26] The hymn has featured in many other films and TV programmes including Four Weddings and a Funeral, How to Get Ahead in Advertising,The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Calendar Girls, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Good Night, Mr Tom, and Monty Python's Flying Circus. In the theatre it appears in Jerusalem,[20] Calendar Girls and in Time and the Conways.[20]
"And did those feet in ancient time" is a short poem by William Blake. It comes in the introduction to a long poem called Milton: a Poem (1804). Today it is best known as the hymn Jerusalem, sung to music written by C. Hubert H. Parry in 1916, more than a century after Blake had written the poem.
There is a legend that the young Jesus went to England with his uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, to England and visited Glastonbury. The poem connects this legend to an idea in the Book of Revelation ( 3:12 and 21:2) describing a Second Coming in which Jesus builds a new Jerusalem. Some Christians thought that a new Jerusalem would be like Heaven, somewhere of love and peace. The poem asks if Jesus visited England and if Heaven was created in England. Blake lived in the time of the early Industrial Revolution when there was a lot of poverty and misery. Many people think the “dark Satanic mills” were the factories where many people worked in horrible conditions. This contrasts with the country with its beauty and clean air: “England’s green and pleasant Land”. The second half of Blake's poem says people should try to establish "Jerusalem" once more.
Blake’s poem was not very well known during the 19th century, but in 1916 a collection of poems was published which included “Jerusalem”. Britain was fighting a terrible war (the First World War), and so the people needed some strong, patriotic music to give them courage. Robert Bridges, the Poet Laureate asked Parry to put it to music at a Fight for Right campaign meeting in London's Queen's Hall. He wanted Parry to write a tune that the audience would be able to sing easily. At first Parry wanted verse one to be sung by a solo female voice, but the version sung nowadays is the arrangement for orchestra made in 1922 by Sir Edward Elgar. When King George V heard it for the first time he said that he preferred "Jerusalem" to "God Save the King", the National Anthem.
England (as distinct from Britain) does not have an official anthem and so the British National Anthem "God Save the Queen" is used for national occasions, for example before English international football matches or at the Last Night of the Proms. The song is also the unofficial anthem of the British Women's Institute. It is often sung as a hymn in churches, although people in some churches think it is not a hymn. It is also sung in many schools.
  | Time for an English anthem?? - Blinkz Personal Website Builder |
| | Parliamentary Early Day Motion - UK Parliament - Early Day Motions By Details |
| | Guardian newspaper 8 December 2000 - Letters: Tune into Jerusalem's fighting history | From the Guardian | The Guardian |
| | And Did Those Feet? - Jerusalem - Icons of England - And Did Those Feet? - Jerusalem - Icons of England |
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