Wikipedia
The Hymn: "Jerusalem"
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.
***
GJ - I posted this as a curiosity. While searching for a traditional version of "Jerusalem the Golden," sung by a choir, I found this. John Milton combined classical mythology with Biblical images in his Paradise Lost. This poem fits the Milton method, which is strange, to say the least.
Paul Tillich did the same, artlessly, in his bizarre Systematic Theology book. His liberal Union Seminary colleagues were shocked.
2 comments:
This may be a nationalistic song and the Anglicans may treat it as a hymn - but I certainly don't think it is. I may be only a relatively new Lutheran, but is there any Christian doctrine actually in the hymn?
William Blake was a free-love believing, Anti-clerical, Gnostic poet, who invented his own anti-Christian mythology.
Also according to Marsha Keith Schuchard's (controversial) Why Mrs Blake cried: William Blake and the sexual basis of spiritual vision Blake was influenced by Swedenborgism, Kaballism, and Moravian sexual mysticism (among other things). If Wagner and Holst are considered associated with paganism and not appropriate for Church music - then I really don't see how Blake is better than them.
Well said Mild Colonial Boy !
from another relatively new Lutheran
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