‘Jerusalem’ is a beautiful by choral trailblazer , and a favourite for .
‘And did those feet in ancient time’ – also the hymn’s first line, and alternate title – is a poem written by William Blake around 1808. Taken from the preface to his great work Milton: A Poem in Two Books, the poem was inspired by the legend that Jesus might have travelled, with Joseph of Arimathea, to England – to Glastonbury, in Somerset.
According to its most common interpretation, Blake’s poem suggests that a visit from Jesus will create heaven in England, in contrast to the ‘dark Satanic Mills’ of the Industrial Revolution.
The tune to ‘Jerusalem’, written much later in 1917, was composed by Parry, who also wrote the choral favourite ‘’.
