Jerusalem

"And did those feet in ancient time" is a poem by William Blake from the preface to his epic Milton: A Poem in Two Books, one of a collection of writings known as the Prophetic Books. The date of 1804 on the title page is probably when the plates were begun, but the poem was printed c. 1808. Today it is best known as the hymn "Jerusalem", with music written by Sir Hubert Parry in 1916. The famous orchestration was written by Sir Edward Elgar. It is not to be confused with another poem, much longer and larger in scope and also by Blake, called Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion. It is often assumed that the poem was inspired by the apocryphal story that Jesus, in the unknown years before his ministry, visited what is now England, accompanied by Joseph of Arimathea. However, according to British folklore scholar A. W. Smith, "there was little reason to believe that an oral tradition concerning a visit made by Jesus to Britain existed before the early part of the twentieth century". Instead, the poem draws on an older story, repeated in Milton's History of Britain, that Joseph of Arimathea travelled alone, after the ascension of Jesus, to preach to the ancient Britons. The poem's theme is linked to the Book of Revelation, particularly Revelation 15:3's reference to the Song of Moses (Deuteronomy 32:1–43) describing God's vengeance upon the "destroyers of the earth" (Revelation 11:18), by means of God's "sword" and "arrows (Deuteronomy 32:41–42), and also by the "horses and chariots" and winds of Israel (2 Kings 2:12, Zechariah 6:1–5), alluded to in Revelation 6:1–8 and Revelation 7:1, respectively. By contrast, "Jerusalem" represents what must be preserved from these earth-destroying forces. Christians, following Galatians 4:22–26, have long seen Jerusalem as a metaphor for Christendom, not just in Heaven, but spiritually anywhere on Earth. In the most common interpretation of the poem, Blake asks whether a visit by Jesus briefly created heaven in England, in contrast to the "dark Satanic Mills" of the Industrial Revolution. Blake's poem asks four questions rather than asserting the historical truth of Christ's visit. The third verse is interpreted as an exhortation to create an ideal society in England, whether or not there was a divine visit.