Almost immediately he challenges a central tenet of Christianity, the notion of the Trinity, when he says that "those who into the other life [meaning the afterlife] from within the Church, and who have an idea of three Divine Beings, cannot be admitted into heaven, since their thought wanders from Divine Being to another and it is not allowable there to think three and say one, because in heaven every one speaks from thought" (Swedenborg 9-10). Although a disavowal of the Trinity has existed within the larger discourse of Christianity throughout its history, and is even a part of certain contemporary Christian sects (such as Jehovah's Witnesses), Swedenborg's disavowal of the Trinity is notable because his notion of a singular Lord of Heaven and that Heaven's metaphorical relationship to humanity can be read as a precursor to Blake's eventual argument that God is nothing more or less than the totality of humanity, such that Blake could claim that Jesus "is the only God […] and so am I and so are you" (Bentley 30)
While Swedenborg's claim that "the Divine […] is in human form" seems to conform to the line in Genesis which states that God made humanity in his image, his claim is somewhat remarkable because he essentially inverts the relationship; humanity is not a reflection of God, but rather the other way around. This concept is central to Blake's view of Christianity, because he argues that "All deities reside in the human breast" (Blake 59)
Recognizing this, Blake argues that rather than assuming "that Energy, call'd Evil, is alone from the Body, & that Reason, call'd Good, is alone from the Soul," one actually cannot differentiate between the body and soul, because "that call'd Body is a portion of Soul discern'd by the five Senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age," such that "Energy is the only life, and is from the Body, and Reason is the bound or outward circumference of Energy" (Blake 49). In other words, Blake is arguing that there is no true dichotomy between desire and constraints on desire, but instead these restraints merely represent the natural boundaries of desire, dictated by "priests of religion who advocate moral rules and notions of order" which have little to no bearing on actual human experience and flourishing (Gilpin 55)
Before addressing Blake's work, and the Marriage of Heaven and Hell in particular, it will be useful to first examine Emanuel Swedenborg's Heaven and Hell, in order to demonstrate how Blake's rebellious, revolutionary approach to religion stems from an earlier strain of mystical religious thought that sought to diminish the coercive, domineering elements of Christianity in favor of human self-determination and individual transcendent experience. In this context, one may understand the term "mystical" to connote a particular approach to religion and metaphysics that focuses itself not on the codified rules and restrictions of organized religion (a kind of metaphysical schema embodied by the Church of England and Roman Catholicism), but rather the transcendent experiences which emerge from "encountering and confronting the orthodoxies of […] personal mythologies" within the larger mythological framework of codified religion (Kaplan 436)
Blake presents an incisive critique of organized religion (embodied in his case by the Church of England), while celebrating the transcendent, expressive potential of mystical and religious thought. Building off of the prophetic, visionary work of Emanuel Swedenborg, who in his book Heaven and Hell claimed to have visited and cataloged the details of heaven, hell, and everything in between, Blake constructs his own interpretation of Christian mythology that explicitly condemns the elements of religion that function to control the individual while celebrating those elements which serve to encourage human creativity and compassion, illuminating what he means when he "describes his destination, which he suggests should be everyone's destination, as a 'perception of the infinite;'" for Blake, the ultimate goal of any religious or mythological system should be the expansion of human knowledge and experience, such that one may begin to perceive the abundance of the universe free from any arbitrary, destructive ideology (Prather 508)
In contrast, Swedenborg, and especially Blake, favor the interplay between individual expereince and expression and human culture at large, because this interplay is the only process by which humans can ever come to a consensus regarding objective reality and the means of attaining the best kind of life, according to what will benefit human beings the most. In Heaven and Hell, Swedenborg claims to provide an account of the time when it was "given me to be in company with angels and to talk with as man with man, and also to see what is in the heavens and what is in the hells, and this for thirteen years" (Swedenborg 9)
the dramatic perspectives and continual allusiveness of these lyrics has meant that they have been endlessly interpreted and reinterpreted….these are not poems…these are discrete works of art in which the words are only one element in a unified design" (Ackroyd, 122)
Blake loved the "obtuse. He will have nothing said against superstition, which is 'ignorant honesty…beloved of god and man" (Erdman, 116)
Throughout this poem and its other poems, "pastoralism is the controlling convention…for Blake, the shepherd-sheep relationship and the special world inhabited by shepherd and sheep become the way of representing characteristics mode of perception in the state of Innocence" (Paanamen, 74). In the Songs of Innocence, "the field is predominantly field, valley, and hill in poems like…'The Lamb' "(Gardner, 50)
In the poem, he clearly wants to look at the world through mystical eyes, as child sees the world, not realistic, not filled with contrasts. The entire book "carries throughout a similar pattern: an apparent simplicity of surface structure, often express in a bitter-sweetness at once close to joy and sadness, clothes a deep underlying symbolism" (Lister, 29)
He will have nothing said against superstition, which is 'ignorant honesty…beloved of god and man" (Erdman, 116). Throughout this poem and its other poems, "pastoralism is the controlling convention…for Blake, the shepherd-sheep relationship and the special world inhabited by shepherd and sheep become the way of representing characteristics mode of perception in the state of Innocence" (Paanamen, 74)
Two of my favorite poems by Blake, and ones that I would highly recommend to anyone who has ever felt lost or alone, are "The Little Boy Lost" and "The Little Boy Found." Both of these poems are part of the Songs of Innocence collection (Blake, 1991)
William Blake: Poems That Inspire William Blake was a British poet, painter, visionary mystic, and engraver, who illustrated and printed his own books (Blunt, 1959)
This was one of the first and most long-lasting influences in Blake's work and spirituality (William Blake, 2014). It is evident from Blake's poetry that he remained close to his mother throughout her life (Pettinger, 2006)
First, Blake addresses the rose as if it were a living person with feelings, rather than simply a flower, he gives it human qualities, or anthromorphises the flower to make it more real. He writes, "O Rose thou art sick" (Blake)
William Blake's "The Lamb" is part of his manuscript for Songs of Innocence (Erdman, 1988, p
In the Christian bible, Christ is known for stating that the "meek will inherit the earth," as in Matthew 5:5 B. "The central idea of persecuted innocence, vicarious suffering, and deliverance" are themes in the Old Testament too (Damon & Eaves 232) C
The theme of innocence runs through the entire collection of poems, and is contrasted with the theme of experience In the Lamb, William Blake uses symbolism, diction, and other poetic devices to convey a central Christian motif. Body paragraph I: Christian Symbolism Blake has been described as "a mystic enraptured with incommunicable visions," and the poet's affection for Christian imagery is related to this personal passion (Frye 3) Christ as the Lamb of God is a central biblical motif and recurs frequently throughout the Christian gospels
He was irreverent, considered insane by many of his contemporaries, and yet his combination of mysticism and skepticism seems to find a resonance in modern audiences (Jones, 2005). When we read his poetry knowing that he often said that every person had the potential to elevate themselves to the same level of divinity as Jesus, and that Satan, far from being the evil creature of Christian lore was rebellious, full of spirit, and a seeker of truth, then we understand why much of his poetry revolved around the question of what kind of a being God might indeed manifest (Damon, 1988, 30-44)
Blake not only produced poems, but also drawings and paintings that explored a rather unconventional side of the psychology of the mind and human existence. He was irreverent, considered insane by many of his contemporaries, and yet his combination of mysticism and skepticism seems to find a resonance in modern audiences (Jones, 2005)