William Blake: A Study of His Life and Art WorkLangridge, Irene
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William Blake: A Study of His Life and Art Work
Langridge, Irene
Blake, William, 1757-1827
The book contains but five pages, of which the most beautiful is a design
of a boy and girl with arms wound around each other, running over a
hill-top, with a passionate sunset sky behind them. The "Book of Los,"
which must not be confounded with the Song, appeared in the same year. The
Print Room has no copy, so we must descend to the Library, which happily
possesses one. It consists of four chapters on the old themes, written
in a sort of metrical prose. The frontispiece, representing a woman in the
characteristic attitude so often adopted by Blake--the figure being seated
on the ground, with head supported on knees in a mysterious lone place
among rocks--is an arresting and powerful design. The writing in this book
is particularly fine and clear. It is the last of Blake's "London Books of
Prophecy."
[Illustration: THE ACCUSERS: OR, SATAN'S TRINITY
Colour-print from the Large Book of Designs in the Print Room]
What shall I say of "Jerusalem, the Emanation of the Giant Albion"--this
longest and perhaps most mystical of all Blake's dithyrambic books?
It was written, as well as the "Milton," during the Felpham period, though
probably added to, and finally finished after his return to London.
Those who have heard the extraordinary tone-poem called "Also sprach
Zarathustra," by Richard Strauss, may not think it far-fetched to suggest
a parallel between revolutionary, chaotic, yet somehow great music, such
as it is, and the so-called poem of "Jerusalem." To the authors of both,
the classical, the established forms of expression belonging to their
respective arts, seem outworn, inadequate, cramped. They feared to trust
the new wine of their fermenting ideas to the old bottles of recognized
form, and each has invented for himself a way of escape--somewhat
dangerous, nay, almost suicidal--from the pressure of precedent, law, and
order. Strange harmonies, horrid discords, sweetness as of honey, to be
succeeded by a sharp acridity like that of unripe lemons, great marshalled
orchestral forms, and wild abortive sounds, tormenting alike to ear and
heart, are to be discerned in "Zarathustra," not without irrational
excitement, anger, dismay, and occasional delight on the part of the
hearer. And in "Jerusalem" is it not much the same?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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