Jerusalem: I See The Four-Fold Man, The Humanity In Deadly Sleep Poem by William Blake

Jerusalem: I See The Four-Fold Man, The Humanity In Deadly Sleep

Rating: 2.7


I see the Four-fold Man, The Humanity in deadly sleep
And its fallen Emanation, the Spectre and its cruel Shadow.
I see the Past, Present and Future existing all at once
Before me. O Divine Spirit, sustain me on thy wings,
That I may awake Albion from his long and cold repose;
For Bacon and Newton, sheath'd in dismal steel, their terrors hang
Like iron scourges over Albion: reasonings like vast serpents
Infold around my limbs, bruising my minute articulations.

I turn my eyes to the schools and universities of Europe
And there behold the Loom of Locke, whose Woof rages dire,
Wash'd by the Water-wheels of Newton: black the cloth
In heavy wreaths folds over every nation: cruel works
Of many Wheels I view, wheel without wheel, with cogs tyrannic
Moving by compulsion each other, not as those in Eden, which,
Wheel within wheel, in freedom revolve in harmony and peace.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Dr Antony Theodore 22 November 2020

I turn my eyes to the schools and universities of Europe And there behold the Loom of Locke, whose Woof rages dire, Wash'd by the Water-wheels of Newton: black the cloth In heavy wreaths folds over every nation: the grat william Blake.

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Michael Walker 04 August 2019

The four-fold man exists in the past, present and future. They seek in vain useful knowledge from the likes of the philosopher John Locke, The political double-dealer Bacon and the scientist Newton.Things are no different in the schools and universities of Europe, where things revolve 'wheel within wheel'.Only In heaven (Eden) things revolve 'in harmony and peace'. It is difficult for me to accept all of Blake's reasoning here.

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