And did those feet in ancient time

"And did those feet in ancient time" is a short poem by William Blake from the preface to his epic Milton a Poem. The date on the title page of 1804 for Milton 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 poem was inspired by the apocryphal story that a young Jesus, accompanied by his uncle Joseph of Arimathea, travelled to the area that is now England and visited Glastonbury. The legend is linked to an idea in the Book of Revelation (3:12 and 21:2) describing a Second Coming, wherein Jesus establishes a new Jerusalem. The Christian church in general, and the English Church in particular, used Jerusalem as a metaphor for Heaven, a place of universal love and peace.

In the most common interpretation of the poem, Blake implies that a visit of Jesus would briefly create heaven in England, in contrast to the "dark Satanic Mills" of the Industrial Revolution. Analysts note that Blake asks four questions rather than stating a visit to be true. According to this view, the poem says that there may, or may not, have been a divine visit, when there was briefly heaven in England. But that was then; now, we are faced with the challenge of creating such a country once again.

Text

The original text is found on the preface Blake printed for inclusion with Milton, a Poem, following the lines beginning "The Stolen and Perverted Writings of Homer & Ovid: of Plato & Cicero, which all Men ought to contemn: ..."

The preface to Milton, as it appeared in Blake's own illuminated version

Blake's poem

 And did those feet in ancient time.
Walk upon Englands mountains green:
And was the holy Lamb of God,
On Englands pleasant pastures seen!

And did the Countenance Divine,
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here,
Among these dark Satanic Mills?

Bring me my Bow of burning gold;
Bring me my Arrows of desire:
Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of fire!

I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:
Till we have built Jerusalem,
In Englands green and pleasant Land

Beneath this poem Blake inscribed an excerpt from the Bible: '"Would to God that all the Lords people were Prophets" Numbers XI. Ch 29. v.' (Book_of_Numbers 11:29).

Satanic Mills

The term "dark Satanic Mills", which entered the English language from this poem, is interpreted as referring to the early Industrial Revolution and its destruction of nature and human relationships. This view has been linked to the fate of the Albion Flour Mills, which was the first major factory in London, built in 1769 by Matthew Boulton and James Watt. It was powered by Watt's steam engines, and produced 6,000 bushels of flour a week. The factory could have driven independent traditional millers out of business, but it was destroyed, perhaps deliberately, by fire in 1791. London's independent millers celebrated with placards reading, "Success to the mills of ALBION but no Albion Mills." Opponents referred to the factory as satanic, and accused its owners of adulterating flour and using cheap imports at the expense of British producers. An illustration of the fire published at the time shows a devil squatting on the building. The mills were a short distance from Blake's home.

The phrase was especially poignant for the millions of workers employed in mills, who adopted the poem as a Socialist hymn. The Bishop of Durham, N. T. Wright, speaking in a homily given before the singing of the hymn, proposed the view that the "dark satanic mills" refers to the "great churches". The incongruity of this could be seen as "a dangerously subversive act", Wright said, or by likening it to when "an old unreconstructed Marxist trade unionist is given a peerage and ends his days muttering his imprecations against The System from a somnolent posture on the back benches of the House of Lords."

Blake's phrase resonates with a wider theme in his works, what he envisioned as a physically and spiritually repressive ideology based on a quantifiable reality. Blake saw the cotton mills and collieries of the period as a mechanism for the enslavement of millions, but the concepts underpinning the works had a wider application:

"And all the Arts of Life they changed into the Arts of Death in Albion./..."

— Jerusalem Chapter 3. William Blake

Another contested view is that the Mills refer to churches of the established Church of England. A similar approach sees the Satanic Mills as the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, which as the traditional seats of learning and thought in England, were heavily controlled by the Anglican church at the time.

The first reference to Satan's "Mills", next to images of megaliths

An alternative theory is that Blake refers to Stonehenge; an illustration of it and other megaliths is featured in his work, Milton. However, he did not see ancient Britain as satanic, but rather saw the Druids and their supposed temple, Stonehenge, as precursors of Christianity. Satan's "Mills" are referred to repeatedly in the main poem, and are first described in words which suggest neither industrialism nor ancient megaliths, but rather something more abstract: "the starry Mills of Satan/ Are built beneath the earth and waters of the Mundane Shell...To Mortals thy Mills seem everything, and the Harrow of Shaddai / A scheme of human conduct invisible and incomprehensible".

Chariot of fire

The line from the poem, "Bring me my Chariot of fire!" draws on the story of 2 Kings 2:11, where the Old Testament prophet Elijah is taken directly to heaven: "And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven."

Green and pleasant Land

Blake lived in London for most of his life, but wrote much of Milton when he was living in the village of Felpham in Sussex. Amanda Gilroy argues that the poem is informed by Blake's "evident pleasure" in the Felpham countryside.

Revolution

Several of Blake's poems and paintings express a notion of universal humanity: "As all men are alike (tho' infinitely various)". He retained an active interest in social and political events for all his life, but was often forced to resort to cloaking social idealism and political statements in Protestant mystical allegory. Even though the poem was written during the Napoleonic Wars, Blake was an outspoken supporter of the French Revolution, whose successor Napoleon claimed to be. The poem expressed his desire for radical change without overt sedition. (In 1803 Blake was charged at Chichester with high treason for having 'uttered seditious and treasonable expressions' but was acquitted.) The poem is followed in the preface by a quotation from Numbers ch. 11, v. 29: "Would to God that all the Lord's people were prophets." Christopher Rowland, a Professor of Theology at Oxford University, has argued that this includes "everyone in the task of speaking out about what they saw. Prophecy for Blake, however, was not a prediction of the end of the world, but telling the truth as best a person can about what he or she sees, fortified by insight and an honest persuasion that with personal struggle, things could be improved." The words of the poem "stress the importance of people taking responsibility for change and building a better society in England's green and pleasant land".

Popularisation of the hymn

The Hymn: "Jerusalem"

    And did those feet in ancient time
        Walk upon England's mountains green?
    And was the holy Lamb of God
        On England's pleasant pastures seen?
    And did the Countenance Divine
        Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
    And was Jerusalem builded here
        Among those dark Satanic mills?

    Bring me my bow of burning gold:
        Bring me my arrows of desire:
    Bring me my spear: O clouds, unfold!
        Bring me my chariot of fire!
    I will not cease from mental fight,
        Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
    Till we have built Jerusalem
        In England's green and pleasant land.

The poem, which was little known during the century which followed its writing, was included in a patriotic anthology of verse published in 1916, a time when morale had begun to decline due to the high number of casualties in World War I and the perception that there was no end in sight.

Under these circumstances, the poem came to symbolise what England was fighting for. Therefore, Robert Bridges, the Poet Laureate, asked Sir Hubert Parry to put it to music at a Fight for Right campaign meeting in London's Queen's Hall. The aims of this organisation were "to brace the spirit of the nation that the people of Great Britain, knowing that they are fighting for the best interests of humanity, may refuse any temptation, however insidious, to conclude a premature peace, and may accept with cheerfulness all the sacrifices necessary to bring the war to a satisfactory conclusion". Bridges asked Parry to supply the verse with "suitable, simple music that an audience could take up and join in". The score was conducted by Parry's student Walford Davies; Parry afterward released it to him, saying "There you are, my boy, do what you like with it." Davies had it published by Curwen and began teaching the tune. Originally Parry intended the first verse to be sung by a solo female voice, but this is rare in contemporary performances. The most famous version was orchestrated by Sir Edward Elgar in 1922 for a large orchestra at the Leeds Festival. Upon hearing the orchestral version for the first time, King George V said that he preferred "Jerusalem" over "God Save the King", the National Anthem.

Jerusalem is considered to be England's most popular patriotic song; The New York Times has called it "Fast becoming an alternative national anthem," and there have even been calls to give it official status. England has no official anthem and so uses the British National Anthem "God Save the Queen", also an unofficial anthem, for some national occasions, such as before English international football matches. However, some sports, including cricket and rugby league use "Jerusalem" as the English anthem. Questions in Parliament have not clarified the situation, as answers from the relevant minister say that since there is no official national anthem, each sport must make its own decision.

The poem's idealistic theme or subtext accounts for its popularity across the philosophical spectrum. It was used as a campaign slogan by the Labour Party in the 1945 general election; Clement Attlee said they would build "a new Jerusalem". It has been sung at conferences of the British Conservative Party, at the Glee Club of the British Liberal Assembly, the British Labour Party and by the British Liberal Democrats.

It is frequently sung as an office or recessional hymn in English cathedrals, churches and chapels on St George's Day. The hymn is also sung in some churches on Jerusalem Sunday, a day set aside to celebrate the holy city, in Anglican Churches throughout the world and even in some Episcopal Churches in the U.S. However some vicars in the Church of England, according to the BBC TV programme "Jerusalem: An Anthem for England", have said that the song is not technically a hymn, as it is not a prayer to God (which hymns always are). Consequently, it is not sung in some churches in England.

Parry's tune is so well liked that the song is not only sung in many schools, especially public schools in the UK (it was used as the title music for the BBC's 1979 series 'Public School' at Radley College) , but also at several private schools in New England and Canada. Some attempts have also been made to increase its use elsewhere with other words. The established Church of Scotland debated altering the words of the hymn to read "Albion" instead of England to make it more locally relevant.

Live performances

The popularity of Parry's setting has resulted in many hundreds of recordings being made, too numerous to list, of both traditional choral performances and new interpretations by popular music artists. Consequently only its most notable live performances are listed below.

• It is sung every year by an audience of thousands at the end of the Last Night of the Proms in the Royal Albert Hall and simultaneously in the Proms in the Park venues throughout the country.

• The song was used by the National Union of Suffrage Societies. During the 1920s, many Women's Institutes started closing meetings by singing it, and this caught on nationally. Although it has never actually been adopted as the WI's official anthem, in practice it holds that position, and is an enduring element of the public image of the WI.

• It is traditionally sung before rugby league's Challenge Cup Final, along with "Abide with Me".

• Since 2004, it has been the anthem of the England cricket team and is regularly sung by rugby union crowds.

Other musical settings

Blake's lyrics have also been set to music by other composers without reference to Parry's melody. The words, with some variations, are used in the track Jerusalem on Bruce Dickinson's album The Chemical Wedding, which also includes lines from book two of Milton. Finn Coren also created a different musical setting for the poem on his album The Blake Project: Spring.

Use by Team England at the Commonwealth Games

At the Commonwealth Games, Team England will use "Jerusalem" as the victory anthem from 2010 onwards. The Commonwealth Games Council for England conducted a poll of members of the public which decided the anthem for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. The three options were "God Save The Queen", "Jerusalem" and "Land of Hope and Glory". Jerusalem was the clear winner with 52% of the vote.

Use in film and theatre

"Bring me my chariot of fire" inspired the title of the film Chariots of Fire. A church congregation sings "Jerusalem" at the close of the film and a performance appears on the Chariots of Fire soundtrack performed by the Ambrosian Singers overlaid partly by a composition by Vangelis. The film's working title was "Running" until Colin Welland saw a TV programme, Songs of Praise, featuring the hymn and decided to change the title. The hymn has featured in many other films and TV programmes including Four Weddings and a Funeral, How to Get Ahead in Advertising,The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Calendar Girls, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Goodnight Mr. Tom, Peep Show and Monty Python's Flying Circus. A punk version is heard in Derek Jarman's 1977 film Jubilee. In the theatre it appears in Jerusalem, Calendar Girls and in Time and the Conways.

See also

• Civil religion
• Merry England
• Romantic Movement and the industrial revolution
• for Emerson, Lake & Palmer's 1973 version, see Brain Salad Surgery
• for Billy Bragg's version, see The Internationale