Philip Hensher

‘Jerusalem’ is a rousing anthem – but who knows what the words mean?

We now belt it out on countless occasions – but whose feet are they, and what is the burning bow?

Thomas Phillips’s portrait of William Blake, 1807. Credit: Getty Images 
issue 09 July 2022

The spontaneous mass adoption of deep feeling is always interesting. Jason Whittaker has a very good subject, in the journey of the cryptic lyric section of the preface to William Blake’s incomprehensible epic Milton, written and illustrated between 1804 and 1810, to its becoming the de facto national anthem of England.

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