Poems by Blake
Blake and 'The Divine Image'
Read a poem as a statement of belief.
William Blake (1757-1827) was a poet, painter and engraver. He hated the cold rationalism and materialism of his age. He saw people surrounded by evil, yet still striving for the divine.
His two books, 'Songs of Innocence' and 'Songs of Experience', show 'two contrary states' of the human soul. Many poems in one book have a partner in the other.
In 'The Divine Image' (from Songs of Innocence), everyone in distress prays to the same four virtues: Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love. These virtues are both God and Man: God our father, and also Man, His child and care.
Each virtue takes a part of the human being:
- Mercy has a human heart;
- Pity, a human face;
- Love, the human form divine;
- Peace, the human dress (clothing).
So people of every land and faith, 'heathen, Turk or Jew', must be loved. Wherever mercy, love and pity live, God lives there too.
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