AN ANTI-Establishment hymn, which has become a favourite for state occasions, William Blake’s “Jerusalem”, has been banned by the Dean of Southwark. He “does not believe that it is to the glory of God”.
The Dean, the Very Revd Colin Slee, refused to allow the hymn, which formed the introduction by Blake to his long poem, Milton, and was set to music by Sir Hubert Parry in 1916, to be played at a private memorial service.
“‘Jerusalem’ is often used on national occasions, although rarely in Southwark, even on such occasions,” a spokeswoman for the cathedral said.
Robert Essick, a Professor Emeritus of English from the University of California, said on Tuesday that Blake was a critic of the Established Church. The poem refers to the legend that Christ came to England as a youth, and to the building of an ideal community (“Jerusalem”).
Blake says that he “will not cease from mental fight” (which the Professor describes as “the struggles of the imaginative artist”) until the ideal is realised. The military images — arrows, spear, and chariot — are metaphors for that spiritual struggle. “The poem has nothing to do with jingoism, nationalism, or imperialism,” said Professor Essick.
In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, the Revd Marcus Braybrooke said that Blake would have been amazed that his words were criticised as being “too ‘nationalistic’”.
But a retired Chaplain to the Queen, Canon David Wheaton, said the Dean was right in his ban, because the hymn lent credence to the idea that Christianity was founded on legends rather than historical facts. |
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