Watch now (53 mins) | An introduction to Blake given by Andy Wilson at St Luke’s Community Centre, Islington, London, on 24th Nov 2021, for the residents around Bunhill Fields, where Blake is buried.
I enjoyed this. What did Blake mean when he said, "I give you the end of a golden string. Simply wind it into a ball and it will lead you in at Jerusalem's Gate?" Blake is my connection with the past. He connects directly back to Milton and to the Baroque mindset, which is an improvement over the modern mindset that most people already had in the last half of the 18th century in London. In Blake's day, most people were already living in Hell. Ulro...the masses suffer from single vision and Newton's sleep. Whoever wants to engage the old symbols may. Homer and his followers (through Virgil) were initiates in a secret society of people who understood poetic allegory. Ovid was not a part of that original school. He was the first feminist and his work represents a distinct break with Homeric tradition. He was not initiated into their boy's club. He was there to tear down dilapidated thought structures and discard tired abused symbols. Ovid is the end of the cycle. So, Blake leads back to Milton, but if you hold onto Blake's golden thread it leads back farther...to Spenser...to Dante...to Virgil. Finally, it leads the way back to Homer, and to the beginning of poetry and timeless wisdom. This whole line is allegorical. The symbols of the Ancient poets are still sitting there waiting for us to animate them once again. When you read Homer you're supposed to understand that you are Odysseus. If you don't understand the allegory, you're not doing it right. I forgot to say Bunyan, another important allegorical dissenter.
I enjoyed this. What did Blake mean when he said, "I give you the end of a golden string. Simply wind it into a ball and it will lead you in at Jerusalem's Gate?" Blake is my connection with the past. He connects directly back to Milton and to the Baroque mindset, which is an improvement over the modern mindset that most people already had in the last half of the 18th century in London. In Blake's day, most people were already living in Hell. Ulro...the masses suffer from single vision and Newton's sleep. Whoever wants to engage the old symbols may. Homer and his followers (through Virgil) were initiates in a secret society of people who understood poetic allegory. Ovid was not a part of that original school. He was the first feminist and his work represents a distinct break with Homeric tradition. He was not initiated into their boy's club. He was there to tear down dilapidated thought structures and discard tired abused symbols. Ovid is the end of the cycle. So, Blake leads back to Milton, but if you hold onto Blake's golden thread it leads back farther...to Spenser...to Dante...to Virgil. Finally, it leads the way back to Homer, and to the beginning of poetry and timeless wisdom. This whole line is allegorical. The symbols of the Ancient poets are still sitting there waiting for us to animate them once again. When you read Homer you're supposed to understand that you are Odysseus. If you don't understand the allegory, you're not doing it right. I forgot to say Bunyan, another important allegorical dissenter.