And did those feet in ancient time...

Happy birthday William Blake!

Today is the 250th anniversary of his birth in 1757 in Golden Square, where we have our offices.  To commemorate his birth, a set of ice sculptures were placed on the vacant plinths around the square - here are some pictures courtesy of Altogether Digital across the road.

Blake was criminally neglected during his lifetime and was eventually buried in a pauper's grave.  The Dictionary of National Biography - a kind of bible of famous Englishmen published in the nineteenth century - summed up his life in little more than two lines.  Only in the twentieth century did his reputation blossom, largely as a result of the setting of his short poem 'Jerusalem' to music by Parry in 1916.

What I like about the Jerusalem is that it speaks to so many different people. It's a kind of unofficial English anthem: King George V said that he preferred Jerusalem to God Save The King.  It's belted out at England cricket and rugby games and at the Last Night of the Proms.  It's sung at weddings (including mine!) and funerals.  It was a slogan for the victorious Labour Party in 1945, who were campaigning to build a 'new Jerusalem'.

At the same time, according to the Wikipedia entry, it isn't strictly speaking a hymn at all and some churches refuse to allow it to be sung. The lyrics begin with four consecutive questions (And did those feet in ancient time walk upon England's mountains green?, etc) - all of which could potentially be answered 'No!'. And of course the poem begins with a conjunction, which is perfectly good English usage regardless of what the pedants at dictionary.com might think.

Could it ever be a national anthem? God Save The Queen is a dreadful dirge, beaten on every score by Jerusalem.  Of course, it's a bit weird having a national anthem about a foreign city, but nobody seems to notice that any more. Isn't it a bit like the UK being the only country not to have the country name on its stamps? 

Back to Blake. Undoubtedly a great artist. A visionary writer. And - whilst professing that imagination would triumph over the evils of science - he also invented a revolutionary new printing process.

A true genius!  Happy birthday from the current residents of Golden Square.