JerusalemAnd did those feet in ancient timesWalk upon England's mountains green?And was the holy lamb of godOn England's pleasant pastures seen?And did the countenance divineShine forth upon our clouded hillsAnd was Jerusalem builded hereAmong those dark satanic mills?Bring me my bow of burning goldBring me my arrow of desireBring me my spear, Oh cloud unfold!Bring me my chariot of fire.I shall not cease from mental fight,Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand.'Til we have built JerusalemOn England's green and pleasant land.Written by William Blake, these words were originally part of a poem. It actually formed a preface to his epic piece entitled Milton, which was published sometime between 1804 and 1808. However, it wasnt until 1916 that it was put to music but Hubert Parry, when it was designed to beef up British morale during the bleakest days of world war one.In the early 19th century, when this poem was written, a return-to-nature movement was sweeping England. The Romantic poets wanted to tap into nature's wild forces. Nature didnt seem so innocent when life was a struggle to create minimal physical well-being, in a seemingly hostile world. However, the new factories and industry that began thriving at the time were providing goods and implements by which people could live a more amicable life. The problem is, these works began to obscure nature. As they did, poets and artists began to represent nature in ways that hadn't been seen before. Blake outlines our responsibility beautifully when he suggests that we cannot shrink form the mental fight, of building a world fit for habitation. When he asks for his bow, his arrows, his spear and his infamous chariot of fire, hes reaching for the tools with which to build that world. Hes arming for mental fight. However, alongside this, Blake realises nature can indeed shine through the fire and mills, if we only had the wits to let it do so. You may know, that in 1988 Manchester band the fall recorded a rock version that reached number 59 in the UK chart, and that in 2001 Fat Les recorded an updated version. This reached number 10 in the charts. You may also remember them from Vindaloo fame and such like.More recently, there has been some enthusiasm for Jerusalem, surprisingly so, since its sentiments had long been a theme for the British left, aside form those fateful years in the early nineties, when it was hijacked by white, middle class, middle-aged conservative men like John Major, but please, just for now, lets just forget about that, and put that to the back of our minds... Indeed it is the poems idealistic theme or subtext which accounts for its popularity across the philosophical spectrum, which brings me onto some of Jerusalem's earliest associations, those which I am perhaps most interested in.For some of us at least, Jerusalem is the theme song for the women's rights movement.In that monumental year when Parry set Blake's words to music, the women's movement was already in full swing. Suffragettes were hitting headlines all over Britain with their lawless and revolutionary protests. At this point they had moved on from chaining themselves to railings, to more belligerent acts of action.Starting fires and breaking windows were amongst their efforts for equal rights, including the right to vote.These acts of civil disobedience, were often accompanied by song, and when an imprisoned militant was released, crowds of women would gather and sing. Organised suffrage processions were followed by hundreds, if not thousands of women singing Blake's rousing chorus. It seemed that everywhere there was a woman fighting for her justice, she was accompanied by the sound of Jerusalem.Long after the women achieved their primary goal, which was to be granted the right to vote alongside men, women continued to sing the anthem that boosted the morale of the suffragettes. The sound of Jerusalem continued to ring out of the halls of the womens institutes, and still does to this day.In its singing, Jerusalem echoes the voices of women through time, It marks the links with the wider womens movement. It represents a history, a commitment and an ideology, but most importantly it represents the women who have sung it before us, many of who, through creative action and a want for change risked their lives for what they thought to be a fairer life, a more just life, a happier life.
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