Sunday 2 December 2007

Blake 250th

On the 28th of November, it was the 250th anniversary of William Blake's birth. Looking through his works, to find one of the many relevant to my own experiences, I found the poem below on Project Gutenberg.

I was going to add a photograph of a teddy bear, as that was the image that jumped to my mind. But I couldn't be bothered. In most of the world's great religions, the wilderness and Nature play an important part of their development and Enlightenment.  Not the cities and the crowds, the hustle and the bustle of modern life. No wonder there is friction. Will this ever pass? Not in my life, and not in yours.

THE DIVINE IMAGE

To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love,
All pray in their distress,
And to these virtues of delight
Return their thankfulness.

For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love,
Is God our Father dear;
And Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love,
Is man, His child and care.

For Mercy has a human heart;
Pity, a human face;
And Love, the human form divine:
And Peace, the human dress.

Then every man, of every clime,
That prays in his distress,
Prays to the human form divine:
Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace.

And all must love the human form,
In heathen, Turk, or Jew.
Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell,
There God is dwelling too.

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