Do we still stand up for the Queen?

18 Apr 2010

I should point out that I always loathed being forced to 'interpret' stuff in English at school.
"And what do you think the author meant by that?" I would be asked.
"How the f** should I know". is in my head.
"maybe he couldn't think of anything else to put" I would actually say, obtaining scorn and zero enlightenment from my teacher.
I find interpretation by known symbology interesting - I've seen very interesting things about what people put in paintings.
But poetry is far too obscure for me - "the blue-bird sings" means a bird, which is blue, is singing. If they want to say something else they should bloomin' well say it!.
**epiphany**
I've just realised - I am far more comfortable with visual symbology (I devour maps at every opportunity and they are almost totally symbolic) than I am with words. I always want to take words literally and it annoys me when word sare used to obscure things rather than expose them.
At this realisation I will step away from any discussion of poetical interpretation as I am wholly unqualified for it.

18 Apr 2010

I would stand for the anthem...
In fact I have been known to stand for other countries anthems out of respect when at football or rugby internationals...

19 Apr 2010

Quote by kentswingers777
The Jerusalem that Blake wishes to build, replacing the "dark Satanic Mills" is not a physical reconstruction of Jerusalem in Palestine but a metaphorical place where want and misery do not exist, were men and women can live free and happy.
William Blake was a deeply spiritual man, a precursor to the Christian socialist tradition. He railed against the powers of both Church and Crown. Blake's religious beliefs stemmed from a long tradition in Britain of Christian dissenters

What's interesting is that you've moved away from your own argument already, and all because you've cut and pasted something from a website, highlighted the words christian in bold and assumed that makes it congruent with your earlier claims.
It's caused me some hilarity to google the first sentence you've cut and pasted and found that it matches to
a) the website of a scottish Marxist sect so small even I haven't heard of it
b)

A Spanish university website that interprets the poem as follows
In actual fact this 'hymn' is part of the preface to one of Blake's epic poems Milton and is a revolutionary message calling on people to rise up and destroy the industrial hell that was destroying their lives. Christ was seen as a radical figure protecting the poor and fighting against oppression. The poem opens by asking if Jesus did indeed walk on England's "green and pleasant land". Blake among others believed that he might have been taken to Britain to escape Herod and that later Joseph of Arimathea returned to Britain with the Holy Grail and set up a church at Glastonbury. He then goes on to proclaim that he will do all in his power to rebuild this state of grace. However, the Jerusalem that Blake wishes to build, replacing the "dark Satanic Mills" is not a physical reconstruction of Jerusalem in Palestine but a metaphorical place where want and misery do not exist, were men and women can live free and happy

and then references the obscure Scottish Marxists.
The fact that there was a tradition of christian dissent in Britain, not England, albeit it a tradition which often ended in death for those who pursued it, doesn't make England a Christian country.
By the way, it's not like you to be quoting Marxists Kenty. I'd have thought the Telegraph was more up your street - like this story

Which rather makes my point nicely that the English don't appear to understand their own anthems, hymns and traditions. Which is why they slavishly go along with St George as their patron saint, an obscure mercenary much beloved of their Norman overlords but with no connection to ENgland or the English.