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William Blake 's ' Urizen, And Jerusalem : The Emanation Of The Great Albion Essay

Decent Essays

William Blake’s writing promotes the concept of the human being accessing what Blake sees as the very purpose of life, the poetic genius. Blake, in his writings, All Religions Are One, The Book of Urizen, and Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Great Albion explores both actions of accessing and separating from the poetic genius. Blake contrasts the concept of poetic genius with divisions, such as time and space, created from the human beings separating from it, effectively, keeping them from eternity. Therefore, Blake’s writings value the human being’s ability to access the poetic genius to the highest importance believing it will allow humans to move towards eternity.
Blake first outlines his concept of the poetic genius in his writing, All Religions Are One demonstrating his belief “That the Poetic Genius is the true man” [Principal 1st:1-2] reflecting the idea the poetic genius needs to be utilized to fully realize the goal of the becoming a fully divine human being. Furthermore, Blake interprets “that the body or outward form of Man is derived from the Poetic Genius” [Principal 1st: 2-5] reflecting the concept of the body being at one with the soul; the soul being the poetic genius. Therefore, the body wouldn’t exist without the accessing of the poetic genius’ imagination conveying a sense of unity between the body and soul. Moreover, Blake conveys a division between the two would cause a deviation from the truth reflect through the limitations of the five senses. Blake

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