SOURCE: Bloom, Harold. “Blake's Apocalypse: Jerusalem.” In English Romantic Poets, edited by M. H. Abrams, pp. 98-111. London: Oxford University Press, 1975.

In the following essay, Bloom provides an overview of Blake's Jerusalem, including a discussion of the poem's themes and structure.

The Strong Man represents the human sublime. The Beautiful Man represents the human pathetic, which was in the wars of Eden divided into male and female. The Ugly Man represents the human reason. They were originally one man, who was fourfold; he was self-divided, and his real humanity slain on the stems of generation, and the form of the fourth was like the Son of God. How he became divided is a subject of great sublimity and pathos. The Artist has written it under inspiration, and will, if God please, publish it; it is voluminous, and contains the ancient history of Britain, and the world of Satan...