Autumn (William Blake)

Last updated on: September 22, 2018 at 10:42 pm by John Mark N. Reynolds

Autumn (William Blake) 2018-09-22T22:42:38-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

William Blake was, perhaps, more than a bit mad, but he knew beauty. He lived just when the ugliness of the Industrial Revolution was most obvious, but the benefits harder to see. He could see what was going wrong, dark Satanic mills like those of Dante, though he lacked the prophetic vision to see what good might come. Turmoil, revolutionary zeal, were opening up good possibilities for human dignity, but also being used to kill.

Heads were rolling and hearts were breaking. A sensitive soul found it all hard to stand and Blake did not endure with sound mind or doctrine.

He loved Jesus so much that Blake was irritated with the Jesus he loved for not existing. The Jesus of reality, God in the flesh, could not be, because Newton. To Blake, this scientist had turned the lovely world into a mechanistic monster, lacking soul and innocence. This would have surprised Newton himself, theist and not-so-orthodox-but-still Christian. Blake, however, saw something Newton did not: his science would be used by materialists to try to disenchant the world.

Yet in the madness, just when you might give up on Blake, comes the beauty of his art and his poetry. He was a plain man on the edge who when he fell into despair, delirium, or delusion could still reach out to God. Nobody should admire Blake, everyone must pity him, but all of us could learn from him.

Beauty, I hope, saved him as innocence, romance, and Jesus kept calling to him. He saw God in nature, in the changing of the seasons, and the faces of children. He despaired in the dirt of London, the tiger nature of industrial man, and the ugliness of colonialism. He was right to hate the evils of his time and love what good he could see.

Blake gives hope, because even imbalanced, in difficult times, unable to understand, beauty broke through so often and balanced him. Newton could not snuff out the stars, nor destroy the beauty of nature, or the mystical tales of Jerusalem. If Blake could not be sure, if the poet Milton was not much of a better guide for him than Newton, poetry and science both failing England, there was still Jesus.

There is something to be said for a person, or at least the idea of a person, so powerful that He haunts the dreams of a man who dreads his non-existence.

Nature, at least, was there, surely for Blake. He could at least at home and in his poetry and art enchant nature again. He did . . . And I am thankful. Unlike Blake, I think Christianity true and that science need not strip the world of divinity. I think mind and ideas are more real than matter and energy, while loving nature. Blake, perhaps, lived when the tensions could not possibly be resolved, at least for him. God bless the beauty he saw.

Here is his poem on Autumn:

O Autumn, laden with fruit, and stained

With the blood of the grape, pass not, but sit

Beneath my shady roof, there thou may’st rest,

And tune thy jolly voice to my fresh pipe;

And all the daughters of the year shall dance!

Sing now the lusty song of fruits and flowers.

‘The narrow bud opens her beauties to

‘The sun, and love runs in her thrilling veins;

‘Blossoms hang round the brows of morning, and 10

‘Flourish down the bright cheek of modest eve,

‘Till clust’ring Summer breaks forth into singing,

‘And feather’d clouds strew flowers round her head.

‘The spirits of the air live on the smells

‘Of frait; and joy, with pinions light, roves round

‘The gardens, or sits singing in the trees.

’ Thus sang the jolly Autumn as he sat,

Then rose, girded himself, and o’er the bleak

Hills fled from our sight; but left his golden load.

Culture

On Books

Previous Post

September 21, 2018

Frank on a Gunboat (An Odd Series by Harry Castelmon)- Could Teach a Lesson

Next Post

September 23, 2018 Did Jesus Go To England? An Attack on Classicism by a Classicist (William Blake and Longing)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Apologetics Art Culture Education On Books On Education Philosophy Politics Pop Culture Spiritual Reflections Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 July 2025 June 2025 September 2024 July 2024 June 2024 December 2023 June 2023 September 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does the name "Delilah" likely mean?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Beloved Delicate Wise Beautiful

Books by This Author John Mark Reynolds

See All Titles »