Blake and the Senses

Author(s): Robert F. Gleckner

Source: Studies in Romanticism, Vol. 5, No. 1 (Autumn, 1965), pp. 1-15
Published by: Boston University
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25599650 .
Accessed: 10/02/2014 09:47
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Boston University is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Studies in
Romanticism.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 193.92.136.160 on Mon, 10 Feb 2014 09:47:19 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

IN ROMANTICISM

STUDIES
VOLUME

AUTUMN

and the Senses

Blake

ROBERT
BLAKE'S

NUMBER

I965

F. GLECKNER

distinction between seeing with the eye (sense per

.
and
seeing through the eye (imaginative perception)
" ception)
we see not
iswell known: "We are led toBelieve a Lie When
|

was Born in aNight toperish in aNight."1

Thro' theEye Which
|

the fact that the sharpness of this apparent dichotomy, which

resolves itself into a distinction between the perishing body and the
eternal soul, seems to contradict one of Blake's axioms in The Mar
no
("Man has
Body distinct from his Soul")
riage ofHeaven andHell
a
has generally escaped notice. As
result, although all readers of Blake
contrast between the senses and
can agree on the
imagination,
general
rela
the relationship between these two faculties of perception?a
core of Blake's
constitutes
the
of
which
vision?has
theory
tionship
never been
fully explored.

Yet

Until quite recently, the average view has been that of J.G. Davies:
over and above his five senses a latent power
"possesses
by

man

he can communicate directly with eternity: this is

It is this view
the faculty of Imagination or Spiritual Sensation."2
on
Blake's mysticism, on his
which gave rise to the critical insistence
to "see into the life of
Wordsworthian
ability
things" by being "laid
in
and
soul."
"a
body"
becoming
asleep
living
Particularly with the
work of Frye, and later critics who learned from him, however, we
means

of which

i. Auguries

ed., The Complete Writings ofWilliam

of Innocence, in Geoffrey Keynes,
(London and New York,
1957), pp. 433-444. To simplify references to Blake's
writings, all of which will be to this edition, I shall indicate the source in parentheses
the quotation by abbreviation
followed by the letter "K" and
immediately following
Blake

the page numbers

tions used are: AL

Natural

Religion),

in the Keynes

AR

edition

on which

the quotation
appears. Abbrevia
onMan), NNR
Aphorisms
(There Is No
(All Religions Are One), NB
(Rossetti ms. or Notebook
poems),

(Annotations

to Lavater's

VDA (Visionsof the

DaughtersofAlbion),BU (TheBook ofUrizen), E (Europe),SL
(TheSong ofLos), BA (TheBook ofAhania), FZ (TheFourZoos), AJR (Annotations
to SirJoshuaReynolds*Discourses),
M (Milton),
DC (ADescriptiveCatalogue),VLJ (A

Vision

of the Illustrations to Milton's

of theLast Judgment), MI
(Descriptions
"II Penseroso"),
to Thornton's
J (Jerusalem), AT
(Annotations
L (Letters).
of the Lord's Prayer"),

legro" and
Translation

2. The
Theology

ofWilliam

Blake

(Oxford,

1948), p.

132.

[1]

This content downloaded from 193.92.136.160 on Mon, 10 Feb 2014 09:47:19 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

"L' Al

"New

ROBERT

F. GLECKNER

have come to see that the imagination is not something used in lieu of
the senses, not a transcendent faculty, but rather one which is inex

senses.
Frye showed
tricably bound up with the operation of the
to the
most
in
that
Blake's
major objection
clearly
Fearful Symmetry
was
to
he
Locke's
inherited,
sep
eighteenth-century Weltanschauung
aration of existence from perception: "If there is a reality beyond our
we must increase the power and coherence of our percep
perception
we
shall never reach reality in any other way." Yet, while
for
tion,
of existence and perception is
Frye's analysis of Blake's reintegration
his
of
the relationship Blake saw
correct,
undoubtedly
explication
as it
between the senses and imagination seems to me misleading
stands, or perhaps, merely incomplete. "We use five senses in percep
tion," he writes, "but ifwe used fifteen we should still have only a
not see: the eye is a lens for themind to
single mind. The eye does
look through. Perception,
then, is not something we do with our
a
is
it
act."3
Blake did say that "Mental Things are
mental
senses;
as
but
alone Real"
Frye cautions, for Blake "mental,"
(VLJ, K617),
all mean
the same thing.4 More
and "intellectual"
"imaginative,"
terms do tend to deny the validity of an
all
three
of
these
important,
Frye's discussion of the
opposition between body and soul. However,
denial
and
his description of the
between
this
implicit
relationship
to
separate rather than integrate the
perceptual process tends oddly
not how much more
senses and
the
Further,
question is
imagination.
man would seewith fifteen eyes instead of one, but rather how much
more
senses than five, or with his
more he would
perceive with
senses "cleansed."
For Blake imaginative or total perception is not
as
amatter of
to "vision"; it is a fourfold in
opposed
"sight"
merely
man
(what Blake calls "the human form di
tegration of thewhole

senses.
vine"), and this involves all the
on a passage from The
his
Thus Harold Bloom,
analysis
basing
to
look at further in a mo
Marriage ofHeaven andHell which I wish

ment, ismore accurate in emphasizing Blake's suggestion thatman's

so that he will be
senses can become "more numerous and
enlarged"
"able to discern a larger portion" of reality than he can with only
five senses. And cleansing the senses, writes Bloom, means "raising
them to the heights of their sensual power."5 In his earlier analysis of
19.
3. Fearful Symmetry (Princeton,
1947), pp. 25-26,
4. Frye, p. 19.
Blake's Apocalypse
5. Harold
Bloom,
(Garden City, N.

Y.,

1963),

This content downloaded from 193.92.136.160 on Mon, 10 Feb 2014 09:47:19 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

p. 89.

BLAKE

AND

THE

SENSES

too draws
to Blake's
The Marriage Nurmi
particular" attention
key
"
& numerous senses,' while also pointing out a
'enlarged
phrase,
in the second "Memorable
(on "Isaiah
neglected key "detail
" Fancy"
'I saw no God, nor heard any,'
'in a
and Ezekiel):
says Isaiah,
finite organical perception; but my senses discover'd the infinite in
"6 A further
every thing ....'
step still is taken by Peter Fisher:' Vi
he writes, "was knowledge
based on senses
sionary knowledge,"
which surpassed our senses. . . and an intellect which surpassed our
For Blake "Reality was not to be
ratio of the things of memory."
nor
as
as pure
as vision of
the
idea
of
conceived
spirit,
subjectivity, but
which spiritwas an abstraction, and the subject-object relationship,
a
as
some
degree."7 If, Ortega says, "Every object of depth withholds
secret from us," this is
of
because
the
only
externality
object is in
to the
or
point of (or, indeed, because of) the obscuring
obliterating of its relationship with subject.
The point that I shall try to make is considerably more than an
not
matter
only the central
epistemological quibble, since it involves
of perception, but also such other subjects as the origins of religion
sisted upon

and priests, Blake's view of personification, the Fall, the nature of

true art, the nature of God, the four Zoas, and a cluster of
images and
at the heart of Blake's
which
he
books.
symbols
prophetic
Although

I shall do so
I shall touch upon thesematters in the
following pages,
not with the intention of
or
explicating Blake's poems and prophecies,
his mythography;
neither am I interested here in tracing the possible
sources of his ideas
(others have done this better than I could). What
I shall do is analyze closely a key passage in The Marriage and by ref
erence to Blake's other uses of the same basic ideas, in his poetry and
and the cumulative
prose, demonstrate his consistent development,
senses and
of
the
between
the
significance,
Imagination,
relationship
or between sense
perception and what he called "Spiritual Sensation."8
The

passage

I refer to should be
quoted

in full:

The ancientPoets animated all sensibleobjectswith Gods or Geniuses, calling

them by the names

and adorning
them with the properties of woods,
and whatever
their enlarged & numerous

tains, lakes, cities, nations,

rivers, moun
senses could

percieve.
6. Martin K. Nurmi, Blake's "Marriage ofHeaven
andHell"
(Kent, Ohio,
1957), pp.
is on Ki 53-154.
41, 43. The second "Memorable
Fancy"
7. The Valley of Vision, ed. Northrop
Frye (Toronto,
1961), pp. 245, 239.
8. Letter to Trusler, August
also uses the phrase "Spiritual
23, 1799 (K794). Blake
both of these to "bodily
sensation*' (AR, K98).
Perception''
(AfR, K473),
opposing

This content downloaded from 193.92.136.160 on Mon, 10 Feb 2014 09:47:19 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

4
And

particularly

itsmental deity;
Till

system

by attempting

ROBERT

they studied

F. GLECKNER

the genius

of each city &

country,

placing

it under

was

some took
the vulgar
formed, which
of, & enslav'd
advantage
to realize or abstract the mental
deities from their
thus be
objects:

gan Priesthood;
Choosing

forms of worship

from poetic

tales.

And at lengththeypronounc'd that theGods had order'd such things.

Thus men forgot thatAll deities reside in thehuman breast. (K153)
Blake clearly conceived of the "ancient Poets" as living in a kind of
or
were
Eternity, inwhich all sensible objects
living forms, that
a
was
not
when
is,
identity,
poetic device of simili
personification
are
tude. "Demonstration,
Similitude & Harmony
Objects of Rea
wrote in his copy of Reynolds' Discourses', "Invention,
he
soning,"
are
of Intuition" (K474). These poets
Identity & Melody
Objects

Eden

that "All deities reside in the human breast" and their "poetic
were
accounts of
tales" (or mythologies)
imaginative
imaginative
true. These "mental deities" were alone real; in
thus
reality?and

knew

them nature was. Thus, in thatworld ofwhat Hazard Adams usefully

calls "momentary Vision,' "9 "all things are derived from theirGen
ius, which by the Ancients was call'd an Angel & Spirit & Demon"

to
In his Annotations
(AR, K98).
Reynolds he puts it another way:
"All Forms are Perfect in the Poet's Mind, but these are not Abstract
from Nature, but are from Imagination."10
ed nor Compounded
This capacity to discern mental reality Blake also attributes to the
Biblical prophets and to the disciples: they described "what they saw
inVision as real and existing men, whom they saw with their imagi
native and immortal organs."11 Thus to all true artists (and for Blake
all men are judged as artists),12 such asMilton, "Mountains, Clouds,
indeed
Rivers, Trees appear Humanized,"13

9. William Blake: A Reading of the Shorter Poems (Seattle, 1963), p. 226.

10. K459. Cf. Coleridge's
1895)
interestingly similar idea inAnima Poetae (London,
... I seem rather to be
p. 115: "In looking at objects of Nature
seeking, as itwere ask
me that already and forever ex
ing for, a symbolical
language for something within
ists, than observing anything new."

11. DC, K576. That Blake was early attracted by this idea is evident from his ap
statement: "Him, who humanises
all that iswithin and around
of Lavater's
probation
himself, adore . . ." (AL, K71).
12. "The Whole
Is The Arts"
Business of Man
(The Laocoon, K777).
and the famous poem in
13.MI, K618. Cf. FZ, K315; DC, K576; f, K665, K709;
the letter to Thomas

Butts, October

2, 1800

(K804-806).

This content downloaded from 193.92.136.160 on Mon, 10 Feb 2014 09:47:19 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

BLAKE

AND

THE

SENSES

As One Man all theUniversal family;& thatOne Man

They call Jesus theChrist,& they inhim & he in them
Live inPerfectharmony, inEden the land of life.
(FZ, K277; alsoJ, K664-665)
reality,which Blake equates with the
the divine humanity of Jesus
of
Imagination?with
Body
also one of infinite sense perception, Blake makes clear in
Christ?is
several of his writings. It is no accident, for example, that the passage
That

this condition ofmental

Divine

I quoted in full fromTheMarriage is followed immediatelyby the

inwhich Isaiah poses a sharp distinction between

Fancy"
senses
"a finite organical perception"
(that is, perception of the five
and
his
"senses."
The
of fallen, unimaginative man)
latter, obviously
& numerous" as those of the "ancient Poets," "discover'd
"enlarged
the infinite in every thing" (MHH, K153). Just so, although Blake in
There IsNo Natural Religion seems to dissociate the senses from imagi
"Memorable

nation, inAll Religions Are One, written at the same time, he implies
a distinction between
"bodily sensation" and what he calls later "Spir
itual Sensation," the latter phrase clearly implying the union of sense
In the Visions of theDaughters ofAlbion
and spirit (or imagination).
the same contrast ismade

again: Oothoon,
decrying the uniformity
of the existence perceived by the five senses, postulates numerous
other senses beyond fallen man's, while Bromion, her tyrannical ad
versary, proclaims the totality of aworld of five senses, "spread in the
inwhich there is "one law for both the lion and
infinitemicroscope,"
the ox"

The microscope,
the telescope, and all
(VDA, K191-192).
optical devices intensify the senses, then, without expanding them.
ratio of the Spectator's
Or, as Blake writes inMilton, "they alter The
|
vision is
but
leave
untouch'd"
Organs,
(K516). Newton's
Objects
the "reality" it yields is surface, its heaven "a
(L, K818),
"Single"
seen thro' a Lawful
Lawful Heaven,
Telescope"
(AT, K787). Finally,
to
must be
in his Annotations
Berkeley's Siris, Blake writes: "Forms
or the
Eye of Imagination"
apprehended by Sense
(K775), the "or"
context an identification rather than an al
clearly indicating in the
ternative.

The

relationship
the Lockean world

on the one hand between thismental

reality and
of sensory data and on the other between what

call "closed or limited" sense perception and infinite sense

or
perception
imagination is clarified by Blake through his concep
one

might

This content downloaded from 193.92.136.160 on Mon, 10 Feb 2014 09:47:19 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

ROBERT

F. GLECKNER

man

senses is a reflection
perceives with his
of inner,mental reality. Total vision, or imagination, is thus impos
sible as long as there are only a limited number of senses to serve as
inlets to, or outlets for perception by, soul or mind, or as long as the
basic senses remain "closed,"
uncleansed, bound, or unexpanded.
or
same as
Opening
expanding man's eyes inward is the
opening his
senses
man's
outward.
of
each
eye
"vegetable"
Diagrammatically,15
is the point of intersection, or vortex, of two cones, the open ends of
the cones continuing into outer (sensory) and inner (imaginative) in
tion of vortexes.14 What

these senses are closed, uncleansed, bound, or unex

so that the
fuzzy,
panded, perception in both "directions" is limited,
obscure horizon of, say, picturesque painting or poetry describes the
to mental
finite limits of man's
imaginative penetration inwards
as the
reality.16 Thus Blake writes, interpreting the Biblical flood
waters of materialism:
vision
the
of
overwhelming
by
finity.When

. . .when
In

deluge
Into two

and,

as

o'er

the earth-born

stationary

orbs,

man;

the five

senses whelm'd

then turn'd

concentrating

all

the fluxile

things

eyes

(E, K241);

result,
all the vast of Nature
Before

their shrunken

eyes.

shrunk
(SL, K246;

cf.M,

K516).

"the doors of perception

[are] cleansed," however, "every
man
as
to
it
since the
is, infinite" (MHH, K154),
thing [will] appear
vortex of each sense will then project outwardly
(inNa
prismatic
senses
are
inner
if
the
mental reality. Similarly,
ture) the totality of
or
infinitely, the points of intersection (or
multiplied
expanded
"doors of perception") will expand to the point where both inner
and outer cones cease to be conical and their bounding lines obliterat

When

ed by infinity; that is, outer reality, "this Vegetable Glass ofNature,"

inwhich inner or mental reality, "the Permanent Realities of Every
is reflected will become no longer a reflection but an iden
Thing,"
And
this identity of inner and outer is no longer describable
tity.

of this concept in his William Blake (pp. 30 f.) is the

14-Hazard Adams'
explanation
seeM, K497.
best I have seen. For Blake's
presentation
to this kind of explanation
resort
I
Adams,
15. Although,
reluctantly, it
following
is, I think, helpful. See Adams,
pp. 30, 33.
16. As Blake writes:
seem to vary:
of Perception
If Perceptive Organs
vary, Objects
seem to close also. (J, K661)
If the Perceptive Organs
close, their Objects

This content downloaded from 193.92.136.160 on Mon, 10 Feb 2014 09:47:19 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

BLAKE

AND

THE

SENSES

in terms of cones but rather in terms of "their Eternal

Forms

in

thedivine body of the Saviour" (VLf,K605-606). "Identity is one

thing& Corporeal Vegetation is another thing" (VLJ,K607).

A total apprehension of inward reality, then, is also a total sensory

outer reality. At the Fall, Blake's first idea Was to have
perception of
the senses rush "inward," hence obliterating mental vision and life
itself (BU, K236; VDA, K191), a movement which is tantamount to
it in
turning inner mental reality completely outward, imprisoning
nature.
of his idea of
material
Later, with the fuller development
vortexes, the senses "roll outward" and man beholds "What iswithin
. . ."
reascent to
now seen without
unity and
(FZ, K281). Man's
imagination, then, involves his multiplying,
senses inward:
ing the
...

Of Man
Ever

inwards into the

Worlds
in the Bosom

expanding

cleansing, and expand

to open

the Immortal

Eyes

ofThought, intoEternity

of God,

the Human

Imagination.

C/,K623)
For "What isAbove is
Within" (J,K709) just as inEternitywhat is

is within. In terms of the senses and imagination, infinite

without
sense
perception, the perception of infinite senses, and imaginative
same
perception all yield the
reality, the eternal fourfold world,
of Eden.
and
timeless,
spaceless
11

second part of the passage from The Marriage has to do with the
a
origin of organized religion and priesthood, the organization of
in
for
Blake
This
all
of
includes,
effect,
system
systems
"system."

The

not
thought,
merely religions. "All sects of Philosophy," he writes in
All Religions Are One, "are from the Poetic Genius adapted to the
weaknesses
of every individual"
(K98). The process of adaptation is
the important element here for it implies that sectarianism, or the
one true
comes about as a result of the
fragmentation of the
religion,
limitation invision discussed above. "The

trueMan,"

Blake writes, "is

thesource"of all religions,"he being thePoeticGenius" (AR,K98);

and the "true Man"

we

know

as to

is Jesus Christ, the Divine

Body of
vision
creation
is one,
all
imaginative

Imagination. Thus, just

so all
were
indeed is one man (Blake's Albion),
religions
limitation of vision to the five senses.17
17. See especially

Blake's

Descriptive

Catalogue

one until the

for this idea, especially:

This content downloaded from 193.92.136.160 on Mon, 10 Feb 2014 09:47:19 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

"the Grecian

F. GLECKNER

ROBERT

limitation, for Blake, is the process of "abstraction" or "real

ization," the "Philosophy of Five Senses" which he equates with the
This

and Locke
(SL, K246).
a result of this process
is
Songs ofExperience
as the
priests
Image of Songs of Innocence. Just
the vulgar by abstracting "the mental deities
teachings of Newton

The Human Abstract of

to The Divine
applied
in The Marriage enslave
from their objects," so

too does Urizen, Blake's arch-priest, enslave them (FZ, K323);

and
men to
as the
in the human
All
reside
"that
deities
lead
forget
priests
breast," so Urizen builds his "temple in the image of the human
the legalized

replete with

heart"

And

ark and covenant:

in the inner part of the Temple,

wondrous

workmanship,

They form'd the Secretplace, reversingall theorder of delight,

That

whosoever

The

hidden

enter* d into the temple might not behold

of the Generations
allegoric

wonders,

Of secretlust,when hid in chambersdark thenightlyharlot

Plays inDisguise inwhisper'd hymn& mumbling prayer.The priests

He

ordain'd

Inspiring

&

cloth'd
Priestesses,
. . .
(FZ, K333)

in

disguises

beastial,

secrecy.

as enslavers, are also enslaved

as the
by the very
priests,
own
a
construct:
so
too
Urizen
his
is
of
system they create,
product
a
as
an
seen
the
he is
abstraction,
nonentity, "self-closed,"
constantly
cave of the body (BU, K222
ff.;BA, K249).
imprisoning
Finally, just

In terms of perception, by abstracting "the mental deities from

their objects" the priests destroy the union of object and subject, of
nature and
informing spirit, of reality and mind.
body and soul, of
and
dissociation is, of course, a rational
This process of abstraction
one:
Thought

chang'd

the infinite to a serpent.

. .

was
the serpent temple form'd,
image of infinite
an
and man became
Shut up in finite revolutions,
Angel,
a
a
crown'd.
circle
God
Heaven
tyrant
turning,
mighty
Then

(E, K241)

This God, theabstract,"silent& invisible"Nobodaddy (NB,K171),

is forBlake an "Allegory of Kings" (AT, K789), the product of

man's

rational mind

(priests)

who

"in Selfhood"

and: "The antiquities of every

were the ancient Cherubim
of Phoenicia"
(K571);
gods
is no less sacred than that of the Jews. They are the same thing,
under Heaven,
Nation
All had originally one language,
as Jacob Bryant and all antiquaries have proved....
the religion of Jesus, the everlasting Gospel'*
and one religion: this was
(K578-579).
The reference is to Jacob Bryant's New
ofAntient Mythology
System; or, An Analysis
Celtic Researches
Cf. also Edward Davies'
1804).
(London,
1774-1776).
(London,

This content downloaded from 193.92.136.160 on Mon, 10 Feb 2014 09:47:19 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

BLAKE

AND

THE

SENSES

appropriate

The Divine Names, seeking toVegetate theDivine Vision

In a corporeal& ever dyingVegetation & Corruption. (J,K737)
This theory of the origin of religions Blake certainly knew of from
for ex
the many treatments of it in his time.18 Thomas Blackwell,
out in 1748 that "the Gods of the greatest Nations"
ample, pointed
were "afterwards
of the Philoso
multiplied first by the Knowledge

Fictions of the Poets, and most of all by theAmbi

phers, then by the
and
Avarice, of the Priests, and Superstition of the Credulous
tion,
such as
Vulgar."19 The apologists for this systematizing, however,
to be led to a true appre
Bishop Burnet, believed that the vulgar had
to
ciation of divinity through stages?from
"Barbarity"
"Supersti
to a
from a cosmogony
tion" to "a chaste and solid Religion,"
as
Ernest Tuveson points out, "even attribution of
theogony.20 Thus,

streams and themountains,

to the stars and the
is
planets, the
divinity
a
an advance since it represents the
of
from
sense;
religious
beginnings
this point a people can evolve to the point where it has an idea of
at last arrive at mono
divinity separate from natural objects, and
theism."21

Such a process not only has obvious and manifold ramifications in

Blake's mythology
and poetry, but also in his ideas about poetry as
is certainly correct in saying that "Much of Blake's
well. Adams
a
device
poetry is about how personification became
meaningless
rather than a vehicle of thought"; or, better, as Frye puts it, themen
tal deities of the ancient poets became, in the hands of priests, "in
are mere
creasingly vague and general until, in their final stages, they

nature of
personifications."22 With his idea of the essentially creative
states the case for the
perception, Coleridge
falsity of these gods with
admirable clarity and succinctness: "If themind be not passive, if it be
indeed made inGod's Image, and that, too, in the sublimest sense, the
Image of theCreator, there is ground for suspicion that any system
built on the passiveness of themind must be false, as a system."23
p. 41 n.
19. Letters Concerning Mythology
1748), p. 275.
(London,
20. Archaeologiae
or, the Ancient Doctrine
Philosophicae;
concerning the Originals
1692), pp. 160 f.
Things (London,
18. Nurmi,

21. Millennium

of

and Utopia
(New York,
1964), p. 170.
A Reading of the Shorter Poems, p. 224; Fearful Symmetry, p. 119.
23. Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ed. E. H. Coleridge
(London,
1895), 1, 352.

22. William

Blake:

This content downloaded from 193.92.136.160 on Mon, 10 Feb 2014 09:47:19 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

F. GLECKNER

ROBERT

10

The differences between Blake's mythological

personifications and
are
understandable in terms
eighteenth-century personifications, then,

of differences in perception. When Bertrand Bronson writes that "in

the general conception of mankind, God Himself is a personifica
tion,"24 he is at once justifying the human necessity of bringing to
terms in idealized abstractions the
of experience, and
multiplicity

re
enunciating the basis of the religious system against which Blake
belled. This basis is rational abstraction, the product of which is per
as Earl Wasserman
sonification. Although,
points out, this figure
reach
of
the
the
imagination" for the eighteenth
"represents
highest

century poet since it "most nearly resembles creation, rather than

mere imitation," the creation to Blake is itself the
product of abstrac
tion. Of all of the rhetorical figures,Wasserman
continues, "proso
one that best
to the true nature
is
that
popoeia
precisely
corresponds
of human abstraction, for it presents a universal in the corporeal sub

stance by which alone it has existence for man and can be compre
hended by him."25 The imagination functions, then, as a collecting
and assimilating power, a function Blake relegates to thememory
(as

to the
fancy). For Blake, it is the person that
relegates it
Coleridge
the corporeal substance being only
and
exists, really
unchangeably,
that "portion of Soul [or reality] discern'd by the five Senses" (MHH,

calls, ironically, the "Spectre." The eternal forms,

"are not Abstracted nor
the Divine Humanity,
are "visions of the
from
Nature"
they
(AJR, K459);
Compounded
eternal attributes, or divine names, which, when erected into gods,
become destructive to humanity . . .who is Jesus the Saviour, the
vine of eternity, they are thieves and rebels, they are destroyers"

K149),
which

what Blake
constitute

(DC, K571).What isdestroyedis the identityofGod andman, God

thing; what
similitude.

and

The

is "created"

"forms of worship"

by the eighteenth-century

poet

the Priests created out of "poetic

is a

tales,"

then,are thefableswhich, in their"Allegoricpomp" (J,K734) and

"allegoric

delusion & woe"

(J,K735),

are substituted for the

"Spirit

ualMystery& Real Visions" (VLJ,K605) of theone true religion,

according

to which

personifications,

"All deities reside in the human breast." The

are made,
give substantiality
allegories

out of which

xrv (1947), 167.

ELH,
24- "Personification
Reconsidered,"
Inherent Values
of Eighteenth-Century
25. "The
Personification,"
(1950),

445, 450.

This content downloaded from 193.92.136.160 on Mon, 10 Feb 2014 09:47:19 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

PMLA,

lxv

BLAKE

AND

THE

SENSES

11

to the invisible.
to shadows,
visualizability
far remote, in a little & dark Land"
(FZ,
In
rise of religions, Blake singles out partic
of
the
the
history
K281).
age as the one "which began to
ularly the pre-Biblical Druidical
turn ... mental
(DC, K578).
signification into corporeal command"
to

phantasms, solidity
"They become Natures

Blake calls "The Atlantic Mountains"

(that is, Atlantis, the
lost city of Art, Eden, now overwhelmed by thewaters of material
are "Now
to stony
given
ism), "where Giants dwelt in Intellect,"
Druids and Allegoric Generation,"

What

To theTwelve Gods ofAsia, the Spectresof thosewho Sleep

Sway'd by a Providence oppos'd to theDivine Lord Jesus.

(J,K681)

sacrifice in a Stonehenge-like
building of "Natural Reli
on its "Altars of Natural
then, is properly seen by
Morality,"
as a
senses.
In
closing of the
Jerusalem, "As the Senses ofMen

Druidical
gion"
Blake

shrinktogetherunder theKnife of flint" (which iswielded byTir

zah),26

Ah! alas! at the sightof theVictim & at sightof thosewho are smitten,
see become

All who

With

veils

Their

The
Of

ear bent

ear shrunk,

the heavens
shrunk away:
First a burning
flame, then a column
then an awful fiery wheel
earth & heaven,
surrounding

Divine
fire,

their eyes are cover'd

tongues shrunk up,
. . .
as their Victim,
so are
they

they behold;
their nostrils &

outwards;

as their eye &

Vision

And

what

of tears and

became

And thena globe of blood wandering distant in an unknown night.

Afar

into the unknown

of mortality,

Six months

fled away,
night the mountains
a summer, and six months
of
mortality,
a winter.

. . .
to be alter'd
form began
to be
into the Indefinite.
the perceptions
dissipated

The Human
And

. . .

(J,K702-703)
fallen state of man,

then, is complete, having out of his own

a
God outside himself in his own image, to
reasoning brain created

The

26.

In Blake's

"To

Tirzah"

(Songs ofExperience),

part" who

she is the "Mother

With

cruelty didst mould my Heart,

tears
And with false self-decieving
Didst

bind my Nostrils,

Eyes, & Ears:

Didst

close my Tongue
in senseless clay,
toMortal
Life betray.
(K220)

And me

This content downloaded from 193.92.136.160 on Mon, 10 Feb 2014 09:47:19 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

of my Mortal

ROBERT

12

F. GLECKNER

and enslaves himself, sanctioning the entire process

same
by pronouncing "that the Gods had order'd such things." The
terrible irony Blake uses again in his description of the Fall in The

which

he bows

to the hu
ofUrizen: after the "net" of religion ("twisted like
man with "shrunken
brain") is formed and eternal
eyes" and
contracts
"narrowing perceptions"

Book
man

Of

in
reptile forms shrinking
seven feet stature
they remain'd.

Six days

they shrunk up from

together,

existence,

And on the seventhday they rested. (K236)

Thus

self-enslaved and blind, they give thanks for all their blessings,
And theybless'd the seventhday, in sickhope,
And forgot theireternal life. (K236)

reachievement of their unfallen state of unity, Eden and Eternity,

is to be accomplished, however, not by a destruction of the senses or
reason and a substitution of
imagination for them but rather by
means of those senses themselves,
by what Blake calls in The Marriage
"an improvement of sensual enjoyment," in the prophecies the rein
The

tegration of the four Zoas.

ill
to The Marriage, "the whole creation will be con
When,
according
sumed and appear infinite and holy, whereas it now appears finite &
an
event "will come to pass
by
improve
corrupt," this apocalyptic
ment

of sensual enjoyment." That last phrase has been interpreted in

I think, has seen the
variety ofways by Blake critics, but none,
aswell as the
as
of
the
expansion and
expressive
multiplication
phrase
of
which
will
reform
the
eternal senses
the
senses,
processes
cleansing
a wide

seems tome to
to their
imaginative wholeness. Peter Fisher
come as close as anyone, however: "The improvement of sensation
that is, a
included the restoration of the faculties and their powers,"
communis sensus.27 Blake was no doubt aware of the eighteenth-cen

of man

tury search, by Berkeley and others, for some principle by which the
senses could be united with each other, a kind of total synaesthesia
reflective of total coinstantaneous perception. As early as 1788 Blake
27. The Valley

of Vision,

p. 241.

This content downloaded from 193.92.136.160 on Mon, 10 Feb 2014 09:47:19 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

BLAKE
was

attracted to Lavater's

(coup d'oeil),

THE

AND

SENSES

13

extent of
of "copiousness,
glance
at once"
intuition of the whole

notion

and instantaneous

{AL,K69).

itmay seem as if this emphasis on the amalgamation

of the
senses tends to contradict the idea of their necessary
multiplication,
While

the two ideas are but opposite sides of the same coin. The union of
the five senses (or, as Blake more often has it, four senses)28 into one
imaginative eye precludes any distinction, in Eternity, between the
as I have said above,
senses and
of the
imagination;
multiplication
senses ad
in
of
man's
would
the
number
chinks
infinitum
multiply

cavern to the
cavern itself is annihilated, or
point where the
bodily
ceases to obscure. So too,
and
cleansing the "doors of perception"
same result. In
senses
five
the
the
(or four)
yields precisely
expanding
can write: "Four
A Vision of theLast
Living
Judgment, then, Blake
... I
to
Creatures [i.e. the Zoas]
have
the chief agency in re
suppose
the old heavens & the old Earth tomake way for theNew
moving
Heaven & theNew Earth . . ." (K612). In Eternity these four
living
creatures constituted the fourfoldness of "the Immortal"
(i.e. Albion,
the Grand Man, Christ, Imagination), who, before the Fall, "ex
IOr contracted his all flexible senses" at will (BU, K223).
panded
...

for contracting

Senses

their Exalted

They beholdMultitude, or Expanding theybehold as one,

As One Man all theUniversal family;& thatOne Man
They

call Jesus

the Christ_(FZ,

thing isHuman"

"Every

stood
One

toward

K277;

and each human

(J, K665)

Fourfold;

each Four

Faces

to theWest,
. . .
to the North.

had: One

to the South, One

the East, One

cf.J, K664-665)

U K745)
"Around

the Throne Divine"

North, Urizen

West

stand the four Zoas, Urthona

to the East, and Tharmas

to the South, Luvah

to the
to the

(M,K500);
And

the

Eyes

are the South,

and

the Nostrils

are the East,

And theTongue is the

West, and theEar is theNorth.

U, K632)

28. In Eternity, for Blake,

to the four
there are four eternal senses, corresponding
rivers of Eden, the water of life. Thus Tharmas,
one of the Four Zoas,
combines
the
senses of taste and touch,
in the tongue.
symbolized by Blake

This content downloaded from 193.92.136.160 on Mon, 10 Feb 2014 09:47:19 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

14

ROBERT

F. GLECKNER

we do not understand, Blake

inferusalem, lest
explicitly identi
as
fies the Zoas
"the Four Eternal Senses ofMan," which, after the
Fall, become "Four Elements separating from theLimbs ofAlbion."29
Blake also speaks of the "gates" of the Zoas, who are all entrances
to
Eternity; and at each compass point there are four gates, which at
the Fall are closed, or at best made
single. "Single vision & New
not
to the sense of
ton's sleep" (L, K818),
refers
then,
only
sight but
to the contraction of the
numerous to five
and
enlarged
(or four),
means of the
each ofwhich is single-dimensional. Thus
perception by
fallen senses yields but a "ratio" of total sense
perception; and "He
a limited,
who sees the Ratio only, sees himself
only" (NNR, K98),
confined, imprisoning selfhood, separate from the human form di
vine, a human abstract of the divine image.
Later

Every

Form was

Universal

become

barren mountains

of Moral

Virtue, and everyMinute Particularharden'd intograins of sand (J,K657),

all now

perceivable and real only to the single-fold senses and the

ratiocinative powers of man. And the erstwhile divine
humanity of
all things becomes instead a
world [of]vast enormities,
faithless, fawning
Fright'ning,
Portions
of life, similitudes
Of a foot, or a hand, or a head,
Or

a heart,

or an
eye.

...

(BU, K234)

Fragmented vision yields

fragmented humanity; the senses perceive
at best a ratio ofwholeness, atworst
a similitude of that ratio.
merely
Blake's cry inferusalem, then, reinterprets the familiar Biblical call
to God in terms of a
and ex
reintegration, cleansing, multiplication,
senses:
of
the
pansion
O

Lord my

Saviour,

open

And Iwill lead forth thy

Words!
And

these are the words,

the strands of Blake's

bringing

thou

the Gates

(f,K715)

together magnificently

many

of

apocalypse:

South stood theNerves of theEye; East, inRivers of bliss, theNerves of the

Expansive Nostrils;West flow'd theParent Sense, theTongue; North stood

The

labyrinthine

Ear:

Circumscribing

&

Circumcising

the excrementitious

inwhich one of the "Proverbs

of Hell"
associates the four ele
29. K663. Cf. MHH,
ments with man and his senses: "The eyes of fire, the nostrils of air, the mouth
of
the beard of earth" (K152).
water,

This content downloaded from 193.92.136.160 on Mon, 10 Feb 2014 09:47:19 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

BLAKE

AND

THE

15

SENSES

Husk & Covering, intoVacuum evaporating, revealing the lineamentsofMan,

Driving outward theBody ofDeath in an EternalDeath & Resurrection,
Awaking it to Life among theFlowers of Beulah, rejoicing inUnity
In theFour Senses, in theOutline, theCircumference& Form, for ever
In Forgivenessof Sinswhich is SelfAnnihilation; it is theCovenant of Jehovah.
The Four Living Creatures,Chariots ofHumanity Divine Incomprehensible,
In beautifulParadises expand. These are theFour Rivers of Paradise
And theFour Faces ofHumanity, frontingtheFour Cardinal Points
Of Heaven, going forward,forward irresistiblefromEternity to Eternity.
All Human Forms identified,evenTree, Metal, Earth & Stone: all
Human Forms identified,living....
(J,K745-747)
And

"This will

come

to pass by an
improvement

in sensual enjoy

ment."

UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA,

RIVERSIDE

This content downloaded from 193.92.136.160 on Mon, 10 Feb 2014 09:47:19 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions