Blake's Jerasulem The Story of the Women's Institute Song

This book tells the story of how Jerusalem came to be England's unofficial national anthem. It is sung at the Proms, at various sporting events featuring England and was seized on by the Women's Institute as their inspirational song. The music was written in the middle of the First World War by Sir Hubert Parry, to inspire the whole population by reminding them what they were fighting for. It is genuinely uplifting and very moving music. The words were written over 100 years earlier by the visionary poet William Blake. Blake is one of our greatest poets: an original thinker, who belonged to no political party or religious sect, but carved out his own set of beliefs based on the proposition that all men are equal. He is appalled by the horrors of the industrial revolution and by the poverty, ignorance and squalor surrounding him. The book looks at his work and quotes some of his most important poems. In poem after poem, he attacks injustice and cruelty - cruelty to animals, to children, to women, to all poor human beings. His poem London sums up the power of his passion. The book then discusses Jerusalem - how the poem originated, what shaped it, and what it means. The book ends with the passionate plea to all readers to carry out Blake's intention: to fight to create a new Jerusalem today in 'England's green and pleasant land.'