Europe, A Prophecy

For this Thursday (3/14), students will write blog comments on three previous blog posts about Europe, A Prophecy (see below). The posts were in response to one of the three questions below. Write 4-5 sentences aimed at improving the blog post: How can other parts of the poem (specific lines, motifs, symbols, themes, or images) complicate, contradict, or enhance the interpretation? Stay focused and constructive in your comments, avoid simply agreeing with the post or praising its ideas.  Write the comments in the “Reply” box of your chosen post and then click submit. The comments will be factored into your participation grade and count for your class attendance tomorrow (remember that class is canceled that day).

Find the previous posts under the category “Flames of Orc”: https://williamblakeandenlightenmentmedia.wordpress.com/category/the-flames-of-orc-10-23/

The three blog comments are due tomorrow (3/14) by 4:15pm. Please write your name for each comment.

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1. In Plates 17 and 18, lines 37-39, 1-11 (p. 106), why does Los prepare for epic war along with Orc, who arrives with “furious terrors” and “golden chariots”? Explain the significance of this cosmic battle for Blake’s prophetic vision of Europe.

2. In Plate 12, line 5 (p. 101), why is Enitharmon’s eighteenth hundred year-old slumber described as a “female dream”?

3. In Plate 16, line 5 (p. 105), explain the significance of Newton’s blowing of the “Trump” Why is the English scientist held responsible for awakening Enitharmon from her eighteen hundred year-old slumber?

Enitharmon’s Feminine Dream

In looking at Enitharmon 1,800 year old sleep, Blake tells us it is a “female dream.” Personally,  I find this kind of sexist, but as is normal with Blake, there is more than meets the eye. The first thing to do is to look at the dream itself. First, it starts with Christ’s Birth and continues for 1,800 years until the French Revolution comes along. Second, this dream seems to be a dream supporting the submission of men by the women. Enitharmon calls to all her children and says “That Woman, lovely Woman! may have dominion? (pg.101). Third, it gives us the idea about the never ending nature of sexuality of females. Enitharmon says to the sons of Los, Palamabron and Rintrah, to “tell the human race that Woman’s love is Sin. (pg. 101).

So since the dream lasts the 1800 years, the dream is influenced by pre-French revolution Christian beliefs. What is interesting is that the dream is telling us about the cost of the choices of women rather than about the male suppression and control over women. Calling this period a “feminine dream” seems to imply that women want power over men but are trying to get it through devious and backhanded means. So, as a result, they only live an illusion of being in control. We can see this because Enitharmon calls upon her sons to make her wish of female control come true and that she is sleeping during the time that women did reign. Interestingly enough, she becomes passive when she successfully changes humanity’s nature.

So this dream is female because it is all about the desire of women. According to the Blake dictionary, Enitharmon is known as The Eternal Female which we saw in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. She is the figurehead and symbol for all women. Her actions will affect all women and she knows it. She says”…from her childhood shall the little female Spread nets in every secret path” (pg.101). She is representing the female desire to control men, or at least subdue them while at the same time being a symbol of Eve and her falling to the original sin, thus dooming all women in the future, as well as the whole of humanity. Blake is telling us that female desire is strong, but very dangerous. I also think that Enitharmon is slightly confused about what direction to go and what future she truly wants for women.

When she tells humanity that female love is a sin, she takes away the ability to have straight forward sexuality, and must resort to the backhanded and secret or underhanded forms of love. This reminds of of what we saw in Wollstonecraft. She commented on female manners as being a destructive force to the emotional and academic growth of women. Blake even looks to this idea when he calls female “little” and her going around in secret paths (underhanded love). But in making Enitharmon the scapegoat as to why women do this, Blake is saying that it is inherent to the nature of all women. She tricks humanity and gets two men , Palamabron and Rintrah, to create a world of female dominance. So we have this dream of female control that is being destroyed by the very females the idea supports due to their sabotaging of the whole system.

Revolution through Poetry

1. In Plates 17 and 18, lines 37-39, 1-11 (p. 106), why does Los prepare for epic war along with Orc, who arrives with “furious terrors” and “golden chariots”? Explain the significance of this cosmic battle for Blake’s prophetic vision of Europe.

In Europe A Prophecy, William Blake uses the character’s representation to demonstrate his perspective regarding the French Revolution in Europe. In the poem, Los is in preparation for a war besides Orc, who arrives with “furious terror” and “golden chariots.” In A Blake Dictionary, Los represents poetry which is an expression of the creative imagination. He is the manifestation of Urthona, the representation of the creative imagination in the individual. Moreover, Orc is a representation of revolution in the material world. The combination of Los and Orc in the war illustrates Blake’s prophetic vision for the discovery of the creative imagination through revolution. However, this revolution is because of “repressed love” (972). In other words, Blake is arguing for a nonviolent revolution through the use of poetry to discover the creative imagination – or the poetic genius, – which inhabits every individual. Orc arrives with “furious terror” because he is the representation of revolution, and his emotions is a representation of the individuals involved in the revolution. Furthermore, he arrives with “golden chariots,” a reference to the Greek god of the sun, Apollo, and the chariots bring light to the world. In other words, poetry and revolution will bring “furious terror” to the individuals, which will bring light to the world with the discovery of one’s creative imagination. William Blake criticizes the environment of reason during the French Revolution, and advocated for revolution through the use of poetry to discover one’s creative imagination. Blake’s argument reinforces his perspective regarding the significance of contraries in understanding the world. Therefore, the importance of these contraries, creativity in the Age of Reason is critical in comprehending the revolution.

-Hongxi Su

The “Female Dream” and Social Stagnation

As the central component of William Blake’s Europe: A Prophecy, Enitharmon’s dream and its characterization as a “female dream” is significant in demonstrating the impact of female and sexual energy on revolution. Enitharmon is identified as the “source of female sexual pleasure” (Europe Summary) and of “Spiritual Beauty” (Blake Dictionary 124). Blake’s view of Enitharmon reminded me of Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women, in which she disdain’s Edmund Burke’s objectification of women and advocates for useful women’s education. In contrast to Wollstonecraft’s view of women as more than aesthetic and passivity, Enitharmon’s existence is based on pleasure and beauty. However, Enitharmon weaponizes her objectivity to exert power and dominance over the Blakean world, demonstrating the power of sexuality and pleasure. 

Since Enitharmon represents pleasure and “Spiritual Beauty” which is the “inspiration of the poet Los” in creating his poetry (Blake Dictionary 124) that promotes change, Enitharmon’s characteristics are integral to revolution. Thus, repressing these features, especially in accordance with restrictive religious beliefs, prevents progression and leads to a stagnated state of unhappiness and frustration. These latter conditions resemble the state of ignorance and unproductiveness Wollstonecraft states women are subject to when limits are placed on their intellectual and sexual desires.

To demonstrate the dangers of repressing pleasure, Enitharmon slumbers for 1800 years, rendering the pleasure and beauty she emits dormant also. She tells her sons to “Forbid all Joy, & from her childhood shall the little female/ Spread nets in every secret path” (Europe 8/5: 7-8). In spreading nets, Enitharmon traps the Blakean world and confines their artistic expression, stifling advancement like in the female state Wollstonecraft protests against. Thus, Enitharmon’s dream is gendered as female because nothing of value is created during this passive state, by either Enitharmon or anyone else, and discontent reigned. By placing her beauty and pleasure off limits, she exerts power and “establishes her Woman’s World with its false religion of chastity and vengeance– a religion of eighteen hundred years, which is the error of official Christianity” (Blake Dictionary 125). Without pleasure, which women have the power to withhold from men, Blake’s world is taken over by religion and falls into a state of excess sexual and poetic repression that is waiting to burst. It is only when Enitharmon awakes that Orc, or revolution, can erupt and break Los free from his enslavement to the “finite revolutions” (13/10: 22) of Urizen and institutionalized thinking. Revolutionary poetry, and progression, can continue with the restoration of inspirational and desirable thoughts, instead of fixed ideals that keep art in the same dull round.

-Wendy Gutierrez

A Woman’s World

In his work Europe A Prophecy, William Blake uses various characters and ideas that are amalgamations from his very mind, one of which is inspired by his wife Catherine Blake named Enintharmon who represents the essence of womanhood as “the Eternal Female” (Blake Dictionary 125). In “A Prophecy,” Enintharmon falls into a deep sleep for 1,800 years that could only be described as “a female dream” (Blake Poetry 101). This dream could likely be a reference the “Women’s World” that Enintharmon wishes to create upon her birth and declaration of independence, claiming it to be a place where “Women’s delight be pride” and “God himself become[s] a Male subservient to the Female” (Blake Dictionary 124). Such a world of female dominance, a world in which women can instead look down upon men and be regarded as prideful figures instead of overtly emotional ones, would only exist in a dream for years to come, as womens’ oppression throughout history depicts their bleak reality and fate to widely exist as the lesser counterpart to men for far too long. While Enintharmon’s radical dream of a female driven world might not have existed in our current history, it conveys an empowering message to motivate women to fight for their own vision of the world and break free from their oppressed states such that they can finally stand and equal ground against men, as well as everyone to show the importance of “The Female World”. Though she might have merely been a figment of Blake’s intense imaginative world, Enintharmon’s influential dream can still be seen with the many social movements that continue to rally women across the world and evoke much needed change.

–Jose Ramirez

A Hunger for Revolution

In William Blake’s “The Tyger” from Songs of Innocence and Experience is the essence of opposing energies of anything deemed guiltless.  In further analysing its twin poem “The Lamb,” we see this notion of opposition even more; the moral that is to be taken from having engaged in both texts, is that humanity possesses both sides: innocent and sinfilled.  

The “Tyger,” therefore, symbolizes not only the sin, and/or darker point of view of the world, but it represents the truest aftermath of a world that is full of injustice, inequality, and oppression.  It is the response to the push back of a society that are oppressed and marginalized -positioned in such a way because of the unabating greed of a higher power.

Hence, in the line “The Tigers couch upon the prey & such the ruddy tide” (Europe 18/15:17), we can conclude that the Tiger is responding to the 1800 years of dark times, when none of the political and/or societal issues were being resolved in France -the poorer were becoming poorer, and the rich were becoming richer; specifically, the monarchy. . The Tiger was essentially released from those shackles that represent oppression; full of rage and hunger; having an insatiable appetite for that of revolution.  This is a counterpart, really, of the apocalypse found in Revelations in the bible. In this manner, we see that the “prey,” therefore, are the very people who were greedily living out their lives, at the cost of the loss of everyone else. The blood is what has been spilt by the mass chaos taking place from the outbreak of the revolution -those from both sides.

The Tiger, furthermore, deviates from simply being seen as the darkness of the world; but, instead, transform into a victor.

-Marcy Martinez

Re-volution or the End of History?

For this Wednesday (3/21), students have the option to write a post on ONE of the four prompt questions:

 

1. Why does Blake deviate from the Biblical account in making Adam and Noah contemporaries? (SoL, Plate 3; 6, 7; p. 109)

 

2. What is the significance of Urizen’s weeping at the end of “Asia”? (Plate 7, line 42; p. 112).  How does this moment compare to Urizen’s earlier weeping in the “Africa” section (plate 4, line 17; page 110)?

 

3. What is the symbolic significance of creepy, crawly insects, worms, and serpents in Blake’s Europe, a Prophecy and A Song of Los?

 

4.   Interpret the line “The Tigers couch upon the prey & suck the ruddy tide” (Europe 18/15:7; page 106).  How does this line relate to animal/beast imagery in Blake’s other works, like in the “The Tyger” for instance?

 

Or, students can formulate their own question prompt about a specific line, image, theme, or motif from Europe or The Song of Los, and then provide their own answer in a post.  Please categorize under “Urizen’s Tears” and don’t forget to create specific tags.  Posts are due by 8:30am on 3/21.

The Female Touch

     Enitharmon, who it has been notioned to represent Marie Antoinette, is the embodiment of both the Womens’ force, while at the same time indicating that such a force is not a conducive one.  It is a rarity to have a woman in power, in any context, during this era; however, through Blake’s work, we see an antipode of such a parameter taking place. Her paradoxical/unfamiliar stance was a call-to-action to generate a revolution during a time when Christian ruling via the monarchy was the the status quo.  

    As noted in Blake’s Poetry and Designs, this obscurely written call-to-action, titled Europe: A Prophecy (1794) was a “prophecy for a revolutionary era because it demonstrates how much there is to rebel against and how sorely this languorous, effeminate society is in need of a cataclysmic awakening” (96).  While the term effeminate can exhibit a negative connotation, it supports the storyline Blake uses to counterpart what is going on during this time; thus, Enitharmon symbolizes that effeminate governing.

    When Enitharmon slept: “She slept in a middle of a nightly song/ Eighteen hundred years: a female dream!” (lines 4,5. P. 101).  This metaphor of a slumber translates to the lull in revolutionary progress. Before we understand what this means, we must approach this as a feminist critique so as to not necessarily decode the poem, but to ask ourselves why Blake chose to use the female (woman) motif to deliver this history lesson.  

     The use of the woman motif is used in several ways; we see this at the opening of “Preludium”: “The nameless shadowy female rose from out the breast of Orc: Her snaky hair brandishing in the winds of Enitharmon/and thus her voice arose” (98). The figure goes on to express her dissatisfaction with the current conditions she is enduring. This could possibly be the woman figure that represents a more humble and nurturing one -the one that France is in need of versus the one that seems to be more fixed on handling political matters in an aggressive way. And since Orc represents the French Revolution, this could be his inner being calling out for help, explaining: “I wrap my turban of thick clouds around my lab’ring head/ And fold the sheety waters as a mantle round my limbs/ Yet the red sun and moon/ And all the overflowing stars rain down prolific pains” (99).  What this could possibly translate to is that the female shadowy figure also represents loyalty to her mother country, but there has not been any reciprocity in that action.

     Being that with Enitharmon is a correlation with Marie Antoinette and Antoinette had a bad reputation known as running the country into the ground financially, as well as playing a part in great political decisions, we can assume then that Enitharmon’s slumber indicates the halt in social development and justice: “During her sleep, time is collapsed so that to her the birth of Christ, making the beginning of the European calendar, is the same event as the birth of revolution eighteen hundred years later” (Blake’s Poetry and Designs, 96).

   Hence, the use of the feminine (woman) is being used to symbolize a stunt in growth.  It is only until Orc resists against his mother that the revolution occurs. Thus, the woman motif, in this case, eludes to the notion of power, but at the same time disorganized power.

-Marcy Martinez

 

Forging Satirical Currencies on Enitharmon’s Face

There’s people who like to talk about sex, others are having it, like “Terrible Orc […] beheld,” (Blake 106), pictured in William Blake’s Europe A Prophecy Plate 18 with a Romantic backdrop, “vineyards” in France, accompanied by neoclassical descriptions of war, “golden chariot raging” which carries double entendre, “furious terrors flew around” has sexually explicit undertones. Orc swings down ceremoniously in his chariot, either for a wedding or for a battle (our editor mentions nuptials in A Blake Dictionary), and “groans” surmount with descriptions of passionate love-making.  In the form of allegory and authorized through the conceit of sexuality, Blake’s language undermines French monarchy while versifying on representations of authority.

Los and Orc prepare for an epic battle, and this alludes to the living, historical moment of Blake’s time likened by Blake to the well-known history about Queen Elizabeth’s Protestantism and distancing from the Catholic Church. Blake is seeing this relevancy, in the imminent years of Napoleon’s overthrowing the French monarchs. His universal envisioning of allegorical characters to express historical and social ideas generates a satirical currency which mocks and depicts human preoccupation with revolution. Enitharmon is not to be perceived as a human woman, slumbering or fantasizing about sex. Rather, Enitharmon is metonymically rendered as Blake’s embodiment of Queen Elizabeth, who’s face is implied as carrying shame and/or grief; she “cries in anguish and dismay” (106) as a consequence of her son, Orc’s rebellion. Where Blake ensnares readers in the propaganda of his time is not simply through Orc’s described realm of war-like rebellion, but rather, through the juxtaposing of Enitharmon with facial expressions, in allusion to Elizabeth I- whom during her reign in the 16th century, was dismayed herself by contestations of power. Blake links Elizabeth I’s resistance of French threats of overthrow that favored transition-of-power to Mary, Queen of Scott. French Revolution is viewed by the figurative, Enitharmon. Her anguished countenance is an expression against the very position in which Blake will align Elizabethan nostalgia (colloquially, back when England stood up against the Church) with pro-Revolution propaganda. via sexuality, war metaphors and allegorical heroes like Enitharmon and her hybrid son. Grandiose evocations of classical imagery like chariots and the cosmic, juxtapose against hyper-surrealistic facial expressions, “nature felt through all her pores,” (106) to sublimely reinterpret English history; and yet, sexuality comes to be seen as one of the more significant currencies in deconstructing Blake’s notion of liberality, female empowerment, etc. The people/reptiles/children of Los described as engaged in sex acts are fulfilling political roles in a pre-Napoleon dictatorship. Blake parallels these reprehensible, human behaviors to the mischievous French, whom a century before had attempted to pervade Protestant English monarchy. Orc’s battle signifies a prophetic vision of Europe insofar as Enitharmon’s dream can be rendered Elizabethan for invoking a satirical nostalgia which consumes an English nationalism alongside embellished objectifications of female sexual dichotomies committed to political gratification and guised as the best mode of representation.

(Plate 102) The Virgin Mary holding a mirror before Dante; this is similar to the evocation of the virginal Queen Elizabeth I in Enitharmon’s dream. Blake’s European prophecy is mediated by revered, female representations.

(Plate 92) The whore of Babylon… suggests the Corruption of the Church; Blake is repeating dichotomies on female objectifications intended to embolden English nationalism while mocking outside, Catholic virtue.

-Bradley Christian

The Red Prophecy

William Blake’s Europe a Prophecy ends with an epic war in which Los and Orc prepare to fight:

But terrible Orc, when he beheld the morning in the east
Shot from the heights of Enitharmon;
And in the vineyards of red France appear’d the light of his fury

Orc is the embodiment of rebellion as opposed to Urizen who is the symbol of tradition, therefore it makes sense that Orc would prepare for epic war along with Los (who is the creative imagination) . Los is also the father of Orc (and Enitharmon is his mother). Therefore, when Orc is born to Enitharmon in the beginning of the work, he is called the “horrent Demon” (100) to illustrate his deviation from tradition, and (perhaps away from what is considered religious because tradition and religion are part of the government in Britain). However, the symbolism or Orc and Los working together after Los becomes Urizen’s slave and partner, is immense because it marks the corruption of organized religions. Enitharmon’s 800 year old sleep is also a symbol of the repressed female figure that gave birth to rebellion.
The significance of this epic battle in relation to Blake’s prophetic version of Britain is that Blake is looking at Britain and examining the ways that Europe is repressive like Urizen, and its  failure of enlightenment is causing it to be the polar opposite of America (or what Orc is symbolizing) the energy of revolution and change. However, like Orc, America could be repressed and limited in a way, similarly to how Enitharmon was holding Orc back, even while she was pushing him to be a rebellious figure.
The “vineyards” of red France create an allusion to the French revolution that at this time is seeing the light of Orc (or revolution). The color symbolism of a “red France” is indicative of the immense blood shed that will take place. It is also foreshadowed in the birth of Orc: “And we will crown thy head with garlands of the ruddy vine”,”red stars of fire”, and “the sparkling wine of Los” (101). The poetic imagination then has to be marked with death and destruction because its mission is to destroy Urizen. However, this bloodshed would go on longer than William Blake or anybody would have expected.
-Beyanira Bautista