William Blake, Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion; retained monochrome facsimile
Golgonooza in Blake's Jerusalem
Jerusalem places Los in London building Golgonooza while compelling his Spectre to labour. The city belongs to the poem's visionary landscape: its construction extends through the cliffs of Albion and becomes an account of human feeling and creative work. Blake names pity as its stones, well-wrought affections as its bricks, and forgiveness as its beams and rafters. Its gates and directions are fourfold, opening through a patterned inward and outward space. These are details of the poem's city, not a street plan of historical London. Read beside Los's effort to deliver individuals from systems, the compassionate building materials suggest a city whose value depends on the kind of relations it makes possible. That connection is an interpretation of adjacent passages. The accompanying forge plate supplies context for Los's labour; it is not a map or a printed view labelled Golgonooza.
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In the sources
A city under construction
DocumentedLos builds Golgonooza in London and compels his Spectre to work. The city is part of the poem’s imaginative landscape.
Feeling becomes building material
DocumentedThe poem explicitly names pity, affection and forgiveness as the city’s stones, bricks, beams and rafters, then describes its fourfold gates.
Context & interpretation
Golgonooza in the opening of Chapter I, engraved plates 10–13. The city is considered within these reviewed passages, not as a complete geography of Blake’s writings.
Original passages
Source 1
Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion
Therefore Los stands in London building GolgonoozaOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Jerusalem, engraved plate 10
Quotation rechecked individually against the exact original Reader plate using view_image; spelling and case preserved in this bounded excerpt. Only the opening fifteen engraved plates were reviewed; later chapters and other Blake works are outside scope.
- Edition
- IMJ-0270-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0270-E001-P0011
- Original scan leaf
- 25
- Recorded leaf number
- 25
- Current Reader position
- 12
- Reader verification
- Matches the reviewed Reader
Source 2
Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion
Striving with Systems to deliver Individuals from those SystemsOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Jerusalem, engraved plate 11
Quotation rechecked individually against the exact original Reader plate using view_image; spelling and case preserved in this bounded excerpt. Only the opening fifteen engraved plates were reviewed; later chapters and other Blake works are outside scope.
- Edition
- IMJ-0270-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0270-E001-P0012
- Original scan leaf
- 27
- Recorded leaf number
- 27
- Current Reader position
- 13
- Reader verification
- Matches the reviewed Reader
Source 3
Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion
the bricks, well wrought affectionsOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Jerusalem, engraved plate 12
Quotation rechecked individually against the exact original Reader plate using view_image; spelling and case preserved in this bounded excerpt. Only the opening fifteen engraved plates were reviewed; later chapters and other Blake works are outside scope.
- Edition
- IMJ-0270-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0270-E001-P0013
- Original scan leaf
- 29
- Recorded leaf number
- 29
- Current Reader position
- 14
- Reader verification
- Matches the reviewed Reader
Source 4
Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion
the beams & rafters are forgivenessOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Jerusalem, engraved plate 12
Quotation rechecked individually against the exact original Reader plate using view_image; spelling and case preserved in this bounded excerpt. Only the opening fifteen engraved plates were reviewed; later chapters and other Blake works are outside scope.
- Edition
- IMJ-0270-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0270-E001-P0013
- Original scan leaf
- 29
- Recorded leaf number
- 29
- Current Reader position
- 14
- Reader verification
- Matches the reviewed Reader
Source 5
Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion
The Western Gate fourfoldOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Jerusalem, engraved plate 13
Quotation rechecked individually against the exact original Reader plate using view_image; spelling and case preserved in this bounded excerpt. Only the opening fifteen engraved plates were reviewed; later chapters and other Blake works are outside scope.
- Edition
- IMJ-0270-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0270-E001-P0014
- Original scan leaf
- 31
- Recorded leaf number
- 31
- Current Reader position
- 15
- Reader verification
- Matches the reviewed Reader
