William Blake, Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion; retained monochrome facsimile
Los and the Spectre in Blake's Jerusalem
Los appears in the opening of Jerusalem amid furnaces, iron, hammer and anvil. His Spectre is divided from him and becomes a source of torment and argument. Los identifies it with his own pride and self-righteousness, then orders it to take the tongs and work beside him. The struggle therefore continues inside the work of making, rather than ending in a simple expulsion of an enemy. When the poem places Los in London building Golgonooza, he declares the need to create a system rather than submit to another person's. The following plate complicates that declaration by describing a struggle to deliver individuals from systems. These passages make creative labour inseparable from the danger of domination. This account follows the poem's named figures and their speech; its reading of the forge as a conflict over imagination is interpretation, not a claim that Blake records a literal supernatural encounter.
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In the sources
A divided antagonist
DocumentedThe poem presents the Spectre as divided from Los. Los names it as his pride and self-righteousness and commands it to join the work at the forge.
Creation and its systems
DocumentedLos declares that he must create a system or be enslaved by another person. The next plate describes striving with systems to free individuals from them.
Context & interpretation
Los and his Spectre in the opening of Chapter I, engraved plates 6–12, within the first fifteen engraved plates actually reviewed. Later chapters and Blake's other works are outside scope.
Original passages
Source 1
Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion
his Spectre also dividedOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Jerusalem, engraved plate 6
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-P0007
- Original scan leaf
- 17
- Recorded leaf number
- 17
- Current Reader position
- 8
- Reader verification
- Matches the reviewed Reader
Source 2
Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion
Thou art my Pride & Self-righteousnessOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Jerusalem, engraved plate 8
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-P0009
- Original scan leaf
- 21
- Recorded leaf number
- 21
- Current Reader position
- 10
- Reader verification
- Matches the reviewed Reader
Source 3
Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion
Take thou these TongsOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Jerusalem, engraved plate 8
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-P0009
- Original scan leaf
- 21
- Recorded leaf number
- 21
- Current Reader position
- 10
- Reader verification
- Matches the reviewed Reader
Source 4
Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion
I must Create a SystemOpen 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 5
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
