‘Jerusalem’ is probably our most patriotic anthem. It stirs our souls, makes our hearts beat faster and fills us with pride. It is a National Treasure. But did Blake intend it to be patriotic? What if the answer to all the rhetorical questions isn’t ‘Yes’? What is the second verse about? Revolution? Sexual liberation? The imagery doesn’t feel like a celebration of the status quo… The music was written by Hubert Parry in 1916 while war was raging. Was he comfortable with its patriotic nature as the horrors in the trenches became apparent? How and in what spirit did it become adopted by the Suffragette movement? This talk will explore all those questions, along with other extracts of the visionary poetry of William Blake, who taught us to see ‘infinity in a grain of sand’. The talk will take you from the Sistine Chapel and disease-ridden 18th century London, via the life of Mary Woolstonecraft, to the Paris Riots of 1968, the courtyard of the British Library and the outer reaches of the Universe….
Views: 49 | Enquiries: 0Edward’s life changed as a result of sailing around the world in the Clipper Around the World Yacht Race. Spending months at sea, negotiating powerful storms and extreme weather, gave him a powerful insight into the impacts of overheated oceans. Those experiences, coupled with the birth of his 4 grandsons, are his motivation as an environmental activist. A former inner city headteacher and educational consultant, he now works through the Church, the Green Party, Greenpeace and Al Gore’s Climate Reality organisation to ensure the future of everyone’s children. His degree at Cambridge was in English Literature and the History of Art. This gave him profound insights into the work of William Blake and an on-going love of Fine Art and the Insights you can gain when you really look deeply at a painting.
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