This reflection on Milton and Blake is also the reflections of every person who is looking for purpose in their lives (ibid, 588). However, in the last generation more and more people are asking the same question as Bloom and raising the issue of purpose. Like the humans that recorded the creation story in Genesis, we are searching for the purpose of our being and existence. Blake's parables answer use poetic license to extend this question of existence into the time of the twilight of the Enlightenment when new knowledge was causing people to ask many of the same questions that they asked when they set down the creation story of Genesis thousands of years before that (ibid).

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While Israel may be the apple of God's eye, it appears that Jerusalem is that of Blake's since the work comes from this source as well. Inspiring the famous song of the same name that is so well-known in Britain, the poem was inspired by the apocryphal story oft a young Jesus accompanying his uncle Joseph of Arimathea. They both traveled to the area that is now the United Kingdom and visited Glastonbury (ibid, 308). It is amazing to this author that this well-known British song was inspired by the poetry of William Blake. This is truly a tribute to his lasting influence on British literature and the Western literatry tradition as a whole.

The poem and legend is linked to the idea in the Book of Revelation (3:12 and 21:2) which describes a Second Coming, where Jesus makes a new Jerusalem. The new Jerusalem would succeed and replace the old Jerusalem in ancient Israel....

Now, the universal Christian church in general and the English Church in particular saw Jerusalem as a metaphor for Heaven where universal peace and love could be found. Since Jesus according to the legend had set foot in England, the British Isles became an integral part of this story. In other words, as E.J. Rose points out, he has considered that Blake highlighted his poetic theories about Jerusalem via his concept of eternal-historical time. Here, he contends that humanity has discovered its own place in infinity by finding its identity in the moment of its creation (ibid, 594).
It is the opinion of this author understanding where we came from (poetically), we know where we want to go culturally and spiritually in the future. While we may not accept Blake's vision (or Christianity), we certainly need a spirituality that will guide our society and to give it direction. What we have now is a spiritual hunger and a question about what the purpose of our existence is. By identifying the source of hunger and analyzing the spiritual type of "food" (that is cultural) that we need to nourish our souls, we will answer the hunger that we have at the center of our beings for meaning and purpose for ourselves in this spiritually blank era.

Works Cited

Blake, W., and J.E. Grant. Blake's Poetry and Designs. 2nd. New York, NY: W.

W. Norton & Company, 2007. Print.

"The Genesis Apocryphon." Bibliotecapleyades.net. 2011. Web. 19 Sep 2011.

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"Lucifer's Rebellion." McDonald Road.org. Web. 19 Sep 2011.

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