William Blake wrote his
poem, Auguries of Innocence, more than two centuries ago, but much of it
seems quite current. I have always thought that the first four stanzas might
help encourage people to abandon mindless travel to escape boredom or the cold
in favour of staying home and paying attention to what is close at hand:
To see a World
in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in
a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity
in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in
an hour
The next eight lines speak to the horror of confinement,
slavery, hunger, and suffering, conditions which Blake says enrage heaven,
frighten the regions of hell, and call for reparation. The lines should
frighten many politicians.
A Robin Red
breast in a Cage
Puts all Heaven
in a Rage
A Dove house
filld with Doves & Pigeons
Shudders Hell
thr' all its regions
A dog starvd at
his Masters Gate
Predicts the
ruin of the State
A Horse misusd
upon the Road
Calls
to Heaven for Human blood
Auguries of Innocence is very long and complex
and I am not a Blake scholar, so I would not attempt to give an analysis of the
poem, but in addressing oppression and poverty it is quite clear that he sees
them resulting in grave reprisal:
The Babe that
weeps the Rod beneath
Writes Revenge
in realms of Death
The Beggars
Rags fluttering in Air
Does to Rags
the Heavens tear.
At the end, the poem
acknowledges inequity -- although it suggests that it might change each morning,
each evening:
Every Night
& every Morn
Some to Misery
are Born
Every Morn and
every Night
Some are Born
to sweet delight
Some are Born
to sweet delight
Some are Born
to Endless Night
Finally, it warns that we
will be led to believe a lie unless we see through the eye of some larger
light, which for Blake is God and only when we see through that light is a
Human Form is displayed:
We are led to
Believe a Lie
When we see not
Thro the Eye
Which was Born
in a Night to perish in a Night
When the Soul
Slept in Beams of Light
God Appears
& God is Light
To those poor
Souls who dwell in Night
But does a
Human Form Display
To those who Dwell in Realms of day.
For Blake, this Human Form
would be Jesus, the ideal human being. I am not a religious person, so I do not
see this poem in religious terms, but to me it proposes that one can understand
larger issues through the small things that are close at hand. Indeed, maybe
Blake is telling us that we can only grasp the meaning of large ideas by seeing
them through what is immediate and nearby.
All of this, without my even
having to refer to the climate crisis, seems testimony to the value to be found
in simply staying home. Or as Ram Dass would say …being …here… now.
