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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Jerusalem
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Poem by William *Blake, from the preface to his book Milton (1804–8). It follows a passage in which he attacks the classicism of his age, with its emphasis on Greece and Rome and the cult of reason, contrasting it with 'our own Imaginations, those Worlds of Eternity in which we shall live for ever in Jesus our Lord'. It was in this sense that Jerusalem must be built in 'England's green and pleasant land'. But the poem's more general vision of an England corrupted by 'dark Satanic mills', which could nevertheless be improved by brave and resolute effort, has given it an almost magic potency. It is best known in the musical setting of 1916 by *Parry, which has become an indispensable part of the last night of the *Proms.
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