Snowed in with ‘Urizen’

 Robert F. Gleckner’s short edition of Blake has no excerpts from “Jerusalem,” “Milton” and “The Four Zoas.” Gleckner, skilled with excerpts, says Blake’s prophetic work “does not lend itself to intelligible fragmentation.”

Alfred Kazin’s collection does include excerpts. Kazin says:

 

The last Prophetic Books are a jungle, but it is possible — if you have nothing else to do — to get through them.

 

Snowed in, I started with “The First Book of Urizen.” I found that I could get through it but not profitably.

I could not get through these works as a young man. Fifty years later, I have a clearer view of my own limits. 

I admire writers who create vast spaces in the imagination. In theory, I should like Blake’s poems, but in fact his sensibilities are alien to me.

In Blake’s vision, humanity went horribly wrong when reason took on too great a role in human life. Socrates and the ancient Greek philosophers took a tragically wrong turn.

I think humanity suffers from a lack — not a glut — of rational thought. The notion that we suffer from an overexposure to reason is an idea that needs another kind of reader.

To say that I don’t share Blake’s sensibilities is no criticism of Blake. I’d say the same thing about Tolkien and many other writers.

I think that’s the way things should be. Many books that I love and admire are not loved by others. I’m content to argue for them.

• Sources and notes: William Blake, Selected Writings, edited by Robert F. Gleckner; New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1967, p. 139. The Portable Blake, edited by Alfred Kazin; London: Penguin Books, 1976, p. 49.