Welcome back to the Daily Poem, a podcast from Goldberry Studios.

I'm Sean Johnson, and today is Tuesday, November 28th, 2003.

Today's poem is by the great English painter and poet William Blake, born this day in 1757.

And the poem is called Jerusalem, one of his best known.

I'll read it once, offer a few comments, and then read it a second time.

Here is Jerusalem.

And did those feet in ancient time walk upon England's mountains green, and was the holy lamb of God on England's pleasant pastures seen?

And did the countenance divine shine forth upon our clouded hills, and was Jerusalem

built it here among these dark satanic mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold.

Bring me my arrows of desire.

Bring me my spear.

O clouds unfold.

Bring me my chariot of fire.

I will not cease from mental fight,

nor shall my sword sleep in my hand till we have built Jerusalem

in England's green and pleasant land.

Originally known by its opening line alone, and did those feet in ancient time, this poem has now come to be known by the name

Jerusalem. That shift occurred largely after the poem had been set to music and then reset for

orchestration by the great British composer Sir Edward Elgar.

And in the form that Elgar gave it, Jerusalem has really become, in the mind of many,

the unofficial British national anthem. I would sing it for you here, but nobody wants that,

...