'Words of eternity in human forms': William Blake's transformation of styles, forms, and genres of the Hebrew Bible in 'Jerusalem'

This study is a comprehensive examination of William Blake's epic poem Jerusalem in relation to the forms, styles, and structures of the Hebrew Bible. I utilize techniques developed by biblical scholars and literary critics to analyze Jerusalem form-critically and demonstrate that Blake was aware of biblical structures long before the insights of formal criticism became commonplace in the twentieth century. Blake transforms biblical material to articulate his rejection of a distinction between the human and the divine realms. In recasting biblical materials, Blake rejects the notion that human beings should surrender to the authority of a transcendent god and argues instead that they should realize their own identity as divine creators.; I analyze Blake's creative transformation of the Bible by studying some of the most distinctive features of his reworking of biblical themes, styles, forms, and genres. Blake embeds biblical quotations and allusions within Jerusalem and utilizes the techniques of biblical parallelism, producing synthetic passages that appropriate the Bible's authority. Blake also appropriates specific biblical forms expressing the divine-human dialogue, including lament, prophecy of disaster, covenant-treaty lawsuit form, summons to repentance, and oracle of salvation. Instead of issuing complaints heavenward or receiving divine pronouncements from on high, the characters in Jerusalem converse with one another in dialogue that is modeled on biblical forms. The entire poem can be read as an apocalypse, conveying Blake's conviction that an end to human suffering will be achieved only through a resurgence of the power of the imagination in England.; Blake's transformation of biblical materials reflects his profound confidence in the Bible as a work of tremendous imaginative potential. The authority of the Bible becomes Blake's own as he takes on the role of prophet for the imagination, demanding a new perspective on biblical authority that adopts and transcends the biblical worldview. The Bible is at once a source-text for Blake's own language, a model for Blake's construction of particular units of text, and a paradigm for the structure of the poem as a whole.