Kennie Ting on America: A Prophecy

Blake's prophetic poem America is revolutionary in more ways than one. First printed in 1793 and reprinted only three more times in Blake's lifetime, it was the first of the Lambeth books (1) and the larger Illuminated Books. Together with Europe, and The Song of Los, America completes The Continental Prophecies -- a series of prophetic and mythological writings about the four continents of America, Europe, Asia and Africa. In creating America, Blake was inspired by both the French and the American revolutions, and he made a significant move both towards a new method of printing, and a new genre of poetic discourse (Dorrbecker, 13). A result of which is that America, with its intricate designs and vivid though obscure personal mythology, continues to be one of the most beautiful and intriguing works of the Romantic Age.

The year was 1790. Blake and his wife Catherine had just moved from their house in Poland Street to a new, more spacious home across the Thames in 13 Hercules Buildings, Lambeth. The motivation behind this move (to a dreary section of London that was reclaimed marshland) was mainly financial. As a commercial engraver and his own publisher, Blake earned just enough to support Catherine and himself. The house at Lambeth, with its lower rent and larger size, allowed him to balance more effectively both his financial concerns and his artistic aspirations. Besides affording him the opportunity to explore more pastoral pleasures (2) , the new house was huge enough for him to set up his own printing studio in the basement, where, together with Catherine, he personally etched and printed copies of his illuminated works, one of which was America. In Lambeth, he also struck up long-lasting friendships with Henry Fuseli and Joseph Johnson, both of whom were to influence his artistic direction and figure largely in the conception of America (King, 68-71).

Much of Blake's life up to the Lambeth period had been marked by war and revolution. He had witnessed the American Revolution as a lad in 1776, but it was only after the French revolution in 1792 that he decided to direct his attention towards the theme of revolution itself. Much of this shift in interest was brought about by Joseph Johnson, who was a radical Unitarian, and who introduced Blake to Thomas Paine's The Rights of Man (King, 71-78). Blake's first attempt at becoming sort of a revolutionary prophet was in a poem in conventional typography, The French Revolution, which sets up the thematic ground for America's haunting prophetic mythology, but unfortunately remained unfinished (Ackroyd, 162). It was with renewed determination on Blake's part, therefore, that he conceived of America as another revolutionary work.

His failed attempt at capturing the essence of historical events in The French Revolution drove him towards an entirely new method of historical writing. Instead of merely representing history directly in poetry, he chose to use and perfect a prophetic mode of historical representation and interpretation modeled upon the Bible and Emmanuel Swedenborg, and used earlier in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Also, he decided to return to the medium of illuminated printing, rejecting current neo-classical forms of historical design for an ëepic' style influenced by his artist friend Fuseli (3) (Dorrbecker, 14-15). Evidence suggests that the designs of America came before the poetry, and that the process from conception to publication entailed a substantial amount of revision. Some of the early drawings in Blake's Notebook were incorporated into the designs of America, and extant proof sheets of America show him revising his verse or designs after engraving them. He further canceled four engraved plates for various reasons both political and personal (4) (Ackroyd, 163-165). One of the canceled plates (plate a) in particular, indicates that Blake may have intended to write a historical allegory entitled The American War (Dorrbecker, 17). Eventually though, he chose the path less trod and decided to switch to the epic verbal and visual mythology that was to become his trademark style for the rest of his life.

Compared to Blake's other illuminated works, America stand out as being the least colorful but the most technically challenging. Instead of being vibrantly painted in patches of ink, most copies of America are uncolored, save five copies (copies A, K, M, O and R) that are water-colored in very reticent shades. Fortunately, the intricate linear designs prevalent throughout the text more than make up for the monochrome print (Dorrbecker, 6-8). So too Blake's printing innovations in America, which include the seamless integration of text and image, the equally seamless relationship between the conception of a plate and its execution, and more importantly, the combination of relief etching and white-line etching. The former method of etching was a graphic invention Blake had used and perfected in prior illuminated books. Basically, the process involved using an acid to eat away areas on his copper plates that print white, leaving raised surfaces to receive the ink. The process of white-line etching (which he used almost only in America), is entirely opposite. Instead of corroding away parts of the copper plate such that the design is printed black on a white background, the copper is corroded such that the design is printed white on a black background (5) (Essick, 85-120).

A consequence of Blake's printing method was that he had to painstakingly etch every plate of America in reverse. He even had to write backwards, which explains the prevalence of laterally inverted ìgîs in the text of America (Eaves, 9). Each copy of America is a series of 18 plates, the size of which represented a significant departure from the rest of the earlier books. Whereas the plates used for The Songs of Innocence were on average 7'' by 11'', the plates for America were on average 17'' by 23'', more than four times the size of the former! The cost of producing America, therefore was much higher than any other book (Bentley, 68-70). America was advertised in the Prospectus of 10 October 1793 as "America, a Prophecy, in Illuminated Printing." Folio, with 18 designs, price 10s. 6d, making it Blake's most expensive book ever (6). Later on, copies M and O sold for £5.5s in 1818 and £6.6s in 1827 respectively (Bentley, 91). All in all, America was one of Blake's most costly productions.

The printing costs were perhaps the reason why only seventeen copies of America, three of which are posthumous, were produced in Blake's time. Ten copies of America were printed in 1793 along with Blake's other related prophetic work, Visions of the Daughters of Albion. All ten copies of this first edition of America were the first books to have Lambeth, Blake's name and the date of publication printed on the cover. Two more copies of the book (copies A and B) were printed in 1795, and two others, both commissioned, in 1807 (copy M) and 1821 (copy O). The three posthumous copies (copies N, P and Q) are believed to have been printed in 1827, though both the dates of publication and the identity of the publisher is disputed (Viscomi, 264-266). A point to note about Blake's books in general is that since he printed very little books, he had a very limited readership while he lived. Each copy of America had its own unique distribution history, passing from one hand to another via auctions, sales or bequeathments; but the sum total of all who owned or knew about the book was dismal, up until 1863 when Blake's first biographer, Alexander Gilchrist, brought America and all of Blake's works to the public's attention (Bentley, 100-106).

Of the 17 existing copies of America, 11 are presently in the USA, 4 in Britain, 1 in New Zealand and the final copy (copy R) is untraced. Interestingly, the copies in the USA are owned by such diverse institutions as Yale University and the New York Public Library (Bentley, 85-86). Since the original copies are evidently inaccessible to the general public, the challenge facing editors of America since Gilchrist has been to determine the best way to reproduce and represent Blake's work to the masses. A premier consideration has traditionally been whether or not Blake 's poetry should be reproduced with its designs. Numerous anthologists of Blake's works in the past (including Gilchrist) and to this day continue to print only the text of America to save space and costs. Recently, however, the advent of modern printing technology and the Internet has made it possible for readers to gain access to cheap yet accurate facsimiles of America both online and in books. The main editorial consideration editors are left with nowadays is which copy of America to reproduce, since specific variations in the text and design exist between copies (7) (Viscomi, 264). To reflect the range of coloring Blake used, America is often reproduced in both its uncolored and colored forms.

Moving into the work itself: public response to America was, for many years after Gilchrist's Biography, rather inspirited, though attention was directed more towards the designs and not the poetry. Gilchrist himself comments that, whatever may be the literary value of the work, the designs display unquestionable power and beauty (Gilchrist, 111). The motif-laden artwork of the plates, with its recurring images of fire, fruiting vines and human forms, was widely regarded as being the finest of all [the] books [save] Jerusalem. (Binyon, 27) The text, with its horde of pseudo-mythological characters and nightmare-like sequences of plagues and fire, was unfortunately deemed bizarre and self-indulgent. Blake's insistence (for the first time) on creating designs that did not directly illustrate the text did not improve matters and only in this century has attention long denied been rightfully paid to the text proper (Binyon, 28).

In terms of content, America is Blake's version of the American Revolution -- the historic war between America and England (referred to as Albion in the poem). The text is structurally divided into three parts ñ the Preludium, the Prophecy itself, and Blake's mythological version of the actual War of Independence. Because of the inherent obscurity of both texts and images in the poem, there are two conflicting readings of it. The first regards America as an optimistic celebration of the American Revolution; while the second regards America as a pessimistic critique of the limitations of revolution and the consequences of war (Dorrbecker, 14-15). As in prior works, Blake's images and text oblige the reader to be an active participant in the construction of meaningî (Dorrbecker, 16). The ambiguous nature of the main protagonist, Orc, and his counterpart, Albion's Angel, constantly problematizes the relationship between America and England and makes it impossible for the sane reader to decide who is the aggressor and who the victim. Similarly, the recurring images of fire and coiled serpents blur the distinction between good and evil and question conventional biblical forms of representation. Overall, however, the main theme appears to be liberty and the overcoming of long-established repressive systems both religious and political. The Messiah-like Orc voices this theme triumphantly by declaring his desire to stamp the stony law to dust: and "scatter religion abroad/ To the four winds as a torn book" -- to defy both political oppression and the tyranny of the church (Blake, 8:1-6). Ultimately, this glorification of liberation from oppression mirrors Blake's own personal revolution against artistic and economic conventions in the printing of America. The Preludium describes an image of Orc bursting free from chains and raping a certain shadowy daughter of Urthonaî (Blake, 1:1):

Silent as despairing love, and strong as jealousy,
The hairy shoulders rend the links, free are the wrists of fire;
Round the terrific loins he seiz'd the panting struggling womb;
(Blake, 2: 1-3)

The entire scene symbolizes, perhaps, Blake's self-liberation from societal conventions in the process of America's creation.

Blake was an artist and an innovator at heart. His willingness to experiment in new literary and art forms is shown most aptly in America. Because he was in every respect a perfectionist, he believed in making every single copy and plate of America a work of art. Even though Blake's readership was extremely limited in his lifetime, his blatant originality and individuality in both artistic technique and writing have ensured his endearing recognition as one of the foremost Romantic poets and artists of his time. America, printed only fourteen times in Blake's lifetime, continues to dazzle readers with its intricate artwork and meaning-laden text.

(1) The six books printed in Blake's own printing studio at Lambeth, namely America, Europe, The Song of Los, The Book of Ahania, The Book of Los, and The First Book of Urizen.

(2) Such notorious rustic pleasures include reading Paradise Lost in the nude with his wife.

(3) The ëepic' is a form of pictorial representation historically grounded in Michaelangelo's works. It utilizes such grand themes such as light, darkness, life, death, past, future, love, joy, and in the case of America, man, war, religion and government.

(4) One of the plates was canceled because it made specific reference to King George III and that was unacceptable during the period of political volatility in the early 1790s.

(5) An example of white-line etching is seen most effectively in the cover plate of America where much of the picture is made up of intricately traced white lines against a black background. The difference between the two types of etching is equivalent to the difference between a photograph and its photographic negative.

(7) For example, the last four lines in Plate 4 of Copy A are absent in other copies; and the three-tailed serpent in Plate 13 of the earlier editions has only one tail in later editions.

Bentley, G. E. Jr. Blake Books. Annotated Catalogues of Blake's Writings. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977.

Binyon, Laurence. The Engraved Designs of William Blake. Great Britain: William Brendon and Son, Limited, 1926.

Blake, William. America: a Prophecy. The Illuminated Books Volume 4: The Continental Prophecies. Ed. D. W. Dorrbecker. Princeton, New Jersey: The Princeton University Press, 1995. 81-115.

Dorrbecker, D. W. Introductions and Notes. The Illuminated Books Volume 4: The Continental Prophecies. Ed. D. W. Dorrbecker. Princeton, New Jersey: The Princeton University Press, 1995. 6-79.

Essick, Robert N. William Blake Printmaker. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1980.

----- , Morris Eaves and Robert Viscomi. Introduction. The Illuminated Books Volume 3: The Early Illuminated Books. Princeton, New Jersey: The Princeton University Press, 1993. 9-15.

Viscomi, Joseph. Blake and the Idea of the Book. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1993.