Whose Feet?

Jason Whittaker’s Jerusalem: Blake, Parry, and the Fight for Englishness is an important contribution to our understanding of Blake’s afterlife in the arts. In his first chapter, titled “And Did Those Feet?,” Whittaker considers the text of the lyric now known as “Jerusalem,” although Blake never gave it that title. As part of his discussion of the opening two lines of the poem—​“And did those feet in ancient time. / Walk upon Englands mountains green:”—​he finds that there are no written sources prior to Blake’s composition of the lyric to support the contention that the “feet” belong to Jesus. He does find ample textual precedent, however, for the belief that Jesus’s disciple Joseph of Arimathea visited Britain (36-39). Whittaker concludes: “Turning to the stanzas themselves, as noted above the opening lines are usually interpreted as a reference to Christ in England, but, as we have already seen, it is improbable—​if not impossible—​that Blake knew of that legend, as it was a later invention. Instead, the feet referred to are those of Joseph of Arimathea” (45). I believe that this interpretation is wrong and that the usual reading of the opening lines is correct.