In the ‘Lilly of Havilah’: Sapphism and Chastity in Blake’s Jerusalem

Abstract

Nicholas M. Williams, writing on Ideology and Utopia in the Poetry of William Blake from a Marxist perspective, asks, ‘Are [Blake’s] Utopias reasonable exceptions to the otherwise universal ideology or are they merely the projections of a naïve ideological consciousness?’ (23-4). Insofar as the question is relevant to Blake’s visions of sexual Utopia, the two choices that Williams presents here — between what he calls the ‘“here” of ideology’ and the ‘“nowhere” of Utopia’ (24) — appear more as the poles of a dialectic that must necessarily become intertwined and made thematic for Blake as a critical Utopian writer.¹ That is, Blake’s understanding of history requires him to critique both contemporary sexual ideologies and the poet’s ability to envision Utopia. In Jerusalem, Blake turns his critical eye toward the institution of chastity. For Blake, chastity is one of the greatest evils that humanity inflicts upon itself. Not only is sexual freedom holy in Blake’s eyes — a view borrowed in part, however perversely, from Milton — but chastity transforms sex into little more than the currency of patriarchal power. Jerusalem represents Blake’s most pointed critique of the institution of chastity and his fear that contemporary advocates of reform in gender relations concede too much to hegemonic power by refusing to discard such an institution.