Blake's vision

[paul]

Blake is perhaps my favourite illustrator. He also wrote verse. Today this one came to mind:

Now I a fourfold vision see,
And a fourfold vision is given to me;
'Tis fourfold in my supreme delight
And threefold in soft Beulah's night
And twofold Always. May God us keep
From Single vision & Newton's sleep!

[LorrB]

I knew an elderly man once who told me he left his body during an experiment and floated above everything and through the night skies. In the background he told me he could hear a deep resonant voice repeating the name Beulah.

Beu - lah
Beu - lah

I still don't know the origin of that name. Any clues?

(Just across the road from my work is a suburb called Beulah Park. I would have thought it aboriginal... but Blake has put paid to that)

[paul]

"Beulah:
Beulah ("married" in Hebrew) is one of names given to Jerusalem when it is rejoined to God after the exile. In Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Beulah is the pastoral earthly paradise (in sight of the Heavenly City) where Christian and the other pilgrims rest before crossing the River of Death and entering the Heavenly City. For Blake Beulah is an idealized place without conflict, the conventional image of heaven or Eternity where all is at peace and all are one. For Blake, this notion of Eternity is misguided and fallen. Beulah offers an escape from the energetic effort and creative conflict of Eternity. It is a place to rest, but also it is a temptation to escape the demands of Eternity. It stands between Eternity and Ulro. "

facstaff.uww.edu/hoganj/gloss.htm


"There is a place where Contrarieties are equally True
This place is called Beulah, It is a pleasant lovely Shadow
Where no dispute can come. "

facstaff.uww.edu/hoganj/poems.htm#milt301

[LorrB]

> Beulah offers an escape from the energetic effort and creative conflict of Eternity. It is a place to rest, but also it is a temptation to escape the demands of Eternity.


What I failed to tell you in the post above was that some years later this man committed suicide. He was in his 80's at the time and had learned he has a fatal disease.

[paul]

That might suggest that he was warned.

[LorrB]

Amazing.

[mgc]

abacadabra
simsalabim
adding algebra
gives newton spin