Flexible design : revisionary poetics in Blake's Vala or The four Zoas PDF
Preview Flexible design : revisionary poetics in Blake's Vala or The four Zoas
Flexible Design Revisionary Poetics in Blake's Vala or The Four Zoas Vala or The Four Zoas is one of William Blake's few surviving manu- scripts and affords a unique opportunity to examine a significant evolution in his poetic practice. While the poem itself exhibits a consistent thematic interest, the modes and methods of representing these interests underwent a radical change in the ten or more years in which Blake wrote and reworked the poem. Flexible Design offers an extended and detailed treatment of the gradual shift that took place in Blake's poetics during the composition, transcription, and revision of Vala or The Four Zoas. Using the idea of a "flexible design," John Pierce examines the ways in which Blake's mythology and his poem possess a flexibility that allows for significant change to characters, symbols, and poetic techniques within a previously constructed framework. Pierce traces how, in the process of revision, Blake experimented with characteriza- tion, increased the importance of Christian symbolism, and developed a mode of narrative presentation controlled less by chronological sequence than by the use of thematic juxtaposition and typology. JOHN B. PIERCE is associate professor of English, Queen's University. This page intentionally left blank Flexible Design Revisionary Poetics in Blake's Vala or The Four Zoas JOHN B. PIERCE McGill-Queen's University Press Montreal &. Kingston • London • Buffalo © McGill-Queen's University Press 1998 ISBN 0-7735-1682-4 Legal deposit second quarter 1998 Bibliotheque nationale du Quebec Printed in Canada on acid-free paper This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Pierce, John Benjamin, 1957- Flexible design: revisionary poetics in Blake's Vala or the four Zoas Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7735-1682-4 1. Blake, William, 1757-1827. Four Zoas. 1. Title. PR4I44.V33P53 1998 821'.7 c97-900875-1 All plates are published by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum. Typeset in Adobe Caslon 10.5/13 by Caractera inc., Quebec City To Shelley Now Los & Enitharmon walkd forth on the dewy Earth Contracting or expanding their all flexible senses At will to murmur in the flowers small as the honey bee At will to stretch across the heavens & step from star to star Or standing on the Earth erect, or on the stormy waves Driving the storms before them or delighting in sunny beams While round their heads the elemental Gods kept harmony (34:9-15) Then those in Great Eternity met in the Council of God As one Man for Contracting their Exalted Senses They behold Multitude or Expanding they behold as one As One Man all the Universal family & that One Man They Call Jesus the Christ & they in him & he in them Live in Perfect harmony in Eden the land of life Consulting as One Man above the Mountain of Snowdon Sublime (21:1-7) This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments ix Textual Note xi Preface xiii Illustrations xxix Introduction: Manuscript and Poetics 3 PART ONE: NARRATIVE 1 Beginnings and Creation 25 2 Experiments in Structure 39 PART TWO: CHARACTER 3 Recasting the Copperplate 65 4 Completing the Four Zoas no 5 The Revelations of Rahab 127 6 Conclusion: Revisionary Poetics 140 viii Contents APPENDICES A The Copperplate Text of Vala 151 B Stages in the Development of Nights vn through ix of Vala or The Four Zoas 166 Notes 169 Bibliography 193 Index 203 Acknowledgments Perhaps one of the disguised blessings of struggling with this book in many different versions over more than ten years can be found in recounting and thanking some of the individuals who have had an influence, both direct and indirect, in its production. Special thanks go to the late Professor Vince De Luca, who guided me in the early stages of writing the dissertation that was later to evolve into this book. I will remember him as a scholar whose dedication to Blake studies and whose depth of understanding of Blake's wall of words stand as a benchmark of possible achievement in literary scholarship. His initial guidance has profoundly affected the whole course of this study. Professor G.E. Bentley, Jr, offered kind and generous advice at various points in the early stages of this work. He vigorously challenged many commonly held assumptions about the manuscript and has made me think twice about making easy critical statements not supported by the evidence of the manuscript. Morris Eaves also offered valuable commen- tary on the manuscript as a whole and has always been encouraging in the various stages of its development. Peter Otto's specific encourage- ments are not forgotten here. Our discussions about the Vala manuscript have helped to sustain my belief that the complexity of the Vala manu- script, however daunting, was worth extended and close examination. Credit also goes to Andrew Lincoln for his reassurance that there is a great deal of room for further study of the poem.
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