Jerusalem

The stanzas beginning, ''And did those feet'' are among the most famous works written by the Romantic poet and artist, William Blake. Set to music by Hubert Parry in 1916 and renamed, ''Jerusalem'', this hymn has become an emblem of Englishness in the past century, and is regularly invoked at sporting events, public and private ceremonies, and, of course, as part of Last Night of the Proms. Yet when Blake first engraved his lines in his epic work, Milton a Poem,he had been tried for sedition. Likewise, although Parry was commissioned to compose his music as part of the war effort by the organization Fight for Right, he soon removed permission for that group to perform his hymn and instead gave the copyright to the women''s suffrage movement.''Jerusalem'', then, is a much more contested vision of England''s green and pleasant land than is often assumed. This book traces the history of the poem and the music from Blake''s original verses, written in Felpham, via the turmoil of the First