William Blake: Jesus Was All Virtue

By Jack Joseph Smith

William Blake: "Jesus was all virtue, and thus acted from impulse, not from rules." Romantic space goes beyond the classic duty of ideas As we walk high with thoughts the bounty of its meaning closes in on us No matter the vision of responsibility when we walk in the hands of the land Our birth cries to go beyond social needs that tempt us with the image of substance George Washington as a young man looking across the Atlantic: With his long hair down was also where his reasons were for wondering The strain of blood on the pillars of historic time remembered The pen held tight for days and after a feeling of wine But to run with the wind high in the medow To naked go through good and evil in crossing down to the depths of nature This is the power that renches the soul and opens life to trust and vibration This is the place where meaning no longer belongs to desire

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

After an epigraph attributed to William Blake about Jesus acting from impulse, the speaker contrasts romantic space with classic duty. The speaker imagines young George Washington looking across the Atlantic, then runs with wind through good and evil toward nature, trust, and vibration.

The speaker names blood, a pen, and wine beside Washington, without identifying a particular historical event. The ending imagines a place where meaning no longer belongs to desire.

Claude

Under the epigraph 'William Blake: "Jesus was all virtue, / and thus / acted from impulse, not from rules."', the poem moves through 'Romantic space', a young 'George Washington' 'looking across the Atlantic:', and running 'high in the medow' to 'the place where meaning / no longer belongs to desire'.

The epigraph's preference for impulse over rules is tested against history and nature. 'medow' and 'renches' are typed spellings.