Luckily for me, St Valentine’s burial in Rome is celebrated on 14th February, which happens to precede my birthday by a couple of days (69, yin yang, nod nod, wink wink, say no more, cheeky!). So every year I get the chance to romance Mrs Janus in good time, to ensure that my birthday will receive the attention it so richly deserves. Yer gotta speculate to accumulate, innit?
But, cherished readers, have you ever wondered what my title is doing in Blake’s famous poem, ‘Jerusalem’?
‘Bring me my Bow of burning gold; Bring me my Arrows of desire……‘ What on earth is the mischievous Eros doing in a hymn? As far as I know, the random or serendipitous demands of lust are not recognised as Christian (or even Roman Catholic) virtues.
Answers, please, on a pink, perfumed blank cheque addressed to yours truly.
Boadicea's Chariot 
“Christian (or even Roman Catholic)” ??????
That poem is almost a celebration; it is imperial, but also very epicurean. It is as golden, triumphant and seductive just as an epic Roman or Grecian poem, or a Tudor masque would have been. The repetition of the imperative – bring me… plus the reference to the poet in the first person, create a sense of speed and inevitability.
I had a lecturer who wore tartan trousers. He said that the Jerusalem poem was entirely satirical and not at all serious. He said that Blake was mocking us, in the manner of Rousseau or Voltaire. I did not believe him; that poem is deliberately and provocatively prophetic, to me.
Janus: You have been reading the Indie again.
No. Should I?
Sipu, my dart is aimed at the doubtful ‘mores’ of the RC clergy who seem to have embraced lust for many generations.
Hmm. No answers yet then.
Janus, my apologies for a tardy response. It is a bright summer’s day here and I have been taking strenuous exercise climbing the slopes of Table Mountain! I write this before heading out to lunch in the sunny vineyards of Constantia!
1) Your dart may or may not be aimed at a legitimate target but that hardly excludes the Catholic Church from the mantle of Christianity. Individuals and even the system itself may be flawed, but the Catholic Church acknowledges that Christ is the Son of God and is part of the Holy Trinity. The Roman Catholic Church is unquestionably a Christian faith.
2) I continue to find it remarkable that you, and many like you, like to present yourselves as a beacons of tolerance in certain areas, castigating as bigots those who do not share your opinions, while at the same time demonstrating your own bigotry by denigrating an entire section of society because of the faults of a minority of its members. I am certainly not going to try and defend or excuse the despicable behaviour of certain members of the Catholic clergy, but I suggest that it might be more honest to consider the outrageous behaviour of a relative minority within the context of society as a whole and in comparison to other non-Catholic institutions. The Catholic Church is a sitting duck for all other faiths to take pot shots at. It is hardly going to respond by pointing out the failures elsewhere, especially in other faiths. Every institution, whether it be a government, a police force, a public or private company, a school, a club etc, has its faults and within each are a number of bad apples. Just as the British Police Force or the FA do not officially condone racism, or the British Government encourage the misuse of expense accounts, neither does the Catholic Church condone the sexual abuse of those in its care. The fact that these situations occur simply shows that humans, by nature, are flawed. I would expect someone such as you claim to be, to put your prejudices to one side and to avoid making generalisations. But then I know you are not what you claim to be.
3) Yes, yes, I know religion is all fairy tales, blah blah!
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.
Yes, well I don’t know the answer, but I do know that Jerusalem was not written as a hymn, it was long after Blake that someone bolted on the music and sold it to the Labour Party. Blake himself was a very un-Victorian gent, hence the ranting about “Dark Satanic mills” etc. and had some very “modern” ideas about sexuality and sexual freedom, so not too surprised to see such a reference in his work. I’m not sure the arrow reference is about St. Valentine either it could well that other fella Sebastian who incidentally has become the modern poster boy for the “rainbow crowd’. Which brings me gracefully back to the Indie reference.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/arrows-of-desire-how-did-st-sebastian-become-an-enduring-homoerotic-icon-779388.html
Nice prevarication eh?
Sipu, “I know you are not what you claim to be”. Nice try but your logic is flawed again. a) You don’t know what I claim to be. b) You don’t know me. 😉
PS I believe you quite often demonstrate your own bigotry hereabouts.
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LW, ref. your #7, I didn’t see the Indie piece. Did you google it? I somehow doubt that Blake was linking Sebastian with t’mills. 🙂
Yet again Janus you fail to provide an argument. You are like a school child when it comes to debating.
“No, I am not”
“Yes you are” etc.
Do not merely contradict, provide a reasoned argument.
Perhaps I should have used the word ‘purport’ rather than ‘claim’.
I may or may not be a bigot. The difference between you and me is that I explain the reasons for my prejudices and I attempt to justify them. I am open to argument and prepared to admit that I am wrong when I am convinced of the reasoning. You and your snide-kick from comment #8 make any number of bigoted comments without ever bothering to justify them or even listen to arguments against. And yet you both purport to be individuals who possess some degree of integrity. That is quite clearly not the case.
Woo-oo! Now my integrity is questioned too! 🙂
Janus #9 Yes I Googled “Arrows of desire” an unusual combination of words that I remembered reading somewhere other than in Jerusalem. I did not realise that the indie quote was that old. I was not seriously suggesting Sebastian as a subject of the poem, just picking up another use of that unusual phrase. 🙂
LW, OK. I’ll have to trawl the Englsh text guides to see if any academics find the phrase unusual. Surely they must!
Hi Janus
Not a Jock poem/hymn, of course, but still one that was part of my student life.
At Uni, before drinking the yard of ale, my party piece was to offer the assembled company the shortest English folk song, the shortest English hymn and a version of a Sunday School classic which was guaranteed to cause offence to any believers. All designed to give me just enough time to tap the gas out of the beer and to wheech the yard down in record time yet again.
Anyhow:-
‘Tom Pearce, Tom Pearce, lend me your gray mare?’ Nope!
‘And did those feet in ancient time, walk upon England’s valleys green?’ Nope!
I’ll spare you the Sunday School classic unless you insist.
But, said ‘Jerusalem’ has also been a part of my life as a Tory for many more years. We roar it out with passion as do the Labour Party. To be fair, they probably have the right of it as he was a Radical and certainly did not support any Establishment of any sort in any way.
So, well asked. I’ve sung it so many times and, up until your post, I had never considered why it was ‘arrows of desire’. Still don’t know but am coming round to thinking that it’s all to do with the central image of the ‘chariot of fire’ which does have biblical basis. I reckon that Blake had that one in his head and was doing the old poetic thing of going ‘ I’ve got fire. So, ire, choir, plier, dire, squire, pyre, Tyre, tire, quire, expire, shire, conspire, DESIRE!!!!’
I could, as ever, be wrong.
At what point did the little cupids arrive with their bows and arrows to inspire love? You have to admit that “arrows of romance” would not fit well with the rest of “Jerusalem”. I think JM has it right. Poetic need for a rhyme.
As a blooming awful poet, I think you are you and JM are right, Sheona.
Sunday school classic?
OK Pseu, since you asked and because I was probably going to anyway.
‘There is a green hill far away,
Without a city wall.
Where our dear Lord was crucified,
Who died to save us all.’
Chorus
‘For he’s a jolly good fellow.
For he’s a jolly good fellow.
For he’s a jolly good fellow
And so say all of us.’
My apologies for any offence but it did go down well at the time, to be fair.
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=QEflqI3X0IEC&pg=PA214&dq=Arrows+of+Desire+Blake&hl=en&sa=X&ei=0G45T8XkMsy0hAeB2-XvAQ&ved=0CEkQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=Arrows%20of%20Desire%20Blake&f=false
Sipu, thanks for that reference. It fails to answer the question though! Apollo had a bow but although an artistic cove, he wasn’t into romantic love.
I have now consulted a panel of Profs and await their considered wisdom.
JM, “So, well asked….I reckon that Blake had that one in his head and was doing the old poetic thing of going ‘ I’ve got fire. So, ire, choir, plier, dire, squire, pyre, Tyre, tire, quire, expire, shire, conspire, DESIRE!!!!”
To question Blake’s poetic integrity!! If you’re right, the literary experts (see Sipu’s #19) look complete plonkers!
Morning Janus. I appreciate it does not answer the question, but I thought that it sort of indicated that you are not alone and nobody other than perhaps Turner himself knows/knew why the line was included. My own ‘lay’ opinion, if you will excuse the pun, is that ‘arrows of desire’ has less to do with lust than a quest for purity. Some of the saints were into purity/celibacy/chastity in a big way. It is of course one of the 7 Deadly Virtues.
The Seven Deadly Virtues
The seven deadly virtues, those ghastly little traps
Oh no, my liege, they were not meant for me
Those seven deadly virtues were made for other chaps
Who love a life of failure and ennui
Take courage-now there’s a sport
An invitation to the state of rigor mort
And purity-a noble yen
So very restful every now and then
I find humility means to be hurt
It’s not the earth the meek inherit, it’s the dirt
Honesty is fatal, it should be taboo
Diligence-a fate I would hate
If charity means giving, I give it to you
And fidelity is only for your mate
You’ll never find a virtue unstatusing my quo or making my Beelzebubble burst
Let others take the high road, I will take the low
I cannot wait to rush in where angels fear to go
With all those sevn deadly virtues free and happy little me has not been cursed
Sipu, who wrote it, please?
Thank you JM!
Janus, for some reason Bearsy’s answer seems to have been removed! In any event, in case you missed it, the words were written by Alan Jay Lerner for the musical Camelot. They were sung by Mordred (Roddy McDowall in the original West End cast, I believe.)
Here is a more up to date rendition.
Janus: One more and I’ll shut up.
It could be Apollo’s sister, she had a golden bow, arrows and a chariot. Also totally virginal lick her bro. Blake was hip deep in this stuff, perhaps the “arrows of desire” are fulfilling the promise “And if I with my bow shall slay some wild creature or monstrous beast,” Those destroyers of Blake’s ideal and not a romantic notion.
BOW & ARROWS OF ARTEMIS
Homeric Hymn 27 to Artemis (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C7th to 4th B.C.) :
“Over the shadowy hills and windy peaks she [Artemis] draws her golden bow, rejoicing in the chase, and sends out grievous shafts. The tops of the high mountains tremble and the tangled wood echoes awesomely with the outcry of beasts: earth quakes and the sea also where fishes shoal. But the goddess with a bold heart turns every way destroying the race of wild beasts: and when she is satisfied and has cheered her heart, this huntress who delights in arrows slackens her supple bow and goes to the great house of her dear brother Phoibos Apollon.”
Callimachus, Hymn 3 to Artemis 5 ff (trans. Mair) (Greek poet C3rd B.C.) :
“[Artemis as a child asks her father Zeus for a bow and arrows:] ‘Give me arrows and a bow – stay, Father [Zeus], I ask thee not for quiver or for mighty bow: for me the Kyklopes will straightway fashion arrows and fashion for me a well-bent bow.’ . . .
And straightway she went to visit the Kyklopes . . . Therefore right boldly didst thou address them then: ‘Kyklopes, for me too fashion ye a Kydonian [of the style of Kydonia in Krete] bow and arrows and a hollow casket for my shafts; for I also am a child of Leto, even as Apollon. And if I with my bow shall slay some wild creature or monstrous beast, that shall the Kyklopes eat.’
So didst thou speak and they fulfilled thy words. Straightway dist thou array thee, O Goddess.”
HYMNS TO ARTEMIS
I) THE HOMERIC HYMNS
Homeric Hymn 9 to Artemis (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C7th to 4th B.C.) :
“Mousa, sing of Artemis, sister of the far-shooter (hekatos), Parthenosthe virgin who delights in arrows (iokheaira), who was fostered with Apollon. She waters her horses from Meles deep in reeds [a river in Lydia], and swifty drives her all-golden chariot through Smyrna to vine-clad Klaros (Claros) where Apollon god of the silver bow (argyrotoxos), sits waiting for far-shooting delighter in arrows (hekatebolon iokheaira).
And so hail to you, Artemis, in my song and to all goddesses as well. Of you first I sing and with you I begin; now that I have begun with you, I will turn to another song.”
http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/ArtemisTreasures.html
LW, thanks. I just don’t buy the idea that Blake was mixing up Greek myths with visions about the future of Halifax and Heckmondwyke! Btw there was a Beeb piece last week about Hebden Bridge being a hot-bed (unfortunate choice there) of gay activity. Back to Sebastian maybe? Not if you’ve ever visited Hebden Bridge. 😦