Flexible design : revisionary poetics in Blake's Vala or The four Zoas

245 Pages·1998·15.405 MB·English

by  Pierce, John Benjamin, Blake, William

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.
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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)
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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.