William Blake's "The Divine Image"

"The Divine Image"

To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love

All pray in their distress;

And to these virtues of delight

Return their thankfulness.

For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love

Is God, our father dear,

And Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love

Is Man, his child and care.

For Mercy has a human heart,

Pity a human face,

And Love, the human form divine,

And Peace, the human dress.

Then every man, of every clime,

That prays in his distress,

Prays to the human form divine,

Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace.

And all must love the human form,

In heathen, turk, or jew;

Where Mercy, Love, & Pity dwell

There God is dwelling too.

            In the poem, “The Divine Image,” by William Blake, Blake talks about the four virtues of delight in the first stanza. The four virtues are the virtues that make up God. Blake is saying how humans pray in these virtues, therefore we pray to God. In the second stanza Blake discusses the four virtues again but states that it is god, but also these virtues are similar to what is found in humans. Mercy is found in the heart, Pity in the face, Peace in the clothes, and Love as the human body. These four virtues can be shown through thoughts, emotions, and actions that the human body creates. Humans pray to God when they are in anguish, therefore are also praying to the divine form of mankind which is Love, Mercy, Pity, and Peace. In the last stanza Blake discusses how every man should love the divine form of humans because man believed in God, and that if this divine form lacks in humans that it will also lack in God. This poem is different than other poems found in, “Songs of Innocence” because it compares humans to God, when the other poems refer to God as the abundant ruler of mankind. This poem suggests that we pray to God because he is Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love, rather than praying to god because he has compassionate abilities. Blake emphasizes the fact that we see Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love in God as a whole, rather than individual values. When Blake compares the four virtues to human qualities it proposes that the four virtues are the human form divine. When Blake suggests this, he is saying humans are the creator of God and we pray to our godly form. This goes back to Blakes belief that we create our world from imagination and this imagination comes from Innocence, that is why this poem is part of “Songs of Innocence.” Having the knowledge of knowing that Blake combines both human and God to create the divine Image can be connected to Jesus Christ in the fact that Jesus was both man and God. This means that Jesus is the Divine Image.