Click here to go to Akajones Home Page

Add to Favorites
   
 

 

THE BOOK OF THEL
 
  • Dated 1789, but probably engraved between 1788 and 1791, The Book of Thel is an intriguing allegorical counterpart to the Songs of Innocence.
 
  • Here Thel, a mytholgoical figure associated with the daugher of Venus (Desire), is a young virginal figure, intrigued by the world of sex and experience, but she is frightened by the prospect.
 
  • In the course of the "Book" she confronts various forms of created life - the Lilly, the Cloud, the Worm, the Clod of Clay - and asks them about the mysteries of mortal life: what is it like to be mortal, to live and to experience, but also to have to face the prospect of disillusionment, depair and death.
 
  •  At the end of the "Book" Thel almost summons the courage to enter the world of the Real, but at the last minute her nerve gives way, and she runs shrieking back to the sanctuary of immortality.
 
  • In allegorical terms The Book of Thel presents the State of Innocence, confronted by the world of Experience. Thel is, in one sense, a virginal goddess, pure and untouched by material reality, about to embark on the passage from childhood to adult maturity. Yet she is also, in metaphorical and archetypal form, a symbol of a state of mind or, better still, "State of Soul", a platonic essence intrigued by, but apprehensive of the realities of experience.
 
  • Through mythological personification Blake is able to express, in symbolic terms, aspects of innocence and experience which are difficult to express in other terms. Thel"s final failure of nerve is, the poem suggests, to be pitied rather than applauded: "Innocence" may well be an idyllic state but, "Without Contraries there is no Progression". The Book of Thel can, therefore, be read on a number of levels, from being a literal exploration of various forms of innocence and hesitance (the child"s reluctance to grow up), to more abstract and metaphorical levels, an allegorical exploration of the relationship between Thought and Action, or between the Immortality of the Idea or Image, and the mortality of lived experience.
 
 
The Story
Thel is a shepherdess living in an idyllic world ("the vales of Har"). The creatures of this world address her as their sovereign. But she is seeking answers. Her life is insubstantial and seems purposeless.
Thel asks why the flowers must wither and die. She compares her life to transient, formless things, including a rainbow ("watery bow" -- Blake invents many kennings), a parting cloud, reflections in a mirror or in water, the dreams and smiles of babies. the cooing of doves, daytime, and music. Thel hopes that when she dies, she will die comfortably and hear God"s voice ("him that walketh in the garden in the evening time" -- the garden of Eden in Genesis 3:8).
A lily of the valley speaks to Thel. In Blake"s illustration, the flower has a human form and is bowing to Thel. The flower says God is good even to a little flower. It is protected in the spring, and in the summer when it dies, it will have a happier life in heaven ("flourish in eternal vales"). The lily offers this as an answer to Thel"s questions.
Thel blesses the flower for its gifts to other simple things. The meek lamb is comforted by the fragrance and can be nourished and cleansed by the flower. Its pollen helps purify honey. Its perfume scattered on the grass revives the cow after milking and calms wild horses. But Thel says her own life seems as evanescent as the glow of a cloud at sunrise, and that she has not yet found a purpose.
The flower directs Thel to a cloud and goes to attend to its responsibilities. Thel asks the cloud why it is not troubled by its mortality. The cloud answers that life is about renewal. After it has vanished, it will bring life to flowers and humans and exist in a far richer form.
Thel answers that she does not feel useful, and for this reason she has no joy in her life. She asks whether her life is purposeless, and whether at her death she will merely feed worms.
The cloud replies that feeding worms is a wonderful purpose for life, because all lives are bound together. The cloud summons a worm onto a leaf and flies away to find its partner. In the illustration, the cloud and the worm also have human form, as the lily did. The worm cannot speak, but it can weep, and Thel pities it, imagining that it is a little motherless child.
A piece of clay hears Thel. (In "The Clod and the Pebble", a piece of clay, crushed under the cattle"s feet, celebrates the power of unselfish love to bring joy even in the worst circumstances.) The clay moistens and nourishes the worm. It tells Thel that God loves even the clay and made it the nurturer and mother of all things, which is beyond the clay"s comprehension. In a third illustration, the clay and worm appear as a woman and child at the feet of the seated Thel.
Thel marvels at this. She knew that God loves worms and will punish anyone who willfully destroys even the littlest life for no reason. But she did not know that God takes care to nurture worms. She says she has found a consolation and an answer for her mortality.
Now the clay asks Thel, "[Are you willing to] enter my house? "Tis given to thee to enter and to return. Fear nothing." If Thel accepts, she will achieve being and purpose.
The "terrific porter" of the "eternal gates" lifts the "northern bar". Thel enters a new world, full of "couches of the dead" (graves), and "where the fibrous roots of every heart on earth infixes deep its restless twists." It is a terrible place, without the joys of Thel"s world. Then Thel comes to her own grave, and sits down beside it. She hears a voice (her own?) enumerating the organs of sense and sexuality, and how each of these must bring suffering.
Thel runs back screaming to the Vales of Har.
 
 
  BN00124.jpg