Who Needs to Think when Your Feet Just Go: Poetic Genius and the Beat that Carries Us

William Blake was a very spiritual author whose writings carried with them many insights and explorations into the realm of religion and sanctity. In the series of poetic plates entitled All Religions are One, Blake writes of an eternal force that resides in all men: the “Poetic Genius.” He begins by including a passage from the bible in order to place himself in the role of a prophet of sorts for his generation (76). The “Poetic Genius” is, to Blake, an important part of all humans that guides, directs, and dictates their surroundings and appearance. Blake uses the “Poetic Genius” to portray an all inclusive God whose existence helps to bring all living creatures together under one central religion. Blake explains:

… [T]he Poetic Genius is

The true Man, and that

The body or outward form

Of Man is derived from the

Poetic Genius. (Principle 1)

Blake uses this as the beginning principle in his 10 plate series in order to set his argument in motion.

By asserting that the “Poetic Genius” is what creates our appearances and that it is essentially what the “true Man” is, Blake can easily move onto the next principle where he begins to tie together little bits of his idea. “As all men are alike in/ outward form,” he says, “So… all are alike in/ the Poetic Genius” (Principle 2). Since we all look a like, that is, we are all human beings, we are all controlled by the same “Poetic Genius” inside of us. This God figure has created us and, as Blake writes in his third principle, “all sects of/ Philosophy are from the/ Poetic Genius.” Therefore we were all created in his image and from his thoughts so that all our philosophies, or religions, are from the same origin thus, they are one.

Blake covers all of his tracks in order to make this work, explaining that there are an infinite variety of depictions, understandings, and receptions of the “Poetic Genius.” The different nations are all controlled by the same thing, but their interpretations are all different. The source of all is the “Poetic Genius” that made the “true Man” in his image. With that information as an underlying realization, Blake successfully creates and sustains his argument throughout the ten plates. Blake makes a return to the term on plate 12 in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. While dining with the prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah, Ezekiel refers to Blake’s “Poetic Genius” and helps to solidify the idea of the forming all in the world.

But why refer to this divine being as the “Poetic Genius”? Could it be just another name that Blake chose out of his imagination? Perhaps it is to bring in an underlying love for literature and help show how his poetry is used to get people closer to God, much like John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Milton felt it was his duty to show the people of earth the fall of Lucifer, the story of Adam and Eve, and the fall of man. By naming his God the “Poetic Genius,” Blake draws a parallel between his poetry and his God, as if he felt he were commissioned by God just like Milton.