ABSTRACT
Blake's lifelong opposition to tyranny took various forms: association with radical causes in his youth, a certain disillusion with politics in his mature years, and a grand vision of human liberty in the late works. The characteristic process of openly conversing "together in Visionary forms dramatic" specifies both an ontology and a politics of human being. Like the other figures of Blake's prophecies, Los and Golgonooza are directional events. In different contexts Golgonooza may be a constructive move toward Jerusalem or a falling away from that happy condition. The procedural difference between Blake's quasi-narrative way of tracing the coming into being of Jerusalem and inquiry into its political essence invites brief comment. The power of starting over and the forgiveness that permits it cut across the inexorable cycles of nature and history which threaten political order.
