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Lead book review

‘Jerusalem’ is a rousing anthem – but who knows what the words mean?

‘Jerusalem’ may be our unofficial national anthem, but don’t ask anyone who sings it to tell you what it means, says Philip Hensher

9 July 2022

9:00 AM

9 July 2022

9:00 AM

Jerusalem: Blake, Parry and the Fight for Englishness Jason Whittaker

OUP, pp.256, 25

The spontaneous mass adoption of deep feeling is always interesting. Jason Whittaker has a very good subject, in the journey of the cryptic lyric section of the preface to William Blake’s incomprehensible epic Milton, written and illustrated between 1804 and 1810, to its becoming the de facto national anthem of England.

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