LETTER: No doubt on me
What we now think of as Jerusalem (quite different from Blake’s later poem which he called Jerusalem but that’s a separate issue) has words beginning “And did those feet...”
The tune to which they are now sung was written a century after the words.
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Hide AdTherefore I felt the Observer article should not have said that Blake “wrote the words for Jerusalem” when it was Parry who put his tune to Blake’s words.
I see similar misleading wording in the Blake Society’s web page about the cottage which states that Blake ‘wrote the words for the hymn Jerusalem’ when, as I say, the hymn was not composed until a century later.
Sorry to make heavy weather of this, but I don’t like doubt being cast on me!
Ted Bell
Marine Drive West
Bognor Regis