The Divine Image by William Blake

  The Divine Image by William Blake

To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love

All pray in their distress;

And to these virtues of delight

Return their thankfulness.

For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love

Is God, our father dear,

And Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love

Is Man, his child and care.

For Mercy has a human heart,

Pity a human face,

And Love, the human form divine,

And Peace, the human dress.

Then every man, of every clime,

That prays in his distress,

Prays to the human form divine,

Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace.

And all must love the human form,

In heathen, Turk, or Jew;

Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell

There God is dwelling too.

(The Divine Image is part of Songs of Innocence.  The poem presents four traditional Christian virtues (Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love), which exist in the human heart and connect it with God)

The Divine Image by William Blake

1. What do we do when in distress?

Answer: Whenever we are in distress; we pray for mercy, pity, peace and love.

2. What are mercy, pity, peace and love?

Answer: Mercy, pity, peace and pity are the virtues which give human being delight.

3. How is God our father?

Answer: God is our father because He showers His blessings on us when we are in distress. He is an embodiment of Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love.

4. Why should all love the human form?

Answer: Every human form is an embodiment of Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love. These virtues are also attributed to the God. So, loving the human form means serving the God.

5. “And Peace, the human dress”. How has peace been compared to human dress?

Answer: Dress provides a human being civilised look and makes him/her attractive. If a human being puts on peace, he/she is also admired by other people.

6. “ for Mercy has a human heart,

Pity a human face,

And Love, the human form divine,

And Peace, the human dress.”

Explain the above cited lines.

Answer: The poet has attributed four virtues to four human body organs. Mercy is the most tender of all human emotions thus it resides in the human heart. Pity; most beautiful emotion, reflects on the human face. Love is a heavenly virtue, so it makes a human being divine form. Peace should be the attire of a human being as it makes him/her civilised and lovable.

7. Where does God dwell?

Answer: God does not live in any religious dogma or any religious worship place. He is an embodiment of Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love. Ironically all human beings have been bestowed the same virtues. It means loving the fellow human beings is serving the God. In a way we all human beings are an incarnation of the God on the earth.

8. How do mercy, pity, peace and love get distorted in the human brain?

Answer: William Blake expresses his belief in the divinity of human nature. Mercy, Pity, Peace and love are divine attributes to which man may attain. Therefore, if a man perfects any or all of these virtues, he is in that regard divine. The poet believes that no one is born with cruelty and malice. But these vices grip the human being during the process of socialisation. The human brain gets polluted and gradually drifts away from the divine attributes.

It seems unavoidable to have the presence of Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love if poverty, cruelty, fear and hatred do not prevail on the earth. Growing adult from child; a human being firmly asserts that existence of vices is inseparable from human life. So he plants a tree of vices in his brain, waters it and grows it thicker and thicker.

9. Critically appreciate the poem The Divine Image.

Answer: The personified figures of Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love are listed as the four virtues of delight. These virtues are however not only the characteristics of the God but also of the man. Mercy is found in the human heart, pity in the human face, peace is a garment that envelopes human and love exists in the human ‘for’ or ‘body’.

The poem is comprised of five ballad stanzas-quatrains in which the lines have four and three beats alternately, and rhyme scheme is ABCB. This stanza form conveys a sense of candor and naturalness, and it is common in songs, hymns, and nursery rhymes.

The lilting rhythm and the frequent repetition of words and phrases combine with a spiritual subject matter to create the poem’s simple, hymn-like quality.