21 pages • 42 minutes read

The Book of Thel

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1789

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

In the prophetic Book of Thel, and in his other prophetic books, Blake uses the fourteener: lines that are 14 syllables long, with varying metrical stresses. According to The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, Blake used the fourteener “probably in imitation of the biblical style from various English translations” (Greene, Roland, et al. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. 4th ed., Princeton University Press, 2012, p. 504). These long lines are unrhymed and generally fill most of the horizontal space in Blake’s etched plates, as well as a modern standard book page.

Blake’s fourteener lines are organized in stanzas of varying lengths. Most short stanzas—consisting of one to three lines—contain action and/or dialogue tags (clarify who is talking and/or what they are doing). On the other hand, long stanzas—five to 10 lines—contain dialogue and descriptions of locations: the vales of Har and the land of the dead.

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The preface, Thel’s Motto, contains four lines that alternate in length between 10 and seven syllables. The lines that have 10 syllables do not rhyme; the seven-syllable lines rhyme. This preface comes before the cover illustration. The Book of Thel is an illuminated book, meaning that the text is meant to be read alongside Blake’s etched illustrations.

Capitalization

Blake uses capitalization to add emphasis and an additional layer of meaning to words and phrases that are not usually capitalized. His capitalization is especially deliberate because it was part of the etching process rather than simply being typed or printed. The names of the symbolic creatures are capitalized, making common nouns, like cloud, into proper nouns, like Cloud. In the second-to-last stanza, Blake capitalizes most of the organs—Ear, Eye, Eyelids, Tongue, and Nostril (Lines 114-121)—but does not capitalize the largest organ, the skin, or “flesh” (Line 123). This creates two categories for the different kinds of senses; touch is improper compared to the senses that become proper nouns.

In the final stanza, Blake capitalizes Virgin for the first time. This comes directly after the list of sensory organs that are mostly capitalized. Denial of the flesh is directly related to the Virgin Mary, whose name is often capitalized for religious reasons, like God. Ending the poem with this Biblical allusion gives it an emphasis on the feminine divine; most of its characters are women, beginning with the mother of Thel and ending with the mother of God.

Allegory

The Book of Thel has several allegorical interpretations. An allegory is when a narrative can take on multiple meanings, usually containing some sort of moral lesson. One allegorical reading centers on Blake’s allusion to Homer’s Cave of the Nymphs. Neoplatonist philosopher Porphyry wrote that the journey into and return from the cave (similar to Plato’s cave) represents the metaphysics of the body and soul, or the soul passing through the material world to the divine world.

In Blake, Thel travels through the “northern bar” (Line 104) of a gate into a land where she encounters the dead, hears a mysterious voice ask questions about the organs of the body, and flees back to her Edenic sheepherding pastures. Thel’s journey becomes an allegory when it is read as a lesson about the soul and body.