A Study of the Proper Names Mentioned in Blake's Poetry and Prose

Abstract

In the first place, the study is divided into two volumes, one on Places, one on People. It is true that Blake regards cities and mountains and other such states as People - "For all are Men in Eternity." Nevertheless, there is some quite substantial difference separating them from those whom we conventionally regard as people, and, on the basis of this difference, I have divided the study in two. In surprisingly few cases does this result in any confusion, which is nearly always due to the fact that, in the Bible, such a place as Cush or as Canaan is also a son of Ham, or, to take a less crude example, that the regions of the Twelve Tribes of Israel are all named after the sons of Jacob and Joseph. But for the most part, either it is perfectly obvious when Blake is referring to a place and when to a person of the same name, or it does not matter very much which he is referring to. What is far more confusing is that one often finds two places of the same name, such as names of certain cities in England which are also the names of counties.