Jerusalem: From Blake to Parry

For decades after his death, no one read William Blake's stanzas from Milton a Poem beginning "And did those feet in ancient time", and the lyric was nearly forgotten. This podcast explores how Blake's lines were rediscovered and reinterpreted as a nationalist celebration, how they came to be set to music by Sir Hubert Parry as the hymn Jerusalem, and how Parry turned against their use in the nationalist cause and instead gave the copyright to Millicent Fawcett to become the hymn of the Women Voter.
Narrated by Professor Jason Whittaker at the University of Lincoln, additional music is provided by the BBC Choir conducted by Sir Stanford Robinson, and the script is adapted from the book Jerusalem: Blake, Parry and the Fight for Englishness (Oxford University Press, 2022).