America a Prophecy by William Blake

America a Prophecy is a 1793 prophetic book by the English poet and illustrator William Blake. It is engraved on eighteen plates, and survives in fourteen known copies. As a significant milestone in his career, it is the first of Blake's Continental prophecies.

Background and Production

During autumn 1790, Blake moved to Lambeth, Surrey (today within the bounds of Greater London). He had a studio at the new house that he used while writing what were later called his "Lambeth Books", which included America in 1793. Like the others under the title, all aspects of the work, including the composition of the designs, the printing of them, the colouring of them, and the selling of them, happened at his home.

America was the first book printed by Blake to include the place of origin and Blake's full name on the title page, which showed that Blake would continue to expound his visions of revolution even though parliament had passed acts against seditious writings earlier that year. Blake scrupulously avoided mentioning King George III by name in the final draft, referring to him as "the King of England", or other synonyms. The work was one of the few that Blake describes as "illuminated printing", those of which were either hand coloured or colour printed with the ink being placed on the copperplate before printed.

Technical Specifications

The following details characterize the physical production of the work:

• Number of plates: 18
• Total copies created: 17 (with 4 of them coloured)
• Dimensions: 23 x 17 cm
• Poetic structure: Organized into septenaries

Themes and Prophetic Narrative

America, like many of Blake's other works, is a mythological narrative and is considered a "prophecy". However, his understanding of the word was not to denote a description of the future but to describe the view of the honest and the wise. This change indicates that he was no longer dramatizing history, as in The French Revolution, but instead "recording the formula of all revolution". For that reason the events of the revolution are portrayed without regard for chronological order.

In the poem, Orc, spirit of revolution, arises. The King of England is depicted trembling as he sees Orc, the embodiment of the American colonies. The Angel of Albion believes Orc is the Anti-Christ and Orc believes the King of England is the same. This conflict leads to Orc's apocalyptic vision:

The morning comes, the night decays, the watchmen leave their stations; The grave is burst, the spices shed, the linen wrapped up

Orc provokes the Angel of Boston to rebellion, and together, the rebels are able to be freed of the psychological chains that bind them: "the five gates of their law-built heaven". Although there is a vision of rebellion, there is no actual freedom at the end of the work.