You know how when you were in college you'd drag yourself to the library to do a term paper and you'd start researching like the 1896 presidential election in America and you'd get distracted and five hours later you found yourself reading the sports or news and you'd wonder "How did I get here?"

That was sort of like how I spent Christmas day. After opening the presents I decamped to C.C.C.'s where we opened more presents, and then since I love Christmas music we started listening to Christmas music.  We first tried the radio, then Carmen's 800 channel TV that had two separate channels devoted to Christmas music.  But, for every one "good" Christmas song there were four or five others I didn't like or that I'd never heard of.  So I got on the 'puter and got on YouTube where I could choose the ones I wanted and get the visuals of a choir or whatever.

I spent five straight hours doing that. Well, I probably spent an hour or two listening/watching Christmas music and then I got sidetracked.

Some of the great, traditional Christmas songs are English.  That's how I discovered Figgy Pudding.  And, like when you were researching that term paper and got distracted YouTube's suggested other listening/viewing led me here...and then here...and then...there.  The paradigm shifted when I was listening to a Christmas song by an English boys choir and then clicked on some other suggestions performed by the same boys choir.  One of those was Jerusalem, also known as And did those feet in ancient time. 


I immediately recognized the tune from the final scene, Harold Abraham's funeral service,  in the movie Chariots of Fire.  I had never read the lyrics before and thought the tune's mention of Jerusalem was tribute to Abraham's being a member of the tribe.

No.  Or, at least only partly yes.

And did those feet in ancient time is actually an unofficial national anthem of England.

The English are a peculiar people.

After the paradigm shifted I read, if I recall correctly, that England has no official national anthem.  Huh?  Then what's God Save the King/Queen?  If...etc., that is the national anthem of Great Britain, which is England and Scotland and Wales, if you knew anything, Pilgrim. England is devoid of official national anthem-hood, if.  And did those feet in ancient time is a popular fill-in, played at events like Prince Charles' wedding and Prince William's wedding.

What in the world is And did those feet in ancient time about?  Public Occurrences pageviewers from the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland), who are more numerous than all those save Americans, know.  What about us normal people--what is that song about?

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green.

And was the holy Lamb of God,
On England's pleasant pastures seen!

Are you figging serious?  Jesus?  In England?  How'd he get there, Virgin Atlantic?

They're serious.  Mad dogs and Englishmen at least seriously sing this, as an unofficial national anthem.

...And did the Countenance Divine, 
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?

That is embarrassing.  It's just embarrassing.  It's not the most embarrassing:

...And was Jerusalem builded here ["builded"]
Among these dark Satanic Mills? [i.e. of the Industrial Revolution]

They sing "among these dark Satanic Mills" as part of their unofficial national anthem. J


And did those feet in ancient time began as a poem by William Blake.  That painting at top: bizarre, no?  I mean, God, with a compass?  Blake.  "Considered mad by his contemporaries," begins the second paragraph of Wikipedia's entry on Blake.  That should have been the final word on Blake, who wrote the mad And did those feet in ancient time in 1808.  But history and later generations of Englishmen warmed to Blake. They warmed to a fever.   He is now considered "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced."  "Far and away."  Outstripping the renown of even Joseph Wright of Derby.

The bird hit the air-pump in 1916 when Sir Hubert Parry immortalized Blake's poem by putting it to tune.  It truly is a lovely tune--that sews a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Blake's third stanza is indeed wonderful, evocative poetry--because it's based on the King James Bible, Kings 2:11:

Bring me my Bow of burning gold;
Bring me my Arrows of desire:
Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of fire.


Back to himself Blake quickly decompensates and the poem/anthem ends with an allusion to his decompensation and more of England as heaven on earth:

I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:
Till we have built Jerusalem,
In England's green and pleasant Land. 


What happened to "builded?"  The English sing this seriously.  Seriously.