DIVINE IMAGE

By William Blake

I.

1. When do people pray to Mercy, pity, peace and Love?

Ans: people pray to Mercy, pity, peace and Love in their time of distress.

2. What do people return to the ‘virtues of delight’?

Ans: To the ‘virtues of delight’, people return their thankfulness.

3. Who is God for us?

Ans: For us, Mercy, pity, peace and Love are God for us.

4. Which of the virtues has a human face?

Ans: Pity is the virtue which has a human face.

5. Who is seen as God’s child and care?

Ans: Mercy, pity, peace and Love is seen as God’s child and care.

II.

1. What do people do in distress?

Ans: According to the poet, people pray to abstract qualities of Mercy, pity, peace and Love. These qualities
are treated as both divine and human entities and pray to these abstract qualities in times of pain and
suffering.

2 What does the term ‘virtues of delight ’refer to?

Ans: The term ‘virtues of delight’ refer to the Mercy, pity, peace and Love which provides respite when
people are in pain and suffering. These personified figures of Mercy, pity, peace, and Love are listed as the
four “virtues of delight.” The speaker states that all people pray to these in times of distress and thank them
for blessings because they represent “God, our father dear.”

3. Name the different human forms represented by ‘virtues of delight’?

Ans: The different human forms represented by the ‘virtues of delight’ are: Mercy represents a human heart,
pity represents a human face, Love represents the human form divine and peace represents the human dress.

4. What kind of man prays to the ‘human form divine’?

Ans: According to the poet, Love represents the ‘human form divine and people of every climate pray in
their distress to the human form divine.

5. Where does God dwell?

Ans: God dwells where Merch, pity, peace and Love dwells too. Blake says God dwells in the people in
whom dwell the virtues of mercy, pity and love. The poet still emphasises on Love, God is there too. God is
with the person who exercise these qualities and has special regard for this type of human.

III.

1. What human form must all man love?

Ans. In the poem, ‘The Divine Image’ Blake presents the theme of ‘divinity’ or God. God is, in fact, the
being of all virtues such as mercy, pity, love and peace. Blake’s concept of God leads us to think that God is
not a piece of block or stone but the essence of all virtues. A man who possess the divine virtues is on less
than God. The poet reminds us of out capability of being at the height of divinity or on an equal footing with
God. God, according to him, is not a dweller of heaven, he dwells within our heart. When one lives up to the
best that is inside him exercising the inherent divine qualities, he becomes God.

The poet says that everyone must love the human form irrespective of their culture of religion. Either an
individual is a Heathen i. e., a person who does not believe in Christianity and rather believes in paganism,
or a Turk i.e., a person from Turkey, a country in Middle East of a Jew i.e., the one who follows Judaism.
Every man must love the human form as God dwells within the human race. Hence, Blake is basically trying
to assert that all the human beings must love one another irrespective of their nation, culture of religion.
Blake has very beautifully tried to assert that the entire human race must exists in a state of togetherness
irrespective of religious, cultural of national differences. Universal Fraternity will ultimately lead to the
propagation of peace, harmony and bliss.

2. How do the qualities of Mercy, pity, peace and Love embody both God and man?

Ans: The poem “The Divine Image” by Blake is primarily centred on his concept of God. According to
Blake, God is the essence of divine virtues like Mercy, pity, peace and Love. A human being who possesses
these divine virtues is no less than God. Through this poem, Blake has tried to remind the human beings
Blake has tried to assert that God dwells within the hearts of human beings. This means that when human
beings begin to exercise their divine virtues, then the human beings tend to become equivalent to God. The
poet begins the verse by staying the four divine virtues, that is, “Mercy, pity peace and Love”. According to
Blake, these virtues and representative of God. The poet states that human beings pray to these virtues in
times of distress of discomfort. Human beings also pray to these virtues in order to express their
thankfulness for the blessings that are bestowed upon them by God.

The poet then continues to say that the four divine virtues, that is, Mercy, pity, peace and Love are possessed
by God who is the father of the entire human race. These divine virtues are also inherited by the human
beings as they are the children of God. Further, the poet tried to showcase the way in which the four divine
virtues and possessed by human beings. Mercy is found in the human heart, pity can be witnessed in the
human face, love can be seen in the ‘form’ of a human being and peace can be seen in the garments or dress
of human beings. Precisely, human beings are facsimiles of God. Through the poem, the poet is trying to
establish the fact that since the four divine virtues of God are possessed by the human beings as well,
therefore, human beings are basically equivalent to God.

This means that all prayers to Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love are directed not only also to God but also to the
“human form divine”, the poet is trying to establish the fact that since the four divine virtues of God are
possessed by the human beings as well, therefore, human beings are basically equivalent to God. This means
that all prayers to Mercy Pity, Peace and Love are directed not only to God but also to the “human form
divine”, that is, to human beings.
3. What is the significance of the expression ‘In Heathen, Turk, or Jew’?

Ans: In the final stanza of the poem, “The Divine Image”, Blake explains how all forms of humanity should
be cherished. The lyrical voice mentions that “all must love the human form; In heathen, Turk or Jew”. This
is because all forms of humanity are linked to divinity and, consequently, they are all important. Finally, the
lyrical voice finished the poem by saying that three of these virtues coexist with God together: “Where
Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell; There God is dwelling too”. This highlights this idea of inseparability between
God and man, presented in the previous quatrains. Here, Blake is referring towards equality of all human
beings. As all the human forms seek the same virtues, everyone is same and equal. It does not matter if one
is heathen, Turk or Jew, all that matters is that one is human.

Love is present everywhere and is equal for all races and forms of human beings. So, the poet encourages us
that we should also love everyone as loving each other is same as loving ourselves. The poet still emphasises
on Love, Mercy, and Pity, and says that where these attributes are present, God is there too. God is with the
person who exercises these qualities and has special regard for this type of human. The thing to notice in last
stanza is that with Love, Mercy and Pity, poet does not mention Peace this time. It can be for mocking the
present human race, as there is very little peace present among us and everyone, every state and race has
hatred for each other. It can also mean that if human beings take up the values of Love, Mercy and Pity in
their living, Peace will automatically manifest itself in the human society.

IV.

1. Bring out the central idea of the poem ‘The Divine Image’ by William Blake.

Ans: The central idea of the poem, “The Divine Image” as manifested by Blake is the relationship between
divinity and human. Blake presented four abstract qualities; Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love as the epitome of
both divine and human entities. The relationship between Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace, equality and the
connection of a human being with its creator, God seems to e the central focus of Blake in the poem. Blake
has tried to give message of love and humanity through this poem and have made readers imagine a world
full of equality and peace. Blake has also expressed the importance of turning towards God for every matter
and strengthening our relationship with him.

The poem’s speaker says that humanity was made in God’s own image, but that doesn’t mean that the
human shape physically resembles God. Rather, it means that people embody God’s powerful goodness: his
“Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love” are expressed on earth through people. And this connection between
humanity and God, the speaker insists, also connects human beings to each other: every person expresses the
goodness of God, and every living person is thus holy. All people, whatever their background, are thus
united by their shared divinity. To this speaker, “Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love” aren’t just attributes of God,
they are God, “our father dear” himself. And, at the exact same time, they’re “Man, [God’s] child”; that is,
all of these qualities are embodied by human beings. Mercy, for instance, “has a human heart”: it’s through
real, live human hearts that the divine quality of mercy appears on earth. In other words, humanity expresses
God.

Since God’s virtues appear on earth in human form, it follows that everyone carries God with them, just by
virtue of being a person. God’s “divine image” lives on earth, the speaker argues, through “the human form
divine.” When people “pray in their distress” to God, they’re thus also praying to the goodness and kindness
of humanity. If God lives in the “human form,” the speaker proclaims, and then people don’t just need to
remember that they can seek and express God’s goodness in themselves. They need to remember that God’s
goodness lives in every person. That truth cuts across false distinctions between religions and cultures:
addressing a predominantly Christian audience, this speaker reminds readers that God lives in “heathen,
Turk, or Jew,” not just in Christians. All people must love every single “human form” for this very reason.
Through “Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love,” then, God lives in every “human form” and unites all people.
2. How does the poem ‘The Divine Image’ by William Blake illustrate the biblical adage “God created man
in his own image”?

Ans: The personified figures of Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love are presented as the four “virtues of delight.”
The speaker states that all people pray to these in times of distress and thank them for blessings because they
represent “God, our father dear.” They are also, however, the characteristics of Man: Mercy is found in the
human heart, Pity in the human face; Peace is a garment that envelops humans, and Love exists in the
human “form” or body. Therefore, all prayers to Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love are directed not just to God
but to “the human form divine,” which all people must love and respect regardless of their religion or
culture.

Throughout the poem, the speaker praises both God and man while asserting an identity between the two.
“The Divine Image” thus differs from most of the other Songs of Innocence, which deal with the emotional
power of conventional Christian faith, and the innocent belief in a supreme, benevolent, and protective God,
rather than with the parallels between these transcendent realms and the realm of man. The poem uses
personification to dramatise Christ’s mediation between God and Man. Beginning with abstract qualities
viz., the four virtues of Mercy, pity, peace, and Love, the poem makes these abstractions the object of
human prayer and piety. The second stanza explains this somewhat strange notion by equating the virtues
with God himself. But the idea is still slightly unorthodox, suggesting as it does that we pray to these
abstract virtues because they are God, rather than praying to God because he these sympathetic qualities.

The poem seems to emphasise that Mercy, pity, peace, and Love are not God’s characteristics but his
substance and that they are precisely what we mean when we speak of God. The speaker then claims that
Mercy, pity peace, Love are also equivalent to Man as it is in humans that these qualities find a kind of
embodiment, and they become recognizable because their features are basically human. Thus, when we
think of God, we are modelling him after these ideal human qualities. And when people pray, regardless of
who or where they are, to what God they think they are praying, they actually worship “the human form
divine”; what is ideal, or most godly, in human beings.

The implication that God is a mental creation reflects Blake’s belief that “all deities reside in the human
breast.” The poem does not explicitly mention Christ, but the four virtues that Blake assigns alternately to
man and God are the ones conventionally associated with Jesus. Because Christ was both God and man, he
becomes the vehicle for Blake’s mediation between the two. But the fact that he is given an abstract rather
than a human figuration underscores the elaborate intellectual izat ion involved in Christian doctrine. Blake
himself favours a more direct identification between what is human and what is divine. Thus, the companion
poem in Songs of Experience, “the Human Abstract,”goes further toward exposing the elaborate institutions
of religion as mental confabulations that obscure rather than honour the true identity of God and man.