"Human Abstract": Critical Detailed Analysis And Summary

About the Poem

The Human Abstract is one of the poems in William Blake’s Songs of Experience. Songs of Experience is a collection of 26 poems that form the second part of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience. The poem belongs to the eighteenth-century era. It is engraved on a single plate which is now found in the Yale Center of British Art.

Being a painter and illustrator, William illustrated the image of a man who is considered to be Urizen, the supposed God in his poems. He is shown gripping the ropes, trying to get out of the shackles of religion. There is a tree that is deeply rooted in the ground, with its leaves grossly multiplying by feeding on religion. The illustration tries to show that religion has deeply been ingrained into society and is like a behemoth engulfing people from all sides.

Throughout the poem, Blake tries to show the wrong attitude possessed by people towards some of the most basic virtues. Taking the eighteenth-century idea into account, the poem has touched upon the fact that such basic values are human products and are not ordained by God or any form of divinity. An attempt to unravel some of the hidden truths with regard to such fundamental virtues has been made.

Human Abstract Poem Text

Pity would be no more,

If we did not make somebody Poor;

And Mercy no more could be,

If all were as happy as we;

And mutual fear brings peace;

Till the selfish loves increase.

Then Cruelty knits a snare,

And spreads his baits with care.

He sits down with holy fears,

And waters the ground with tears;

Then Humility takes its root

Underneath his foot.

Soon spreads the dismal shade

Of Mystery over his head;

And the Caterpillar and Fly,

Feed on the Mystery.

And it bears the fruit of Deceit,

Ruddy and sweet to eat,

And the Raven his nest has made

In its thickest shade.

The Gods of the earth and sea,

Sought thro’ Nature to find this Tree

But their search was all in vain;

There grows one in the Human Brain.

Human Abstract Poem Explanation

The poem talks about the cause-and-effect relationship between pity and poverty and between mercy and misery. Blake says that because of poverty, pity has been existential and the same with mercy, which is the by-product of misery. However, these virtues are not genuine, as when poverty and misery end, these virtues will automatically fade away.

As humans, we should work towards uplifting the people afflicted with poverty and misery, but once they are all uplifted, there will be no need for such virtues. But poverty and misery are not going anywhere. Hence, these virtues are hypocritical. Blake blames the men who take on ostentatious and false virtues and keep on preaching them.

The other virtue is peace. Peace is very deceptive. It is something that a man puts on in order to avoid feuds with enemies. However, this is only a ruse because he harbors bitterness in his heart and mind. The language is sugar-coated, but the intentions are those of a predator. In order to maintain one’s own safety, peace takes the form of a truce, which is concealed with deception. The love which arises from this peace is nothing but “selfish love’.”

Then cruelty lays a trap that lures enemies into it. For the first time, Blake discusses the God of Cruelty, who was created by man to justify his wild or berserk emotions. The God of cruelty is also known as ‘ Starry Jealousy ‘or’ Urizen’. According to Blake, this God is identified with the God of traditional origin. Hence, the illustration engraved by him is of the man-made God, Urizen.

The man is clutching onto the web flung about him, which represents the trap a man very slethly lays for his enemy to get stuck in. To catch its prey, a man pretends to be meek, humble, generous, and big-hearted. Tears are shed, which fosters the growth of the seeds of misery and grief that are spread everywhere.

He cries at the misfortune of his enemies. Any innocent person seeing the jealous man weeping over the trapped person’s fall thinks of the man as someone filled with humility. Therefore, Blake mentions that innocent people see that goodness begins at the feet of the jealous man. However, we know that the misery of the prey brings mirth to the predator and fulfills his plan of cruelty.

There is also a mystery tree in the illustration. The tree is as mysterious as it is unnatural. The tree represents “organized religion,” which is man-made and artificial and is propagated by men and false philosophers. This false religion properly takes its shape when it is supported by priests.

The priesthood had ripened this imposter-like religion as they were making profits and considered it to be a lucrative job. The shade that this tree provides is used by such men to hide all their wrong-doings. Caterpillars and flies represent the priests, who feed on this tree and spread this false religion like parasites.

The tree of mystery bears the fruits of deception and hypocrisy, which misleads the innocent. These fruits are very alluring and are red in colour, looking very scrumptious. Blake here mentions how corrupt the Church authorities are and how the ‘rave’, i.e., the Pope, gains maximum profit from the shade the tree provides.

The sea and earth Gods, which are considered to be real, have tried their best to find this tree of mystery. However, the truth is that this tree does not exist in real life. It is something that has been created by man himself. He creates the God of Cruelty as mentioned earlier to justify his wrong acts and the deceptive ways in which they propagate the four virtues of pity, mercy, peace, and love.

Human Abstract Theme

The tension between Humanity and Divinity

Humanity had unfortunately taken a very aggressive form which misused religion and considered it to be a lucrative job. The four pure virtues—pity, mercy, peace, and love—were exploited. Men created the God of Cruelty to help them justify their evil intentions and actions.

The Tree of Mystery grows stronger in an unnatural way as it feeds on jealousy and wrongly-oriented emotions. Religion was being manipulated in a way that served the human purpose of creating an organised religion that was marked by deception.

Analogy

Tree of Mystery

According to an old mythological book, this tree was called Ahania. It grew on a withered rock with fissures everywhere and was watered by the tears of the God of Jealousy. Here Blake talks about how the false emotions of man are what the tree is feeding on and is growing tall and strong by unnatural means.

So Blake, throughout the poem, tries to show how deceptive religion had become as it was being created by man himself. The real gods had failed to fight with it as it did not exist in any physical form. The religious authorities had gotten corrupt, and the true essence of the four virtues had been lost due to such bad deeds.

Literary devices in Human Abstract Poem

Imagery

Visual Imagery

Soon spreads the dismal shade

Of Mystery over his head;

And the Caterpillar and Fly,

Feed on the Mystery.

Gustatory Imagery

And it bears the fruit of Deceit,

Ruddy and sweet to eat

Metaphor

Tree of Mystery is used to depict the human brain

Personification