Monday, 5 February 2018

"...Those Dark Satanic Mills"

When summarizing information about industry on Poul Anderson's fictional planet, Satan, I thought it appropriate to entitle the post "Dark Satanic Mills." See here. Nicholas van Rijn uses this same phrase on the last page of the novel when he claims that he is:

"'...a dealer in sugar and spice and all things nice, not in dark Satanic mills.'" (Chapter XXVI, p. 598) (For full reference, see here.)

The phrase is a quotation from a poem by William Blake:

And did those feet in ancient time,
Walk upon England's[b] mountains green:
And was the holy Lamb of God,
On Englands pleasant pastures seen!

And did the Countenance Divine,
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here,
Among these dark Satanic Mills?

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!

I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:
Till we have built Jerusalem,
In Englands green & pleasant Land.
-copied from here.

Set to music and sung as the hymn, "Jerusalem," this poem is regarded as an unofficial National Anthem of England.

1 comment:

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...


Kaor, Paul!

Ha! I remember that bit from SATAN'S WORLD, as Old Nick was preparing to auction off leases on Satan! Old Nick's rivals and competitors must have been all too to his fractured Anglic, warped literary allusions, and shrewdly apt malapropisms. And all too used to being taken to the cleaners by him! (Smiles)

Sean