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Background Information
The Divine Image is a famous poem composed and illustrated by William Blake. The poem is a part of a collection known as Songs of Innocence that appeared in 1789. The title of the poem has been taken from the Book of Genesis, Chapter 1 and Verse 26:
And God said: Let us make man in our image
The poem features a utopia in which people are depicted practising four traditional Christian values that are Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love. And they are deemed eligible for the blessings of God.
Development of Situation
The poem opens basically addressing the four divine Christian traditional virtues. The poet believes that the human who is the Christian child of God is also an embodiment of these values. The quality of mercy lives in the human heart. Pity is evident from the human face. Peace is the human dress while love is the "human form divine". Therefore, humans should love each other regardless of any religion, colour and creed as they love their God.
Themes
The main theme of this poem is the shared divinity inside humanity. The poet does not mean to state that humanity is the image of God or humanity is the physical representation of God. It is His divine traits that are universally present inside every person. The four qualities that the poet is referring to are mercy, pity, peace and love. The existence of four divine qualities connects them with each other through the mutual expectation (and practice) of love. Thus, every person is holy and is a tiny spec of God's shared divine image that links a person with another person (and even God) spiritually.
"A Divine Image"
Blake wrote two poems on the subject of divine image. The one that appeared in the Songs of Experience is known as 'The Divine Image'. While the second one that is included in Songs of Experience is titled as "A Divine Image". The poem presents a terrifying image of mankind that is marked with cruelty, jealousy, terror and secrecy (hypocrisy). Some analysts consider this poem as Blake's attack on different religions claiming to be the right ones. Check out these lines to get a clear idea of the poem:
Cruelty has a Human Heart
And Jealousy a Human Face
Terror the Human Form Divine
And Secrecy, the Human Dress
Literary Devices
The poem makes use of different literary devices to heighten the scope of meaning. The poem has been dedicated to four Christian virtues that make up the divine image. The poet has used personification by making the virtues a part of different human qualities.
For Mercy has a human heart,
Pity a human face,
And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress.
Blake also implies irony when he describes Man as an image of God while in Bible, God created man in His image. While there are multiple instances of repetition of four Christian values or qualities (Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love) to lay emphasis on these values. The tone of this poem is didactic while its diction is assertive.
Setting and Imagery
The setting of this poem is the whole earth because the poem indirectly addresses the whole human race living on earth. The poet makes use of the images like praying in distress, "where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell" and "Pity a human face" to display a proper divine image that he intends to showcase.
Structural Analysis
The Divine Image has been composed of twenty lines. The poem is divided into five stanzas of four lines each, thus forming five quatrains. The rhyme scheme of this poem is ABCB ADAD EFGB GBGH IJKJ, following an inconsistent pattern in stanzas. While the rhythmic pattern of this poem is iambic tetrameter.
Conclusion
The Divine Image shows an image of love and harmony across the globe. As unrealistic as the idea sounds but one must keep in mind that Blake was a precursor of the Romantic Movement. Despite the romantic utopia inside the poem, it gives a sense of hope that one day, we love, respect and tolerate each other mutually.
