Burning bright

Visited one of the discussion sections of "Book of Job and the Arts" today, where the discussion leader led into Blake's Illustrations of the Book of Job through this perhaps most famous of Blake's poems.

The poem was familiar to several students, but all could enjoy its canny combination of simple rhythm and the fearful power it can barely contain. The discussion leader related this to the divine speeches in Job, especially about Behemoth, where God seems moved by His own language. Was Blake here reflecting also on his own own poetry, we were asked? In the background lay the particular sublimity thought to reside in unanswerable rhetorical questions...