'Self-Annihilation' and Dialogue in Blake's Creative Process: 'Urizen, Milton, Jerusalem'

William Blake's comments about the sources of his creativity appear frequently in his prose and poetry and are fairly well known and often cited. His comments usually include references to other figures with whom he has conversed, and these conversations, Blake claims, provide him with inspiration for his poems. In his letters, he often writes of the visionary company he keeps and of how these conversations have influenced his work. On 6 May 1800, for example, Blake writes to William Hayley, "Thirteen years ago. I lost a brother & with his spirit I converse daily & hourly in the Spirit. & See him in my remembrance in the regions of my Imagination. I hear his advice & even now write from his Dictate.... I am the companion of Angels" (E 705).1 Blake's poetry also contains descriptions of conversations between the poems' speakers and other figures. In one example, the speaker of Jerusalem explains that every morning he awakens at sunrise and sees "the Saviour over me / Spreading his beams of love, & dictating the words of this mild song" (J 4.4-5). Of Blake's comments about his muses, Robert N. Essick writes