Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1959)
Title
Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1959)
Original Date:
1793
Facsimile Date:
1959
Publisher:
Trianon Press
Physical Description:
11 color plates ; 37 cm.
Background Information:
The original work was composed in 1793; this facsimile was made from copy C, dating from the same year. The Union College facsimile from 1959 was donated by Walter Tower.
Student Commentary:
Overview: Blake explores the societal limitations placed on his female contemporaries in this work. Women are seen as oppressed from the outset of the poem, as the first line reads “Enslav’d, the Daughters of Albion weep”. Oothoon, the virginal female protagonist, is in love with Theotormon, but she is raped and imprisoned by the slave master Bromion. She spends much of the poem attempting to understand what it means to be good, independent, and female. She struggles with the conflicting dualities within herself: night and day, virginal and full of desire. The society around her has imposed stereotypes that she cannot shake, which is why she questions how she “can be defiled when [she reflects Theotormon’s own] image?” In other words, if the man she loves is so pure, how can her feelings of love and desire for him be so sinful? Blake paints an image of women as brutalized and oppressed, associating the male sex with dominance and the female sex with victimization. – Jessica Rosenthal ‘18.