I’ve always liked the Hymn Jerusalem, by William Blake, with music by Hubert Parry. The tune is lovely, its upbeat and powerful, and there is some powerful imagery in the words, but the actual sentiments are not really something I can relate to. I’ve been trying to come up with a spiritually acceptable version of it for quite some time, but have been drawing blanks, then it occurred to me, to adapt an Orphic Hymn to fit the tune, rather than trying to de-Christianise the song. There are a few lines within the original which have always made me think of Apollohn (Bring me my bow of burning gold.. etc), so I thought the Orphic Hymn to Apollohn would be the best one to fit, as I could keep and adapt some of Blake’s lines, though the rest would be the Orphc Hymn. So here it is:
Orphic Hymn to Apollohn/Jerusalem mash-up
O Blessed Paean, come to my prayer
Illustrious Power whom we revere.
Slayer of Titys, God of health
Lyconean Phoebus, source of wealth,
Come with Thy countenance divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills
Beyond the darkness, starry-eyed
Earth’s root is fixed firm by Thy will
With golden lyre, the fields from Thee
Receive their rich fertility
Bearer of light, the Muses head
Noble and lovely, with arrows dread
O Delian King, who’s illumined eye
Views all within, and beneath the sky,
Who’s locks are gold, and oracles sure,
Who’s omens good and precepts pure.
Hear me entreat for human kind
Hear, be present with benign mind
For Thou surveyest the boundless all
And every part of this earthly ball
Abundant blessed, thy piercing sight
Extends beneath the gloomy night
Tis Thine all nature to inspire
With music of Thy harmonizing lyre
All strings now tuned to sweet accord
Divinely reverberate each chord
Immortal lyre, touched by Thee
Yields a Dorian melody
All nature’s tribes, their difference owe
And changing seasons from Thee flow.
Hence mixed by Thee in equal parts
Summer and Winter in alternate dance
Come with Thy bow of burning gold
Come with Thy arrows of desire
Come with Thy lyre, O clouds unfold
Come with Thy chariot of fire
O two-horned God, the winds Thou send
The seal of the cosmos, Thine to tend
Hear me blest Lord, in these rites rejoice
Save Thy mystics with a suppliant voice