From Blake’s Songs of Experience. published in 1794, this was one of the series of poems which explore the harsh realities of late 18th and early 19th Century life during the time of King George III, known — ironically given the terrible social conditions of the time — as the Romantic Era. Most of the poems in the “Songs of Experience” category are matched by an idealistic portrayal in Songs of Innocence. The contrast is Blake’s method of social protest.

‘A Divine Image’ is an ironic title; what Blake presents is anything but divine. The indefinite article ‘A’ indicates that this is only one negative aspect of Blake’s complex range of beliefs. As the companion poem ‘The Divine Image’ makes clear, Blake believed that man was made in God’s image, in accordance with Genesis 1:27, and was capable of physical and spiritual perfection. Here, in this brief but chilling poem, he was presenting the ultimate negative point of view.

Even in the fearful world presented by this poem, he touches on the source of the evil; the terror stirred up by a cruel and punitive religious establishment.

Structure
The poem comprises two quatrains, that is four-lined stanzas, with an ABCB rhyme pattern. The rhyme is strong and heavy and emphatic.

The metrical rhythm is iambic tetrameter, that is four metrical feet per line, where a foot comprises one unstressed followed by one stressed syllable. This creates a solemn, heavy tread that reflects the frighteningly negative view.

Language and Imagery
The poet capitalises the defining human characteristics so they represent universal emotions and traits. They form a lexical field of evil.

The ABCB rhyme scheme emphasises the heavy rhythmic tread, a plodding progression of destructiveness. The words at the end of each line are monosyllabic masculine rhymes, with doom-laden elongated vowels.