Symbol Analysis
Well, since the poem is called "Jerusalem," we should expect that word at least to come up in the poem, right? Right? Yep—come up it sure does, twice. In the second stanza the speaker wonders if Jerusalem was once "builded" in England during Jesus' hypothetical visit there, and in the last stanza he talks about building Jerusalem again. Jerusalem here is really the New Jerusalem. In this poem, and in other Blake poems, the New Jerusalem is a symbol for perfection itself, a peaceful, perfect, holy city if there ever was one.
- Lines 7-8: The speaker asks if Jerusalem was once "builded" in England. Jerusalem symbolizes a holy, heaven-on-earth type past that the speaker will yearn for later in the poem.
- Lines 13-16: The speaker will not stop fighting until he, and his compadres, build Jerusalem again. The fight and the building of Jerusalem are metaphors for changing the world, for the elimination of injustice (as symbolized by the "dark Satanic mills").