Amazing the conversations you get into at St Deiniol’s. Over a very agreeable curry this evening three of us got talking about Blake's Jerusalem: which, as one of my companions pointed out, is the only hymn which consists of four questions, the answer to each of them being ‘no’.
He said that as a criticism of the hymn, a dislike shared by our other companion at the table. As we know, opinion is sharply divided over Jerusalem. I’m a keen fan of Blake’s classic of deep topography and psychogeographical potentiality, so, outnumbered, I swerved the conversation in another direction by offering the observation that there’s very few hymns at all which consist of questions.
The thoughtful lull in our conversation ended when we latched onto this one: Where you there when they crucified my Lord? A hymn, we noticed, which (like Jerusalem) consists of four questions, the answer to each of them being ‘no’. ‘No’, that is, unless you believe in deep topography and psychogeographical potentiality. I left it there.
john davies
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