It is often assumed that the poem was inspired by the apocryphal story that a young Jesus, accompanied by Joseph of Arimathea, a tin merchant, travelled to what is now England and visited Glastonbury during his unknown years.

[2] However, according to British folklore scholar A. W. Smith, "there was little reason to believe that an oral tradition concerning a visit made by Jesus to Britain existed before the early part of the twentieth century".

[3] Instead, the poem draws on an older story, repeated in Milton's History of Britain, that Joseph of Arimathea, alone, travelled to preach to the ancient Britons after the death of Jesus.

[a] In the most common interpretation of the poem, Blake asks whether a visit by Jesus briefly created heaven in England, in contrast to the "dark Satanic Mills" of the Industrial Revolution.

[7][8] The original text is found in the preface Blake wrote for inclusion with Milton, a Poem, following the lines beginning "The Stolen and Perverted Writings of Homer & Ovid: of Plato & Cicero, which all Men ought to contemn: ..."[9] Blake's poem And did those feet in ancient time, Walk upon Englands[b] mountains green: And was the holy Lamb of God, On Englands pleasant pastures seen!

Ch 29.v[9] The phrase "dark Satanic Mills", which entered the English language from this poem, is often interpreted as referring to the early Industrial Revolution and its destruction of nature and human relationships.

"[13] Opponents referred to the factory as satanic, and accused its owners of adulterating flour and using cheap imports at the expense of British producers.

Blake's phrase resonates with a broader theme in his works; what he envisioned as a physically and spiritually repressive ideology based on a quantified reality.

Blake saw the cotton mills and collieries of the period as a mechanism for the enslavement of millions, but the concepts underpinning the works had a wider application:[15][16] And all the Arts of Life they changed into the Arts of Death in Albion./...[e]Another interpretation is that the phrase refers to the established Church of England, which, in contrast to Blake, preached a doctrine of conformity to the established social order and class system.

[17] In 2007, the Bishop of Durham, N. T. Wright, explicitly recognised that element of English subculture when he acknowledged the view that "dark satanic mills" could refer to the "great churches".

[18] In similar vein, in 1967 the critic F. W. Bateson stated "the adoption by the Churches and women's organizations of this anti-clerical paean of free love is amusing evidence of the carelessness with which poetry is read".

The phrase has become a byword for divine energy, and inspired the title of the 1981 film Chariots of Fire, in which the hymn "Jerusalem" is sung during the final scenes.

[21] However, local people say that records from Lavant, near Chichester, state that Blake wrote "And did those feet in ancient time" in an east-facing alcove of the Earl of March public house.

Blake wanted to stir people from their intellectual slumbers, and the daily grind of their toil, to see that they were captivated in the grip of a culture which kept them thinking in ways which served the interests of the powerful.

[8]The words of the poem "stress the importance of people taking responsibility for change and building a better society 'in Englands green and pleasant land.

'"[8] The poem, which was little known during the century which followed its writing,[29] was included in the patriotic anthology of verse The Spirit of Man, edited by the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Robert Bridges, and published in 1916, at a time when morale had begun to decline because of the high number of casualties in World War I and the perception that there was no end in sight.

[30] Under these circumstances, Bridges, finding the poem an appropriate hymn text to "brace the spirit of the nation [to] accept with cheerfulness all the sacrifices necessary,"[31] asked Sir Hubert Parry to put it to music for a Fight for Right campaign meeting in London's Queen's Hall.

I do not think any word passed about it, yet he made it perfectly clear that this was the one note and one moment of the song which he treasured ...[36]Davies arranged for the vocal score to be published by Curwen in time for the concert at the Queen's Hall on 28 March and began rehearsing it.

There was even concern that the composer might withdraw the song from all public use, but the situation was saved by Millicent Fawcett of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS).

In 2020 a new musical arrangement of the poem by Errollyn Wallen, a British composer born in Belize, was sung by South African soprano Golda Schultz at the Last Night of the Proms.

"Jerusalem" is considered to be England's most popular patriotic song; The New York Times said it was "fast becoming an alternative national anthem,"[44] and there have been calls to give it official status.

Questions in Parliament have not clarified the situation, as answers from the relevant minister say that since there is no official national anthem, each sport must make its own decision.

Varied contributions come from Howard Goodall, Billy Bragg, Garry Bushell, Lord Hattersley, Ann Widdecombe and David Mellor, war proponents, war opponents, suffragettes, trade unionists, public schoolboys, the Conservatives, the Labour Party, football supporters, the British National Party, the Women's Institute, London Gay Men's Chorus, London Community Gospel Choir, Fat Les and naturists.

[51] A rendition of "Jerusalem" was included in the 1973 album Brain Salad Surgery by the progressive rock group Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

[54] Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson incorporated the full text of the poem into his 6:42 track Jerusalem (co-written with Roy Z), a part of his William Blake inspired 1998 solo album The Chemical Wedding.

[57] The hymn has featured in many other films and television programmes including Four Weddings and a Funeral, How to Get Ahead in Advertising, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Saint Jack, Calendar Girls, Season 3: Episode 22 of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Goodnight Mister Tom, Women in Love, The Man Who Fell to Earth, Shameless, Jackboots on Whitehall, Quatermass and the Pit, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Spud 2: The Madness Continues, and Collateral (UK TV series).

In an episode of Peep Show, Jez (Robert Webb) records a track titled "This Is Outrageous" which uses the first and a version of the second line in a verse.

[44] British band The Verve reworks lines from "Jerusalem" in their song "Love Is Noise", asking, "Will those feet in modern times/Walk on soles that are made in China?