In Blake’s few sharp lines, he packs a disturbing contrast. At first, personified abstractions—Cruelty, Jealousy, Terror, Secrecy—seem to wear human features: a heart, a face, a form, a dress. But then the poem twists; those soft human parts turn hard and industrial. The dress becomes forged iron, the body a fiery forge, the face a sealed furnace, and the heart a hungry gorge, a furnace mouth devouring fuel. The speaker’s voice is grim and unflinching, as if revealing the true machinery beneath our moral failures. The mood grows claustrophobic, heated, and relentless. Where a traditional divine image might show mercy and love, Blake shows how dark passions transform the human into something mechanical, consuming, and terrifyingly sacred in its own right. It’s a vision of inner life as a scorching factory, leaving no room for tenderness.
A DIVINE IMAGE — Summary
Cruelty has a human heart, And Jealousy a human face; Terror the human form divine, And Secresy the human dress.
The human dress is forged iron, The human form a fiery forge, The human face a furnace sealed, The human heart its hungry gorge.