In 1793, at the heart of the revolutions shaking the Atlantic world, William Blake etched this prophetic poem of unparalleled visionary power onto eighteen illuminated plates. Divided into a brief Preludium and a longer Prophecy, the text takes the American Revolution as its material, yet transcends it to forge a universal metaphor for spiritual awakening. Orc — deity of rebellion — breaks his chains to confront the Angel of Albion, embodiment of imperial tyranny. Washington and Franklin stand alongside mythological beings in an allegory of creativity's triumph over oppressive reason. Yet Blake also understands that every revolution may turn against itself: Urizen, god of frozen order, temporarily smothers the revolt — prefiguring the empires that, having won their own freedom, go on to export their dominion under the guise of civilisation. This illuminated book, the first of the Continental Prophecies, resonates today with unsettling clarity: the Albion–America relationship speaks to every hegemonic power that claims to liberate what it controls. The United States of today — as invader of Latin America and the Middle East — has assumed the very role of the poem's Albion, in a spectacular reversal. It is perhaps here that the prophecy, in an unexpected inversion, reaches its greatest force.
 
BLAKE, William. America a Profecy. Montreal: Pierre Turcotte Editor, 2026, 24 p.