"People often see belligerence and justification for militarism in Jerusalem's line, 'nor shall my sword sleep in my hand' - partly because Hubert Parry wrote the music for Jerusalem during the First World War, and gave it a rousing atmosphere - but Blake is talking of a 'mental fight', about the force of conscience. He's arming himself with his spiritual beliefs against the industrial revolution, when people who were living at the pace of nature were being forced to live at the pace of capital. For me, the song is asking what would Jesus Christ have said if he had returned then, how could Christian values exist in industrialism?".
The Observer
22nd October 2000.