Personification of England

This picture, the thirty-seventh plate of Jerusalem, shows Albion in despair. Albion is a poetic name for England. Derived from the Latin adjective 'albus' (white) it refers to the white cliffs of Dover.

Albion is occasionally presented as a vigorous and joyful figure (as in the 1793 picture Glad Day where, inspired by newly-independent America and revolutionary France, England has become aware that freedom through revolution is possible), but he is most often depicted sleeping, suffering or in despair.

In the prophetic book Milton Albion is asleep, 'heavy and dull' until Blake and Milton awaken his revolutionary fervour, while Jerusalem tells the story of the regeneration of Albion from harshness and cruelty.