Ethereal Language in "Daughters of Albion"

When reading "Visions of the Daughters of Albion," I was struck by its natural imagery. Given the fiery, "electric" nature of previous message poems, or poems of revolutionary sentiment, I was surprised that the trio's misery seemed to be couched in pastoral, albeit dark, metaphors. The poem uses "soft American plains" as hope. Oothoon describes herself as prey throughout the poem, like a "fruit that the worm feed on," or as that of eagles. Here, nature is used to render the situation horrid, yet typical and natural in our eyes. Blake used this imagery, often utilized to pacify readers and take them to a beautiful place beyond the common world to describe rape, jealousy and slavery. In doing this, I beleive he intended to remind readers that the oppression of women and gender dynamics which effect both genders are equally commonplace, but must, like nature, be called into attention.