Descriptions of Illustrations to Milton's L'Allegro and Il Penseroso, (E 682)
"Sometimes with secure delight The upland Hamlets will invite When the merry Bells ring round And the jocund Rebecks Sound To many a Youth & many a Maid Dancing in the chequerd Shade And Young & Old come forth to play On a Sunshine Holiday" Blake states: "In this Design is Introduced" "Mountains on whose barren breast The Labring Clouds do often rest" Blake states:"Mountains Clouds Rivers Trees appear Humanized on the Sunshine Holiday. The Church Steeple with its merry bells The Clouds arise from the bosoms of Mountains While Two Angels sound their Trumpets in the Heavens to announce the Sunshine -Holiday"
In the fourth
illustration to L'Allegro Blake is insistent once again
that we look at multiple layers of reality. Although the lines
from Milton's poem call most of our attention to the 'Sunshine
Holiday', Blake draws most of our attention to more ephemeral
ideas. The mirthful group around the maypole, including only
young people, are most expressive of the 'Sunshine Holiday' as
an experience of mirth. Although Milton's lines includes the old
in those who come out to play, Blake includes the old in a
subdued group composed of the weaker and more disabled elements
of society. These two groups, the revellers and less-advantaged,
comprise the lower section of the image which shows the natural
or material existence. Blake reminds us again of contrary states
which epitomize our natural world. On the right hand side of the picture the soul or psyche, as a butterfly, rises near the crippled elder and the helpful child. We see the soul ascending to the level of what may be seen as a Christ figure with a compassionate face and a finger pointing upward. Here the image transitions to a level beyond the material which Milton alluded to with the words: "Mountains on whose barren breast The Labring Clouds do often rest."
As in the second illustration to L'Allegro portraying the Lark as a messenger, where each figure represented something other than what is seen by the eye, the figures in the upper part of this illustration are more than they appear to be.
Working upward in the picture we find a woman with a wine glass at her lips who is pouring forth from an urn a flowing stream of water. The wine she drinks is transformation, the water she pours is materiality; the world below is the natural world, above is the spiritual world.
The larger central figures are those mentioned by Milton: the mountain and the cloud, perhaps in the guise of Vala and Luvah in their eternal aspects.
Numerous figures blowing trumpets, offering crowns, playing instruments, presenting the feast, providing ambrosia, and streaming past the sun as if the light itself, complete the composition of Blake's Sunshine Holiday.
Letters, To Butts, (E 712) "The Light of the Morning Heavens Mountains adorning In particles bright The jewels of Light Distinct shone & clear-- Amazd & in fear I each particle gazed Astonishd Amazed For each was a Man Human formd. Swift I ran For they beckond to me Remote by the Sea Saying. Each grain of Sand Every Stone on the Land Each rock & each hill Each fountain & rill Each herb & each tree Mountain hill Earth & Sea Cloud Meteor & Star Are Men Seen Afar"
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