Previously posted April 2021
Next to the Bible the poet John Milton was Blake's most formative spiritual influence. 'Paradise Lost' was the great religious epic in the English language, and Blake's calling as an epic poet is closely related to his affinity with Milton. As early as 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell' he commented on Milton's vision. Quotations from 'Paradise Lost' and allusions to it fill the pages of The Four Zoas. The evolving myth of Urizen, Orc, and Los may be understood at one level as a meditation upon Milton's leading characters--the Almighty, Satan, and Messiah.
In the first six nights of the Four Zoas Blake had exhausted his vision and didn't know at first how to proceed. Then he was surprised by joy and enabled to construct a Christian conclusion to the myth. But he didn't bother to engrave the Four Zoas because his interests had changed. In the next long poem, Milton, he worked through and meditated upon the Moment of Grace and savored the new spiritual world which he had inherited. Milton is a record of Blake's Christian honeymoon.
In the first part of Milton', called the 'Bard's Song', Blake deals with the dramatic years at Felpham. Here we find Blake's definitive and full bodied portrait of Satan. Blake had come full circle from his ironic identification with the Devil in MHH. Now he identified Hayley with Satan, which seems rather uncharitable. We need to bear in mind that there were two Hayleys in Blake's mind. The first Hayley was a corporeal friend who had lured him to Felpham and tried to 'do him in' spiritually: "Corporeal friends are spiritual enemies". This Hayley served as tempter in what we may call Blake's last temptation. The other Hayley was a fellow sufferer with Blake, an artist whom Blake continued to encourage and nurture, as the letters attest.In the remainder of Milton Blake's hero, John Milton, after a hundred years in Eternity, reenacts the kenosis (self emptying) of Christ and descends to redeem his successor - Blake - and mankind. This of course is a climactic moment in the poem. An unheard of thing! One leaves Heaven to return to 'this vale of tears'. Well, not quite unprecedented; Milton simply followed the path of Jesus. In that way Blake gave Milton (the man) the highest approval possible.
The Bard's Song led to a loud murmuring in the Heavens of Albion, and "the loud voic'd Bard terrify'd took refuge in Miltons bosom; then Milton "took off the robe of the promise, & ungirded himself from the oath of God."
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New York Public Library Milton Plate 13 |
"And Milton said, I go to Eternal Death! The Nations still
Follow after the detestable Gods of Priam; in pomp
Of warlike selfhood, contradicting and blaspheming.
When will the Resurrection come; to deliver the sleeping body
From corruptibility: O when Lord Jesus wilt thou come?
Tarry no longer; for my soul lies at the gates of death.
I will arise and look forth for the morning of the grave.
I will go down to the sepulcher to see if morning breaks!
I will go down to self annihilation and eternal death,
Lest the Last Judgment come & find me unannihilate."
And I be siez'd & giv'n into the hands of my own Selfhood
The Lamb of God is seen thro' mists & shadows, hov'ring
Over the sepulchers in clouds of Jehovah & winds of Elohim
A disk of blood, distant; & heav'ns & earth's roll dark between
What do I here before the Judgment? without my Emanation?
With the daughters of memory, & not with the daughters of inspiration
I in my Selfhood am that Satan: I am that Evil One!
He is my Spectre! in my obedience to loose him from my Hells
To claim the Hells, my Furnaces, I go to Eternal Death."
Blake's myth was to a large degree patterned after Paradise Lost. His difference with Milton resembled one of those "severe contentions of Friendship." Milton had spoken; Blake replied in MHH; now he replies again! That's the shape of the poem as far as Blake himself was concerned.
Thereafter Milton allied himself with Los, giving, with Blake a triumvirate against which none could stand. Milton is an essay describing the triumph of Jesus over all the forces of the world.
Between the end of Songs of Innocence and the Moment of Grace, Blake had seen and described nature as corrupt, as groaning in travail. Now in Milton he sees creation redeemed just as Paul had said that it would be:
[21] Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
[22] For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
[23] And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
The poem is full of a beauty and joy which had been largely absent from Blake's pen since 'Songs of Innocence'. It contains some of his finest nature poetry.
Milton, Plate 31 [34], (E 139)
"Thou hearest the Nightingale begin the Song of Spring.
The Lark sitting upon his earthy bed, just as the morn
Appears, listens silent; then springing from the waving Cornfield, loud
He leads the Choir of Day: trill, trill, trill, trill,
Mounting upon the wings of light into the Great Expanse,
Reecchoing against the lovely blue & shining heavenly Shell,
His little throat labours with inspiration; every feather
On throat & breast & wings vibrates with the effluence Divine.
All Nature listens silent to him, & the awful Sun
Stands still upon the Mountain looking on this little Bird
With eyes of soft humility & wonder, love & awe.
Then loud from their green covert all the Birds begin their Song:
The Thrush, the Linnet & the Goldfinch, Robin & the Wren
Awake the Sun from his sweet reverie upon the Mountain.
The Nightingale again assays his song, & thro' the day
And thro' the night warbles luxuriant, every Bird of Song
Attending his loud harmony with admiration & love." From Chapter 1 of Larry's book Ram Horn'd With Gold.
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