Doc Yoder's Notes: Milton A Poem

Doc Yoder's Notes
Milton a Poem by William Blake (1804-1815)

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In Milton, and especially in the Bard's Song, Blake is using Paradise Lost much the same as he uses the Bible in the Lambeth Prophecies. And this use of PL works at two levels: The Bard expects Milton to recognize the epic in his song; Blake expects his reader to recognize not only the epic, but also Milton's personal life (at least) in the poem of which the Bard's Song is only a part.

Writing a parody, Blake must make his poem enough like the original to invoke the identification for the reader. In the case of the Bard's song, the reader is not only the assembly who hears the song, but also Milton, into whose bosom the Bard leaps.

The Bard's Song features Satan as a character whose transgression brings turmoil and sorrow into the world. Much of the emphasis in the judgment scenes is on the difficulty of judging Satan when he is himself convinced of his own brotherly affection and good will toward Palamabron.

The effect of the story is to inspire Milton to unexampled sacrifice in leaving Eden in Eternity to return to Generation in order to correct the errors caused by Paradise Lost.

What errors have been caused by Paradise Lost? How would we know?

Satan's conviction of his good will in his transgression
Satan's being revealed as the Covering Cherub
The Bard's Song is modeled on the Phaeton myth, but the father/son relationship is replaced by a sibling relationship

How does Palamabron compare w/ Adam?
How do the emanations compare w/ Eve?
How does the style compare w/ PL?
What does Milton do when he gets to Generation?

When Milton enters Blake's left foot, merging their poetic identities, the problem spirals out to the reader.

Does Satan in Milton resemble more PL's Satan or the Son? In Milton Satan takes on the task of Palamabron -- it is a sort of Satanic overreaching, but in his being convinced of his own good intentions, Blake's Satan may resemble more Milton's Christ.

Much of Milton is devoted to defining the levels of Blake's universe:

Ulro, Generation, Beulah, Eden
"female space" (10:6-7)
infinity/vortexes (15:21-35)

pl. 17:10-11 (Erdman): Rahab and the daughters of Zelophahad (including Tirzah) are the 6 females of Milton's emanation

Milton divisions:

Book I:

Preface and Intro to the Bard's Song
--rejection of Classical canon in favor of "our imaginations" and the "Sublime of the Bible"

Bard's Song (2:16-14:9)
includes the question, "Say first What moved Milton?" to which the Bard's song is the answer; and the response of those at the "eternal tables" to the song and the bard's taking "refuge" in Milton's breast

Satan (one of the elect) pities Palamabron's work at the harrow, and pleads for a chance to relieve him. Palamabron resents Satan's intrusion, but does not want to appear ungrateful. Los finally grants Satan permission.
The next day, after Satan has driven Palamabron's horses at the harrow, Palamabron goes to the stable to find his horses maddened, and he complains to Los, but acknowledges that he should have spoken up sooner.
Los decrees that everyone must do his own work, but when Satan returns to his mill, everything is in disarray; the servants are drunk and dancing to Palamabron's songs (for Palamabron had worked the mill in Satan's absence).
Los assumes responsibility for the whole mess, and declares this day a "blank in Nature," but fighting quickly erupts (explicitly recalling the war in Heaven from PL IV). Thulloh is slain, and Los buries him in secret.
Palamabron calls a "Great Solemn Assembly" so that "he who will not defend Truth, may be compelled to / Defend a Lie, that he may be snared & caught & taken" (8:46-8)
The judgment falls in favor of Palamabron; Satan in his wrath revolts, claims control as God, and seeks to roof in the angry Los; Satan creates a female space called Canaan. Satan apparently contains Los, who still refuses to worship Satan, but Satan continues his power, dividing the nations.
Satan is identified as the Hebrew God, worshipped "In his Synagogues" "under the Unutterable Name" (11[12]: 14).
The "Great Solemn Assembly" meets again -- or is it a continuation of the same meeting, having been interrupted by Satan's outburst? Leutha's confession (11[12]:35-13[14]:11): she tells the story of the day Satan drove Palamabron's horses (fits back into 7:10-15). -- Leutha's Serpent and the Gnomes curse Satan, getting him "To do unkind things in kindness! . . . to say / The most irritating things in the midst of tears and love" (12[13]:32-33)
Enitharmon creates a Space to protect Satan from punishment (Catherine defends Haley?); Lucifer is set to guard the space, but pride leads him astray; he is replaced by Molech who is impatient; Then the Divine Hand "found" the "Two Limits": Opacity, named Satan; and Contraction, named Adam (13[14]:20-21)
Bard's song ends with the reconciliation of the Redeemed w/ the Elect (the conversion of the Jews?) and the end of jealousy as Elynittria brings Leutha to Palamabron's bed.
When questioned by the Eternals, the Bard says that he is inspired, that he knows his song is true because he sings "According to the inspiration of the Poetic Genius" (14[15]:1). Amid murmuring, Albion trembles, shaking the earth to its foundations. The terrified Bard takes refuge in Milton's bosom.
With the Bard in his bosom, Milton arises and recognizes his own error, that "The Nations still / Follow after the detestable Gods of Priam"; "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." (14[15]:14-31).
Milton begins his journey back to earth by entering his own shadow (14[15]:36-41)

Milton's Return from Eternity

Geography:

"The nature of infinity is this" (15[17]:21-35) -- Vortexes
"The Mundane Shell is a vast Concave Earth" (17[19]: 21-30)
"Four Universes round the Mundane Egg remain Chaotic" (19[21]:15-26) --see illumination on plate 32

Enitharmon and her daughters think Milton is coming to release Satan on the world; Los apparently believes this and seeks to block Milton's path (17[19]:31-33)

Orc and the shadowy female argue: she wants to greet Milton in the clothing of jealousy and torment; Orc urges the clothing of Pity & Compassion; the female seems to triumph, but their "enormous conflict" creates an earthquake "to wake the Dead" (18[20]:2-50)

Urizen comes out to confront Milton; Milton builds him "a Human form in the Valley of Beth Peor" (19[21]:14); while Milton does this, Rahab and Tirzah (as the dark hermaphrodite) try to tempt Milton to come to Ephraim, where he can be bound "in bands of War & be thou King / Of Canaan"(20[22]:5), but Milton resists, and continues to form the "Clay of Urizen"

Narrative intrusion by Blake:
      "O how can I with my gross tongue that cleaveth to the dust,
      Tell of the Four-fold Man, in starry numbers fitly orderd
      Or how can I with my cold hand of clay! But thou O Lord
      Do with me as thou wilt! for I am nothing, and vanity.
      If thou chuse to elect a worm, it shall remove the mountains" (20[22]:15-19

"Now Albions sleeping Humanity began to turn upon his Couch;
Feeling the electric flame of Miltons awful percipitate descent" (20[22]: 25-26)

Albion turns in his sleep; the narrator hopes that Albion's inner gates are not closed, for inward is where God (the heavenly father) lives; many of the Eternals enter a kind of Hell and join the Watchers of Ulro. Los almost despairs, but then he recalls an ancient prophecy that Milton shall come to Felpham and release Orc from the chains of jealousy (20[22]: 56-61)

After Milton enters Blake through his left foot, Blake puts on the sandal of the vegetable world to walk forward through Eternity; meanwhile, Los and Enitharmon, who "Milton drove / Down into Ulro" (Milton is the object of drove in that clause) realize their mistake, for "they had not heard the Bard, / Whose song calld Milton to the attempt"; the Divine Family (as one man Jesus) says that they cannot renew Milton, although the Divine Vision remains everywhere.

"Twas too late now to recede. Los enterd into my soul:
His terrors now posses'd me whole! I arose in fury & strength" (22[24]: 13-14)
Los merges with Blake / Milton (22[24]:4-14) to form a 3-fold poet/prophet (or is it 4-fold, counting the Bard who sought refuge in Milton's bosom?)

--The merger of Blake w/ Milton and Los initiates the reassembling of Albion, the reversing of his divisions
--This is comparable to Jesus's polyvalence as signifying the life of all other humans
--B's use of his own biography suggests that his experience replicates the experience of humanity
--cf. the 18th century interest in savages and primitive cultures as comparable to childhood
--cf. the belief that individual langauge is analogous to evolution of language in general

At Los's abode, Rintrah and Palamabron try to warn Los about Milton; like Los & Enitharmon before, they have not heard the Bard's song, so they don't know that Milton has in fact come to correct the errors of which they accuse him. (cf. their speech (22[24]:29-23[25:20) to Blake's statement to Crabbe Robinson about Milton's error); Los responds with the ancient prophecy, and urges them to stick by him (23[25]:32-24[26]:43); they reject his plea. Thus, Los it torn between Pity and Wrath? (24[26]:46)

"Los is by mortals nam'd Time Enitharmon is nam'd Space
. . .
Time is the mercy of Eternity; without Times swiftness
Which is the swiftest of all things: all were eternal torment"
(24[26]: 68-76)

Los addresses the workers at the wine-press, telling them that "The Awakener is come," that the last vintage is at hand, and to keep working only a little longer (25[27]: 17-62)

The narrator seems to intrude to address the reader, teaching the reader how to read the poem into the world of nature: "Thou seest . . . these are the Sons of Los" (25[27]:66-26[28]:12; or maybe all of plate 26[28])

The wine-press of Los is apparently the wine-press of Luvah who laid its foundation; a long description the vermin that surround it and the orgy of death around the &$34;Human grapes" (27[29]:1-41)
      ""This Wine-press [of Los] is call'd War on Earth, it is the Printing-Press
      "Of Los; and here he lays his words in order above the mortal brain
      "As cogs are formd in a wheel to turn the cogs of the adverse wheel." (27[29]: 8-10)

Book I ends with a survey of "Nature . . . a Vision of the Science of the Elohim" (29[31]:65), but it not clear when this survey begins. It probably begins with the narrative address to the reader "Thou seest" at 25[27]:66, but it certainly begins by 27[29]:42.

"Every Time less than a pulsation of the artery
Is equal in its period & value to Six Thousand Years.
For in this Period the Poets Work is Done: and all the Great
Events of Time start forth & are conceivd in such a Period
Within a Moment: a Pulsation of the Artery." (28[30]: 62-29[31]:3)

Blake in Bk. I:

14:36-41 (p. 108-9): "Where I write"
15:47-50 (p. 110): Milton enters B's left foot
20:15-24 (p. 114): severe representational anxiety
21:4-14 (p. 115): binding on the sandal to walk thro' Eternity
22:4-26 (p. 116-117): Los merges w/ B.

Milton: Book II:

"How wide the Gulf & Unpassable between Simplicity and Insipidity"; "Contraries are Positives; A Negation is not a Contrary"

--30-31: About Beulah, its creation as a place of refuge for the emanations from the Wars of Eternity; it is into Beulah, a "pleasant shadow" that "all Ololon descended"

The weeping of Beulah and of all nations at the coming of the Lord as seen in the descent of Ololon; Satan and Rahab spread "Corporeal Strife," "War/ Not Mental, as the Wars of Eternity" in Los's halls in the Furnaces of Golgonooza

An address to the reader: all the sweetest bird songs and flower scents are a vision of the lamentations of Beulah

--32- : Change of scene to Milton sitting up on the Couch of Death, conversing in vision and dream w/ the Seven Angels of the Presence

Milton announces his intention to leave; through Hillel the 7 Angels instruct him about States and Individuals, about how Satan imposed form, but how "the Divine Humanity & Mercy gave us a Human form"

They tell Milton that he is a state about to be created, the state of "Eternal Annihilation that none but the Living shall / Dare to enter"

--33- : back to the Songs of Beulah, in which now the Divine Voice is heard: the Divine Voice addresses the Daughter of Babylon (Vala?), chiding her for her jealousy, showing his own jealousy, threatening to redeem her continually until she brings Jerusalem to his arms (as Ooothoon had promised to do for Theortormon)

Singers of Beulah sing a short song to comfort Ololon and then the 4 states of "Humanity in its repose" are revealed to them; Ololon sought Or-Ulro (associated w/ the bowels), and viewed the Polypus

Around this Polypus, "Los continual builds the Mundane Shell" (illuminated on p. 133 or pl. C32 or E36)

Ololon looks down into Los's shell ("into the Heavens of Ulro") and surveys the created physical world of death, woven by the Female Forms who are "compelled" to do it (by whom? Los?): in this world
      "War & Hunting: the Two Fountains of the River of Life
      Are become Fountains of bitter Death & of corroding Hell
      Till Brotherhood is changed into a Curse & a Flattery
      By Differences between Ideas, that Ideas themselves, (which are
      The Divine Members) may be slain in offerings for sin" (35:2-6)

Golgonooza, to which Ololon is apparently headed cannot be seen w/o passing the Polypus or becoming sexual and vegetative

35:26ff: Ololon approaches the death couch of Milton, sees the 8 Angels there, and prostrates herself, asking for forgiveness

Ololon has apparently opened a "wide road" to Eternity

There is a moment that Satan cannot find, and it is in this moment that Ololon descended to Los & Enitharmon (35:42-47)

Los's messengers are Wild Thyme and the Lark, whose nest is the Gate of Los

36:11ff: the narrative finally returns to Blake's own garden, and Ololon's descent into it as a "Virgin of twelve years"

Blake says that when Los joined w/ him, that Los took him from Lambeth to Felpham so he could write "these Visions/ To display Natures cruel holiness: the deceits of Natural Religion" (36:21-27) (cf. letter 26, Erdman pp. 728-729)

Blake addresses Ololon in his garden, saying he is ready to obey, even to accept affliction, but asks for pity for his "Shadow of Delight" who is "sick with fatigue"

Ololon asks after Milton whom she seeks, and is answered with a vision of the unredeemed Milton as the "Covering Cherub & within him Satan/ And Rahab," and a prospect of idolatrous/hypocrit religion in Milton's Shadow (37:1-38:4)

From the Covering Cherub Milton, dressed in black, severe, descended down a paved road into Blake's cottage

Milton and Blake look into Satan's bosom, and see a vision of captive Jerusalem and the slavery of Babylon

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38:28ff.: Milton's decision to leave Eternity and return to Eternal Death, his decision to self-annihilate, is analogous to Blake's decision to leave Felpham and Hayley's patronage and return to the chanciness of London and business. The confrontation between Blake and Hayley is replayed as the confrontation between Milton and Satan at 38:28-39:31 (cf. Blake's letters 22-25 in Erdman pp. 718-727).

Milton addresses Satan as "my Spectre," telling him that he knows he (M) could annihilate him (S), but that would only perpetuate the cycle of violence and oppression, the progressive incrustations or coverings; instead Milton teaches the doctrine of Self-Annihilation;
Satan claims to be God and demands obedience, suddenly the Starry Seven appear in a column of flame to call for Albion to awaken;
Satan thunders at Felpham, and is "permitted" to "imitate / The Eternal Great Humanity Divine" as Milton's parody of the trinity in PL with Chaos, Sin and Death

Albion rises and sits; he sees his Spectre, Jerusalem and Babylon, and tries to rise, but his strength fails and he falls down asleep; Los resumes his watch over him (39:32-52)

After this climax "Urizen faints" and we are told that Milton laboured in the Mundane Shell "tho here before my cottage"

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Milton now confronts Ololon, who asks if she/the feminine portion is to blame for Natural Religion; almost as she speaks Rahab appears like the midday sun in Satan's bosom, Religion hidden in War, as "John in Patmos saw" (referring to the biblical Book of Revelation)

Milton delivers a great speech to Ololon about why he has come ("To cast off . . . ") all manifestations / incrustations of the "destroyers of Jerusalem" (40:28-41:28)

Ololon confronts her sexual fears that her "Sexual" "Power" cannot "sustain the severe contentions / Of Friendship," and she divides into six females (probably Rahab, Tirzah and the other four daughters of Zelophahad), who "divides away from Ololon" and flees "into the depths / Of Milton's Shadow," apparently leaving Ololon intact, ready for annihilation

Ololon's descent brings on the final re-assimilation:

the Starry Eight become "One Man Jesus the Saviour"
Ololon is his textual garment: "Written within and without in woven letters: & the Writing/ Is the Divine Revelation in the Litteral Expression" (42:13-14)
Jesus walks forth into Albion's bosom

Blake collapses, awakens with Catherine at his side

Los and Enitharmon move to London and open for business/vision

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Doc Yoder's Notes Milton a Poem by William Blake (1804-1815)

Doc Yoder's Notes
Milton a Poem by William Blake (1804-1815)