The Complete Poems

by William Blake

  19 a comet Mortal men (here called Spectres) see Milton as a comet or falling star.

  21–35 ‘Vortex’ is a term in Cartesian cosmology meaning ‘sphere of influence’ around a star (Stevenson). In B.’s adaptation, a vortex is any idea or philosophy which makes a whole world to itself, and each is a form of human experience. The traveller, while within a vortex, sees it as we see our own world – our little circle of cornfields and valleys with the heavenly bodies above – i.e., partially. Having left a vortex, he may see it from the outside as a closed system, a globe separated from him, or he may see it (more truly) as a human form, a friend.

  45–7 so Milton’s shadow fell… falling star Compare the fall of Mulciber in Paradise Lost 1.742–5: ‘From morn/To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve/A summer’s day; and with the setting sun/Dropp’d from the zenith like a falling star.’

  P1. 15.51–Pl. 17.1 the Three Heavens… three females Milton’s mortal loves had represented the whole of female beauty (in head, heart and loins) to him.

  P1. 16 A full-page design shows Milton striving with Urizen. Inscription reads: ‘To Annihilate the Self-hood of Deceit & False Forgiveness’.

  P1. 17.2–3 that they… Selfhood In order that they (the twice three females, Milton’s emanation) might be renewed to life and reassumed as a part of Milton’s being, by his surrender of his narrower selfhood.

  7 Female forms Temptations which now surround him.

  11 Rahab and Tirzah The Whore of Babylon and her daughter the cruel Virgin collectively come to represent female will embodied in false religions.

  Tirzah, Milcah, Malah, Noah, Hoglah Daughters of Zelophehad who became his heirs. For B. they represent the materialism of the five senses, and a triumph of female will. Thus the idea here is: Milton’s wives and daughters (his collective emanation) contain the beauty of his poetic inspiration derived from Beulah, but they also contain the error of his false puritanic doctrines of Moral Law derived from Ulro. Mt Horeb or Sinai is the site of the Commandments and Law.

  13–14 they wrote… His dictate Milton’s daughters were his secretaries in his old age, when he was blind.

  16 Hor… Hermon Mountains and mountainous regions in and around Palestine.

  20Edom… Amalek Tribes bordering Palestine.

  31 Los the Vehicular terror Los is the vehicle of all poetry and prophecy. But he and Enitharmon here misunderstand Milton’s mission, and resist it.

  P1. 18 This plate is a late addition. Further implications of Milton’s descent are explored through an interchange between the SHADOWY FEMALE and ORC. The full story of these two figures (not important here) occurs in the preludium to Europe, and in FZ vii [a] and viii.

  2 The Shadowy Female Vala, bride of Luvah-Orc, in her fallen form becomes a brutalized Nature. Here she represents primitive hardships of natural existence and the Natural Religion that results.

  26 Take not the Human Form Orc replies that the female, which is but half of humanity, should not pretend to be the whole. Nature, which is but a passive and fallen material aspect of the universe, should not pretend to be its totality.

  39–41 Oothoon & Leutha parallel Jerusalem & Babylon as contrary aspects of female character – one representing Liberty, one representing Bondage. They are both ‘within’ the Shadowy Female as potential developments.

  P1. 19 A climax of the first part of the poem. Milton encounters URIZEN, and is tempted by RAHAB and TIRZAH. His response is to give warm life and human form to the cold and death-dealing god of Reason, and to ignore the temptations. In the geographical symbolism, Arnon (1. 6) is a river of birth, Jordan (1. 8) a river of deathly baptism. Mahanaim (1. 7) is the plain where Jacob had his vision of the angels. Succoth (1. 10) is on the border of Jordan, and had ‘clay ground’ (I Kings 7:46). Red clay is what Adam was made of, and is the Hebrew meaning of his name. The Valley of Beth Peor (1. 14) is the burial place of Moses, just short of the promised land which he never entered. In the ‘enticement’ passage below (19.36–20.6), Milton must resist crossing the river into a promised land of self-righteous holiness.

  15–24 Four Universes… without end A brief recapitulation of the fall of the Four Zoas, and the cosmic geography through which Milton presently travels. South (Intellect) is the region abandoned by Urizen and wrongly appropriated by Luvah. East was abandoned by Luvah. West is Tharmas, North is Urthona. They are also the four elements fire, air, water, earth. (See also 34.32–9, f 59.10–17.)

  27–8 Rahab… and Tirzah form the sum of Milton’s temptations to holiness, which was his former error as a poet.

  36–7 Come thou to Ephraim… Canaan… Amalekites A temptation to political power over the Promised Land and its enemies. (B. is thinking here of Milton’s career as propagandist for Cromwell.)

  39 The banks of Cam The site of Cambridge University, where Milton studied.

  41–3 Ahania… Enion… Vala The estranged emanations of Urizen, Tharmas and Luvah. Their sufferings are detailed in FZ.

  46 A temptation to subject Christian art (Jerusalem) to pagan art (the Grecian lyre). B. evidently felt that Milton had compromised himself on this issue by his use of classical mythology.

  48 Let her be Offerd up to Holiness! A temptation to sacrifice true faith to impersonal ‘Holiness’ and analytic theologizing; here again, B. is criticizing Milton’s poetry.

  55 She ties the knot Tirzah ties the brain, heart and genitals into limited forms. This is a temptation to believe in the reality of the material world and the material body.

  58–9 Hand, Hyle & Coban, Scofield, Reuben See ALBION, SONS OF, and ISRAEL, SONS OF. These figures are important in f but not here.

  P1. 20.3–6 A concluding temptation to be a spiritual dictator. Ephraim & Manasseh In biblical history, secessionist (hence faithless) regions of which Tirzah was capital.

  Hazor A Canaanite town whose king unsuccessfully led twelve tribes against the conquering Israelites.

  15–18 Blake interrupts himself at the daunting prospect of the high things to come in his narrative, as Milton does for the Invocation to Light which opens Paradise Lost III.

  16 the Four-fold Man The Divine Humanity, Albion with his Four Zoas.

  33 Og & Anak Biblical giants, foes of Israel who suffered crushing defeats. The implication is that they seem more dangerous than they are.

  43–5 the Eternals… wrathful at the sight of Milton, not understanding the reason for his descent, drive his human form into Ulro. Thus begins a new major action in the poem. See 21.16–44.

  46 the Watchers The seven angels guarding Milton.

  47 the Shadowy Eighth Milton’s sleeping Humanity.

  52 Rintrah & Palamabron Honest Wrath and Pity, Los’s sons. See the Bard’s Song, Pl. 14 above; see also the Dictionary of Proper Names.

  53 Reuben, Gad In Joshua 22 their apparent rebellion against God proves unreal; they are faithful. But in FZ VIII these are faithless sons of Los.

  P1. 21.16 Ololon is a region, but also its inhabitants. It will later be identified with Milton’s emanation.

  those who Milton drove Those who drove Milton are the wrathful Eternals of 20.43. Here they are identified as Ololon.

  20 sulphur Sun The material sun. Sulphur is a ‘base’ element in alchemical theory.

  24 Providence began The family of Eden now became aware of Milton’s self-sacrifice, and began to gather its forces to help.

  45 Ololon The dwellers in Ololon, who will later unite with Milton’s divided emanation, and reunite with Milton at the close of the poem.

  47–50 Ololon attempts to understand ‘this world of Sorrow’. Is the sorrow a form of punishment? It is a refuge from the strenuous mental wars of Eternity, but an unnatural one. Is it, then, a form of repentance? Ololon resolves to ‘enter into’ the suffering of the world: to investigate and to participate.

  51–7 This is the guiding speech of Providence, which implicitly ‘began’ on 1. 24.

  60 From Matthew 26:64: ‘Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man… coming in the c
louds of heaven.’

  P1. 22 Los enters Blake and triumphantly announces the role of prophetic art. But working against his confident assurance is the fear of his sons that ‘Miltons Religion’ will perpetuate all the old errors.

  31 Whence is this Shadow Los’s sons identify the shadow of Milton with his self-righteous puritanism. They fear that (11. 32–3) ‘he/Will unchain Orc’ (instigate War), and will ‘let loose Satan, Og, Sihon & Anak’ (a quaternary of vague threat-figures). Sihon, like Og and Anak (20.33), was a giant king? ‘utterly destroyed’ (Joshua 2:10) by Israel.

  38 Jealousy of Theotormon The sexual jealousy and craving for purity (see VDA) which underlies all religions of virtue.

  41 Voltaire… Rousseau Though traditional religions and Churches seem dead, their errors are perpetuated. Voltaire’s worldly scepticism and Rousseau’s Natural Religion still encourage selfrighteousness, deny the value of enthusiasm and self-sacrifice, support the State, are legalistic, are able to pervert true vision, condemn true liberty, and allow divine matters to remain in the hands of Mystery, when they should be the province of all men’s capacity for spiritual vision.

  50–54 A critique of Swedenborg’s writings (cf. MHH Pl. 21).

  P1. 22.55–Pl. 23.2 Whitefield… Westley For B., the great eighteenth-century English evangelists were men of true vision unperverted by rationalism. He identifies them with the martyred ‘witnesses’ of Revelation 11:3–10.

  P1. 23.6 Lo Orc arises Political revolutions have already begun.

  11–12 How long… How long In Revelation 6:9–11 the souls of the martyrs ‘cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge…? and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season’ (as in Los’s reply (1. 32), ‘be patient yet a little’).

  15–16 Hand, Hyle & Coban… Gwendolen & Conwenna Sons and daughters of Albion who deny faith and liberty. These figures are further developed in J, passim.

  32 O noble Sons, be patient This scene is Los’s Gethsemane – he begs, ‘watch with me one hour’ (Matthew 26:40).

  39 These lovely Females Daughters of Beulah. Los is reminding his sons that they have allies in the task.

  51 powers fitted to circumscribe Los explains that the work of art at once defines and places limits on the experience of fallen Mankind.

  53 Compare the speech of the Clod of Clay in Thel 5.5; and the speech of Jesus in Matthew 26:42: ‘O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.’ Also see Mark 13:24–33, where the Lord’s return in glory is promised soon, ‘But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels… neither the Son… Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.’

  62 Twelve Sons The twelve tribes of Israel.

  P1. 24.2–3 Reuben… Judah Seven of the twelve tribes of Israel.

  3–4 Generated… with Tirzah Became mere mortals subject to Nature.

  6 We called him Menassheh (From Hebrew Nasheh, ‘cause to forget’.) Joseph’s son, born in Egypt, so named because ‘God… hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house’ (Genesis 41:51).

  20 Ephraim & Menassheh Egyptian-born sons of Joseph.

  27 the Vehicular Body The emblem.

  29 the Sleeping Body of Albion.

  35 Cathedrons Looms weave only Death The looms of Enitharmon are uncreative when not working in conjunction with the labours of Los and his sons.

  47 no hope of an end Here the narrative of Book I ceases. The remainder of Book I describes the sorrow and joy of the labours of Los. See Dictionary of Proper Names for GOLGONOOZA; BOWLAHOOLA; ALLAMANDA; LUBAN.

  71 the ever apparent Elias The prophet Elijah, traditionally herald of the Messiah, is identified with Los.

  76 the Throne Divine From Revelation 4:2–6 ‘and behold a throne was set in heaven… and round about the throne, were four beasts [lit. Zωα, ‘living creatures’] full of eyes before and behind’. Los is the fourth Zoa.

  P1. 25] In two copies of the poem, Pls. 25–7 are arranged 26, 27, 25.

  1 the Wine-presses B’s image for ‘war on earth’, derived from imagery of the violent last harvest and vintage in Revelation 14:14–20 and 19:15, where the winepress is identified with the wrath of God, crushing the nations of the earth. In FZ IX. 135.21–137.23, the last vintage and the winepress of Luvah are apocalyptic. Here the image refers specifically to the Napoleonic wars as harbingers of apocalypse.

  22 The Awakener From 21.33, ‘Milton the Awakener’. The meaning is (1) one who himself wakes up; (2) one who wakes others.

  23 Albion himself begins to awake.

  42 the Mundane Egg Our ‘three-dimensional world of time and space, in which fallen Man incubates until he hatches and re-enters Eternity’ (Damon, Dictionary). It is surrounded by the Mundane Shell, the sky.

  44 you sowed in tears From Psalm 126:4–6: ‘Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.’

  48–50 Lambeth ruin’d… Apollo… Asylum… Hercules Blake complains of the use of classical names (and the spirit implied by the names) in his English neighbourhood, Lambeth. His house was in ‘Hercules Buildings’, near by lay ‘Apollo Gardens’ and the Royal Asylum for Female Orphans.

  55 Jerusalem… all Nations From Isaiah 2:2–4: ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains… and all nations shall flow unto it… for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem… and they shall beat their swords into plowshares…’

  61 the Lamb & his Bride From Revelation 21:2: ‘And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem… prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.’

  71 the calm Ocean joys beneath & smooths From Milton’s ‘Nativity Ode’, 64–6: ‘The Winds, with wonder whist/Smoothly the waters kiss’t/Whispering new joys to the mild Ocean.’

  P1. 26.11 the hem of their garments In Matthew 14:35–6 all the diseased were brought to Jesus ‘that they might only touch the hem of his garment: and as many as touched were made perfectly whole’.

  13 Two Gates The cave of the nymphs (Odyssey XIII) had two gates, the north for men, the south for gods. In neo-Platonic interpretation the cave was mortal life, the northern gate was for souls ascending from bodies after death.

  14–15 The locations are cliffs facing the ocean at the far north and far south of Britain.

  18 Los against the east East is the realm abandoned and left ‘void’ by Luvah. Los has his back to it.

  19 Hounslow to Blackheath West to east of London.

  23–5 The place-names are locations in and around Golgonooza, Los’s City of Art.

  31–2 every Generated Body… Is a garden… & a building The body is a garden in the Song of Solomon 4:12, ‘A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse,’ and both a garden and a building in I Corinthians 3:9–16: ‘Ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building… know ye not that ye are the temple of God?’

  P1. 27.2 Luvah laid the foundation & Urizen finish’d it Wars begin in hot passion and end in cold reasoning.

  3–41 Most of this is from FZ IX. 136.16–137.4.

  60] Line deleted in copper in two copies.

  P1. 28.3 Theseus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream v.i.16–17 remarks that the poet ‘gives to airy nothing/A local habitation and a name’. In the remainder of this plate, the craft of prophecy is described as a giving of form to unborn spectres, and to time itself.

  21 Theotormon & Sotha Sons of Los, whose function is to catch the unborn spectres so that they can be given forms. The spectres, like small children, must be tempted or frightened into moving.

  35–6 like the black pebble… like the diamond The rough diamond looks from the outside like a black pebble, but is beautiful within; so, too, mortal men.

  P1. 29 T
his plate makes a final distinction between the visionary world created by Los, and the delusion and death of the vegetated world.

  25–6 Bowlahoola & Allamanda… Pulsation The digestive, nervous and circulatory systems in men’s bodies.

  30–31 every Man… Orc All men have an element of Revolt within them, which unites them; but on earth Revolt remains formless.

  34 Satan… Orc… Luvah Luvah is Passion in Eternity, but only Rebellion in this world; furthermore, Rebellion in this world regularly produces a spectre of self-righteous Reaction.

  35–6 Accident being Formed… Demonstration Empirical science treats ‘accident’ (Matter) as if it were ‘substance’ (Spirit). But to see existence this way is to make it so.

  43 Death to delude In order to delude (beguile) Death.

  57 Horeb The desert surrounding Mt Sinai.

  Rephaim ‘Valley of the shades of the dead’.

  58 Zelophehads Daughters were five in number (corresponding to the five senses) and had no brothers. See 17.11 above.

  65 the Science of the Elohim The knowledge or skill of the Elohim. This is a collective plural term for ‘God’, used in Genesis and elsewhere.

  BOOK THE SECOND

  The land of Beulah is described (Pls. 30–31). Ololon descends to Beulah. The sleeping Milton is instructed by his seven angels (Pl. 32). The songs of Beulah include God’s promise of redemption to the Female (Pl. 33). The songs welcome Ololon (Pl. 34). Ololon descends to Ulro and asks forgiveness of the Starry Eight (Pl. 35), who rejoice. Ololon continues the descent to Los and Enitharmon, and B. describes the wild thyme and the larks as messengers of Los at the crucial moment of Ololon’s appearance in female form in Blake’s garden (Pls. 35–6). Milton’s shadow condenses into the covering Cherub of all religious error (Pl. 37). Milton and Satan meet (Pl. 38). The Starry Seven appear with Milton in Blake’s garden, and call on Albion to wake (Pl. 39). Milton and Ololon meet and Milton at last declares his true vocation as a poet (Pl. 41). The six-fold female divides from Ololon and dives into Milton’s shadow; Ololon unites with the Starry Eight, and they appear as the Saviour (Pl. 42). Blake’s vision concludes as the Saviour prepares to enter Albion’s bosom, and the earth is prepared for the Last Judgement.