MERLIN

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The Small Blake-Varley Sketchbook
Merlin

 
From Blake's acquaintance with the history and legends of his native country he found characters to enhance the myth he was himself creating. Blake's procedure was to assimilate archetypal images and insert them in appropriate places to expand the understanding of the reader.
 
When he says here that, 'The British Antiquities are now in the Artist's hands,' he may more precisely have said that they were in his mind or imagination.

A Descriptive Catalogue, (W 542)
 "The British Antiquities are now in the Artist's hands; all
his visionary contemplations, relating to his own country and its
ancient glory, when it was as it again shall be, the source of
learning and inspiration.  Arthur was a name for the
constellation Arcturus, or Bootes, the Keeper of the North Pole.
And all the fables of Arthur and his round table; of the warlike
naked Britons; of Merlin; of Arthur's conquest of the whole
world; of his death, or sleep, and promise to return again"

In the following passage Blake uses Merlin to call to our minds that death never came to him. He was not to enroot in the world but would return again from sleep with Arthur at the beginning of the new age.

Jerusalem, Plate 30 [34], (E 176)
"O Albion why wilt thou Create a Female Will?

To hide the most evident God in a hidden covert, even
In the shadows of a Woman & a secluded Holy Place
That we may pry after him as after a stolen treasure
Hidden among the Dead & mured up from the paths of life  
Hand! art thou not Reuben enrooting thyself into Bashan
Till thou remainest a vaporous Shadow in a Void! O Merlin!
Unknown among the Dead where never before Existence came
Is this the Female Will O ye lovely Daughters of Albion. To
Converse concerning Weight & Distance in the Wilds of Newton & Locke

So Los spoke standing on Mam-Tor looking over Europe & Asia
The Graves thunder beneath his feet from Ireland to Japan"

This portion of Plate 32 of Jerusalem positions Merlin as the Immortal Imagination, at one extreme; Reuben at the other as the Vegetative Man. Hand stands between as the Reasoning Spectre.

Jerusalem, Plate 32 [36], (E 178)
"Jerusalem trembled seeing her Children drivn by Los's Hammer
In the visions of the dreams of Beulah on the edge of Non-Entity
Hand stood between Reuben & Merlin, as the Reasoning Spectre
Stands between the Vegetative Man & his Immortal Imagination" 

 Under the influence of Los, Reuben was able to explore in his imagination as Merlin was capable of doing.  

Jerusalem, Plate 32 [36], (E 178)
"And the Four Zoa's who are the Four Eternal Senses of Man
Became Four Elements separating from the Limbs of Albion
These are their names in the Vegetative Generation 
And Accident & Chance were found hidden in Length Bredth & Highth
And they divided into Four ravening deathlike Forms
Fairies & Genii & Nymphs & Gnomes of the Elements.
These are States Permanently Fixed by the Divine Power

The Atlantic Continent sunk round Albions cliffy shore
And the Sea poured in amain upon the Giants of Albion      
As Los bended the Senses of Reuben Reuben is Merlin
Exploring the Three States of Ulro; Creation; Redempition. & Judgment

And many of the Eternal Ones laughed after their manner

Have you known the judgment that is arisen among the
Zoa's of Albion? where a Man dare hardly to embrace              
His own Wife, for the terrors of Chastity that they call
By the name of Morality. their Daughters govern all
In hidden deceit! they are Vegetable only fit for burning
Art & Science cannot exist but by Naked Beauty displayd"

The way that man can avoid getting trapped in error which leads him into the depths of experience is through knowing where he comes from, where he goes and how to avoid giving primary reality to the 'female will' or the exterior world which should be his servant not his master.

Jerusalem, Plate 92, (E 252)
"Los answerd swift as the shuttle of gold. Sexes must vanish & cease
To be, when Albion arises from his dread repose O lovely Enitharmon:
When all their Crimes, their Punishments their Accusations of Sin: 
All their Jealousies Revenges. Murders. hidings of Cruelty in Deceit
Appear only in the Outward Spheres of Visionary Space and Time.
In the shadows of Possibility by Mutual Forgiveness forevermore
And in the Vision & in the Prophecy, that we may Foresee & Avoid
The terrors of Creation & Redemption & Judgment. Beholding them 
Displayd in the Emanative Visions of Canaan in Jerusalem & in Shiloh
And in the Shadows of Remembrance, & in the Chaos of the Spectre
Amalek, Edom, Egypt, Moab, Ammon, Ashur, Philistea, around Jerusalem

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 126, (E 395)
"They must renew their brightness & their disorganizd functions
Again reorganize till they resume the image of the human   
Cooperating in the bliss of Man obeying his Will
Servants to the infinite & Eternal of the Human form"

A Descriptive Catalogue, (E 536)
 "Visions of these eternal principles or characters of human
life appear to poets, in all ages; the Grecian gods were the
ancient Cherubim of Phoenicia; but the Greeks, and since them the
Moderns, have neglected to subdue the gods of Priam.  These Gods
are visions of the eternal attributes, or divine names, which,
when erected into gods, become destructive to humanity.
They ought to be the servants, and not the masters of man, or of
society.  They ought to be made to sacrifice to Man, and not man
compelled to sacrifice to them; for when separated from man or
humanity, who is Jesus the Saviour, the vine of eternity, they
are thieves and rebels, they are destroyers."

. 

LAMBETH MOSAICS

In the neighborhood where Blake once lived and worked can now be seen reproductions of some of his work in the medium of mosaic. As a tribute to Blake's importance as a London artist, a series of mosaics have been installed in tunnels in Lambeth on the southbank of the Thames. 

Blake created the original designs. The individual artists have used their imaginations to recreate Blake's work in another media and at an enlarged scale. The impression is that Blake's vision has been given new life through the artists who interpreted anew what he had seen. The image from Gates of Paradise, titled I Want, was enhanced by the influence of Van Gogh's Starry Night.

British Museum

Gates of Paradise 

I want

Gates of Paradise 

Air

 Descriptive Catalog, (E 531)
"The Artist has endeavoured to emulate the grandeur of
those seen in his vision, and to apply it to modern Heroes, on a
smaller scale.
  No man can believe that either Homer's Mythology, or Ovid's,
were the production of Greece, or of Latium; neither will any one
believe, that the Greek statues, as they are called, were
the invention of Greek Artists; perhaps the Torso is the only
original work remaining; all the rest are evidently copies,
though fine ones, from greater works of the Asiatic Patriarchs.
The Greek Muses are daughters of Mnemosyne, or Memory, and not of
Inspiration or Imagination, therefore not authors of such sublime
conceptions.  Those wonderful originals seen in my visions, were
some of them one hundred feet in height; some were painted as
pictures, and some carved as basso relievos, and some as groupes
of statues, all containing mythological and recondite meaning,
where more is meant than meets the eye.  The Artist wishes it was
now the fashion to make such monuments, and then he should not
doubt of having a national commission to execute these two
Pictures on a scale that is suitable to the grandeur of the
nation, who is the parent of his heroes, in high finished
fresco, where the colours would be as pure and as permanent as
precious stones though the figures were one hundred feet in
height.
  All Frescos are as high finished as miniatures or enamels,
and they are known to be unchangeable;"

. 

JESUS LAMENTS

British Museum
Illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts

The religion of Jesus is the religion of life not death, of forgiveness not retribution, of self annihilation not self righteousness. When Blake looked around himself he saw that man was not the glorious creation he was intended to be, but shrunken and helpless against the powers that limited his development. Jesus had opened the minds and spirits of men to the path of recreating themselves through inner renovation. But the forces of the world closed the gates which led to eternal life by perpetuating oppressive institutions for the benefit of entrenched power. 

In our age the message of Jesus would be the same. As Blake says he would send those who had seen and heard and understood into the world of those who were afflicted by the ills that the rulers of this world inflict on the helpless. The object is to gain release from the mental prisons which cause the simple to react through anger, violence, depression, doubt, and self-hatred.

What solutions does our society have to offer to those who feel lost and abandoned, whose every effort must be devoted to providing basic necessities, who turn to mind altering drugs to escape their depression and doubt, who project their self-hatred in violence and abuse toward others? We offer them what the underprivileged were offered in Blake's day: poor paying jobs, incarceration, exclusion from the churches and schools and medical care which serve the wealthy, ready access to the drugs which condemn them to destitution and mental disease.

Blake assumed the role of the prophet. He saw that the message of Jesus had been buried or distorted or institutionalized. He expressed the wrath and pity he felt because Jesus was not followed. Blake wanted to show as clearly as he could that man could gain release from his prison once he knew what manacles his own mind had forged.

Jerusalem, PLATE 77, (E 232)                           
                      "To the Christians. 

 I stood among my valleys of the south
And saw a flame of fire, even as a Wheel
Of fire surrounding all the heavens: it went
From west to east against the current of
Creation and devourd all things in its loud                      
Fury & thundering course round heaven & earth
By it the Sun was rolld into an orb:
By it the Moon faded into a globe,
Travelling thro the night: for from its dire
And restless fury, Man himself shrunk up           
Into a little root a fathom long.
And I asked a Watcher & a Holy-One
Its Name? he answerd. It is the Wheel of Religion
I wept & said. Is this the law of Jesus
This terrible devouring sword turning every way    
He answerd; Jesus died because he strove
Against the current of this Wheel: its Name
Is Caiaphas, the dark Preacher of Death
Of sin, of sorrow, & of punishment;
Opposing Nature! It is Natural Religion            
But Jesus is the bright Preacher of Life
Creating Nature from this fiery Law,
By self-denial & forgiveness of Sin.

Go therefore, cast out devils in Christs name
Heal thou the sick of spiritual disease           
Pity the evil, for thou art not sent
To smite with terror & with punishments
Those that are sick, like the Pharisees
Crucifying &,encompassing sea & land
For proselytes to tyranny & wrath,                
But to the Publicans & Harlots go!
Teach them True Happiness, but let no curse
Go forth out of thy mouth to blight their peace
For Hell is opend to heaven; thine eyes beheld
The dungeons burst & the Prisoners set free." 

 

Matthew 10
[5] These twelve Jesus sent out, charging them, "Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans,
[6] but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
[7] And preach as you go, saying, `The kingdom of heaven is at hand.'
[8] Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying, give without pay. 

.

UNVEILED

A dissertation, Revolution & Revelation: William Blake and the Moral Law, by Michael Farrell of the University of Oxford clarifies Blake's use of the Bible in developing the style and content of his writing. In this paragraph it becomes clear that Blake's use of Vala's veil had antecedents in Biblical accounts:

 "2 Corinthians 3 is instructive in analysing Blake’s conception of the revolutionary Christ. The oppressive Law of the Old Testament is essentially abolished by Christ and the new Law which he establishes 'consists not of a written law but of the Spirit' (2 Cor. 3: 6). The Law of Elohim the comminatory God of Judgement is supplanted by the Law of the Spirit the merciful Law of Jehovah which operates not in an external and abstract system of moral codes but internally in and through the Spirit. The old covenant is effectively a veil separating the individual from the Spirit: 'The veil is moved only when the person is joined to Christ' (2 Cor. 3: 14). For Blake the epiphany of the Christ at the apocalypse is the ultimate revelation or unveiling of Error: the word 'revelation', etymologically, derives from the Old French reveler or Latin revelare, from re, meaning 'again', in the sense of a reversal, and velum, meaning 'veil'. The word revelation has etymological links with the word 'apocalypse', which, deriving from the Greek apokaluptein , also means to unveil or reveal. Thus in Blake’s secular apocalypse the individual must necessarily undergo a Last Judgement in casting off Error, or the old Law, and embracing Truth, the covenant or law of the Spirit." (Page 7) Creative Commons License 3.0
 
RSV
2 Corinthians 3
[2] You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on your hearts, to be known and read by all men;
[3] and you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
[4] Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.
[5] Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God,
[6] who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not in a written code but in the Spirit; for the written code kills, but the Spirit gives life.
[7] Now if the dispensation of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such splendor that the Israelites could not look at Moses' face because of its brightness, fading as this was,
[8] will not the dispensation of the Spirit be attended with greater splendor?
[9] For if there was splendor in the dispensation of condemnation, the dispensation of righteousness must far exceed it in splendor.
[10] Indeed, in this case, what once had splendor has come to have no splendor at all, because of the splendor that surpasses it.
[11] For if what faded away came with splendor, what is permanent must have much more splendor.
[12] Since we have such a hope, we are very bold,
[13] not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not see the end of the fading splendor.
[14] But their minds were hardened; for to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away.
[15] Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their minds;
[16] but when a man turns to the Lord the veil is removed.
[17] Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
[18] And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Yale Center for British Art 
Blake's Watercolours for the
Poems of Thomas Gray

With the help of Michael Farrell's explanation of Blake's use of the old and new covenants, and the passage he cites in Second Corinthians we can see more of Blake meaning in the following passage. Jerusalem represents the new covenant in which the law is expressed through the indwelling spirit. Albion has not been able to separate himself from dependance on the letter of the law as an external code which hides the face of God behind a veil of separation. Although the veil was removed by Christ, Albion has not freed himself from the guilt which causes him to use the veil as a 'law, a curse and a terror' against his children.
 
In his bitterness, Albion's dying curse is that Jerusalem, his own spiritual nature, be drawn 'down into this Abyss of sorrow and torture.'    

 Jerusalem, Plate 23, (E 168)

"Jerusalem! Jerusalem! deluding shadow of Albion!
Daughter of my phantasy! unlawful pleasure! Albions curse!
I came here with intention to annihilate thee! But
My soul is melted away, inwoven within the Veil
Hast thou again knitted the Veil of Vala, which I for thee       
Pitying rent in ancient times. I see it whole and more
Perfect, and shining with beauty! But thou! O wretched Father!

Jerusalem reply'd, like a voice heard from a sepulcher:
Father! once piteous! Is Pity. a Sin? Embalm'd in Vala's bosom
In an Eternal Death for. Albions sake, our best beloved.         
Thou art my Father & my Brother: Why hast thou hidden me,
Remote from the divine Vision: my Lord and Saviour.

Trembling stood Albion at her words in jealous dark despair:
He felt that Love and Pity are the same; a soft repose! 
Inward complacency of Soul: a Self-annihilation!                 

I have erred! I am ashamed! and will never return more:
I have taught my children sacrifices of cruelty: what shall I answer?
I will hide it from Eternals! I will give myself for my Children!
Which way soever I turn, I behold Humanity and Pity!

He recoil'd: he rush'd outwards; he bore the Veil whole away     
His fires redound from his Dragon Altars in Errors returning.
He drew the Veil of Moral Virtue, woven for Cruel Laws,
And cast it into the Atlantic Deep, to catch the Souls of the Dead.
He stood between the Palm tree & the Oak of weeping
Which stand upon the edge of Beulah; and there Albion sunk       
Down in sick pallid languor! These were his last words, relapsing!
Hoarse from his rocks, from caverns of Derbyshire & Wales
And Scotland, utter'd from the Circumference into Eternity.

Blasphemous Sons of Feminine delusion! God in the dreary Void
Dwells from Eternity, wide separated from the Human Soul         

But thou deluding Image by whom imbu'd the Veil I rent
Lo here is Valas Veil whole, for a Law, a Terror  & a Curse!
And therefore God takes vengeance on me: from my clay-cold bosom
My children wander trembling victims of his Moral justice.

His snows fall on me and cover me, while in the Veil I fold    
My dying limbs. Therefore O Manhood, if thou art aught
But a meer Phantasy, hear dying Albions Curse!
May God who dwells in this dark Ulro & voidness, vengeance take,
And draw thee down into this Abyss of sorrow and torture,
Like me thy Victim. O that Death & Annihilation were the same!"    

. 

WORLD OF SHADOW

Yale Center for British Art Book of Urizen
Plate 4, copy C

In Blake and Tradition, Kathleen Raine's chapter The Shadowy Female traced similarities of Blake's Vala and traditional representations of the shadowy or veiled female from Isis to Boehme's Aurora. Raine demonstrates that Blake was in the mainstream of literature which conveys eternal truth through symbolic language. Blake like Raine immersed himself in the esoteric tradition which built, over aeons, a language of symbols to covey the meaning for which the soul hungers. 
 
These quotes from Raine and the passages she cited in Blake give a flavor of Blake's use of the traditional images in his poetry:
 
Blake and Tradition, Vol 2, Page 181
"Vala likewise, becomes the object of the love of the Eternal Man when he sinks into the sleep, or death, from eternity. He falls in love with phenomenal appearances, the 'delusions of Vala,' and from this follows every evil of the Fall and Urizen's immense and fruitless labors to order a world which is essentially unreal."

Jerusalem, Plate 83, (E 241)
"According as they weave the little embryon nerves & veins     
The Eye, the little Nostrils, & the delicate Tongue & Ears
Of labyrinthine intricacy: so shall they fold the World
That whatever is seen upon the Mundane Shell, the same
Be seen upon the Fluctuating Earth woven by the Sisters.

And sometimes the Earth shall roll in the Abyss & sometimes 
Stand in the Center & sometimes stretch flat in the Expanse,
According to the will of the lovely Daughters of Albion.
Sometimes it shall assimilate with mighty Golgonooza:
Touching its summits: & sometimes divided roll apart.
As a beautiful Veil so these Females shall fold & unfold      
According to their will the outside surface of the Earth
An outside shadowy Surface superadded to the real Surface;
Which is unchangeable for ever & ever Amen: so be it!

Page 183
"As the veil deludes the fallen man, so he takes a hand in the weaving of it, realizing the horrible nightmare he creates - profane cities:

Jerusalem, Plate 42, (E 191)
"Till Norwood & Finchley & Blackheath & Hounslow, coverd the whole Earth.
This is the Net & Veil of Vala, among the Souls of the Dead."

Page 184
"The veil is also a net that catches the souls that have sunk into the waters of materialism; for it is these who are ensnared by the seeming substantiality of appearances:

Jerusalem, Plate 59, (E 208) 
"For the Veil of Vala which Albion cast into the Atlantic Deep
To catch the Souls of the Dead: began to Vegetate & Petrify
Around the Earth of Albion. among the Roots of his Tree"

Page 184
"We are here reminded of the genesis of the veil of Enion's 'filmy woof' in the sea of matter; but this passage continues:

Jerusalem, Plate 59, (E 208) 
"Thus in process of time it became the beautiful Mundane Shell,
The Habitation of the Spectres of the Dead & the Place
Of Redemption & of awaking again into Eternity"

Page 185
"Frozen, the 'fluctuating' veil of appearance become solid and substantial, until release comes when 'I rent the Veil where the Dead dwell.' The dead dwell in the 'Veil,' because thy dwell in the illusory world of phenomenal appearances. This rending has something of the awful significance of the rending of the veil of the Temple on the day of the Crucifixion, when Mystery was at an end in the triumph of Christ.

      
THE GATES of PARADISE, For The Sexes, The Keys, (E 268 )
"6    I rent the Veil where the Dead dwell   
     When weary Man enters his Cave
     He meets his Saviour in the Grave"

---

The veil which we weave is the outer world of experience which is assigned to be the substantial or real world. It replaces the mind or soul from which it is derived. Our eternal nature falls in love with the productions of time. The veil assumes an independent existence uncontrolled by the mind which was its origin. The mind allows the veil to perpetuate itself, leading to consequences which seem alien to the mind. The veil becomes more distant from its origin in the mind until it assumes the title of objective reality. Each stage if its development tightens the snare of the materialistic outlook. The situation is not resolved until the grip of the phenomenal world on the Eternal Man is relaxed.

Four Zoas, Night IX, Page 137, (E 405)
"Urthona calld his Sons around him Tharmas calld his sons
Numrous. they took the wine they separated the Lees
And Luvah was put for dung on the ground by the Sons of Tharmas & Urthona
They formed heavens of sweetest wo[o]d[s] of gold & silver & ivory 
Of glass & precious stones They loaded all the waggons of heaven
And took away the wine of ages with solemn songs & joy

Luvah & Vala woke & all the sons & daughters of Luvah
Awoke they wept to one another & they reascended
To the Eternal Man in woe he cast them wailing into              
The world of shadows thro the air till winter is over & gone

But the Human Wine stood wondering in all their delightful Expanses
The Elements subside the heavens rolld on with vocal harmony

Then Los who is Urthona rose in all his regenerate power"

. 

LAMBETH

British Museum
Jerusalem
Plate 46, Copy a 

William and Catherine Blake lived in the London suburb of Lambeth for the decade of the 1790's. During those years Blake was inventing the techniques he used to produce his unique art. He had acquired a small printing press when he and an associate had operated a print shop on Broad Street. The press enabled the Blakes to combine the poetry which William was writing with his own illustrations on individual engraved plates which they printed in the workshop in their home. 
 
Their creative endeavors which they enjoyed in Lambeth became a metaphor for bringing together disparate elements. The pleasant tasks which they accomplished together were the physical side of building a structure in which ideas, emotional attachments and imagination could live. 
 
When Blake later wrote Jerusalem he used Lambeth as the image which brought Vala and Jerusalem together. Blake developed the character Vala to represent the physical world in all its physical beauty, and Jerusalem to represents the spiritual world in all its spiritual beauty. Although the two women may at times pull in opposite directions, in Lambeth they found a haven where they could work together. The work in the exterior world was supplemented by inner work: efforts to be helpful, loving, forgiving, kind, merciful and compassionate.
 
Jerusalem and Vala rightfully play complementary roles because Vala is Jerusalem's shadow. When Vala is not externalized into an entity independent of Jerusalem,  she displays all the loveliness of the substance she reflects. When Blake wanted to call attention to the interrelated roles which Vala and Jerusalem play he used Lambeth as the symbol which encompassed all he wanted his image to embody.

Jerusalem, Plate 11, (E 154)
"Vala is but thy Shadow, O thou lovliest among women!
A shadow animated by thy tears O mournful Jerusalem!    
Plate 12
Why wilt thou give to her a Body whose life is but a Shade?.
Her joy and love, a shade: a shade of sweet repose:
But animated and vegetated, she is a devouring worm:
What shall we do for thee O lovely mild Jerusalem?" 
 
Jerusalem, Plate 12 (E 155)
"And they builded Golgonooza: terrible eternal labour!

What are those golden builders doing? where was the burying-place
Of soft Ethinthus? near Tyburns fatal Tree? is that
Mild Zions hills most ancient promontory; near mournful
Ever weeping Paddington? is that Calvary and Golgotha?
Becoming a building of pity and compassion? Lo!
The stones are pity, and the bricks, well wrought affections:    
Enameld with love & kindness, & the tiles engraven gold
Labour of merciful hands: the beams & rafters are forgiveness:
The mortar & cement of the work, tears of honesty: the nails,
And the screws & iron braces, are well wrought blandishments,
And well contrived words, firm fixing, never forgotten,         
Always comforting the remembrance: the floors, humility,
The cielings, devotion: the hearths, thanksgiving:
Prepare the furniture O Lambeth in thy pitying looms!
The curtains, woven tears & sighs, wrought into lovely forms
For comfort. there the secret furniture of Jerusalems chamber    
Is wrought: Lambeth! the Bride the Lambs Wife loveth thee:
Thou art one with her & knowest not of self in thy supreme joy.

Go on, builders in hope: tho Jerusalem wanders far away,
Without the gate of Los: among the dark Satanic wheels."

Jerusalem, Plate 19, (E 164)
"And Albion fled inward among the currents of his rivers.

He found Jerusalem upon the River of his City soft repos'd       
In the arms of Vala, assimilating in one with Vala
The Lilly of Havilah: and they sang soft thro' Lambeths vales,
In a sweet moony night & silence that they had created
With a blue sky spread over with wings and a mild moon,
Dividing & uniting into many female forms: Jerusalem             
Trembling! then in one comingling in eternal tears,
Sighing to melt his Giant beauty, on the moony river.
Plate 20 
But when they saw Albion fall'n upon mild Lambeths vale:
Astonish'd! Terrified! they hover'd over his Giant limbs.
Then thus Jerusalem spoke, while Vala wove the veil of tears:
Weeping in pleadings of Love, in the web of despair.

Wherefore hast thou shut me into the winter of human life   
And clos'd up the sweet regions of youth and virgin innocence:
Where we live, forgetting error, not pondering on evil:
Among my lambs & brooks of water, among my warbling birds:
Where we delight in innocence before the face of the Lamb:
Going in and out before him in his love and sweet affection. 

Vala replied weeping & trembling, hiding in her veil.

When winter rends the hungry family and the snow falls:
Upon the ways of men hiding the paths of man and beast,
Then mourns the wanderer: then he repents his wanderings & eyes
The distant forest; then the slave groans in the dungeon of
     stone.    
The captive in the mill of the stranger, sold for scanty hire.
They view their former life: they number moments over and over;
Stringing them on their remembrance as on a thread of sorrow.
Thou art my sister and my daughter! thy shame is mine also!
Ask me not of my griefs! thou knowest all my griefs.             

Jerusalem answer'd with soft tears over the valleys.

O Vala what is Sin? that thou shudderest and weepest
At sight of thy once lov'd Jerusalem! What is Sin but a little
Error & fault that is soon forgiven; but mercy is not a Sin
Nor pity nor love nor kind forgiveness! O! if I have Sinned      
Forgive & pity me! O! unfold thy Veil in mercy & love!
Slay not my little ones, beloved Virgin daughter of Babylon
Slay not my infant loves & graces, beautiful daughter of Moab
I cannot put off the human form I strive but strive in vain
When Albion rent thy beautiful net of gold and silver twine;
Thou hadst woven it with art, thou hadst caught me in the bands
Of love; thou refusedst to let me go: Albion beheld thy beauty
Beautiful thro' our Love's comeliness, beautiful thro' pity.
The Veil shone with thy brightness in the eyes of Albion,
Because it inclosd pity & love; because we lov'd one-another!
Albion lov'd thee! he rent thy Veil! he embrac'd thee! he lov'd thee!
Astonish'd at his beauty & perfection, thou forgavest his furious love:
I redounded from Albions bosom in my virgin loveliness.
The Lamb of God reciev'd me in his arms he smil'd upon us:
He made me his Bride & Wife: he gave thee to Albion.             
Then was a time of love: O why is it passed away!"

Jerusalem, Plate 37 [41], (E 183)
"The Shuttles of death sing in the sky to Islington & Pancrass
Round Marybone to Tyburns River, weaving black melancholy as a net,
And despair as meshes closely wove over the west of London,
Where mild Jerusalem sought to repose in death & be no more.   
She fled to Lambeths mild Vale and hid herself beneath
The Surrey Hills where Rephaim terminates: her Sons are siez'd
For victims of sacrifice; but Jerusalem cannot be found! Hid
By the Daughters of Beulah: gently snatch'd away: and hid in Beulah

There is a Grain of Sand in Lambeth that Satan cannot find     
Nor can his Watch Fiends find it: tis translucent & has many Angles
But he who finds it will find Oothoons palace, for within
Opening into Beulah every angle is a lovely heaven
But should the Watch Fiends find it, they would call it Sin
And lay its Heavens & their inhabitants in blood of punishment  
Here Jerusalem & Vala were hid in soft slumberous repose
Hid from the terrible East, shut up in the South & West."

Jerusalem, Plate 84, (E 243)
"We builded Jerusalem as a City & a Temple; from Lambeth
We began our Foundations; lovely Lambeth! O lovely Hills
Of Camberwell, we shall behold you no more in glory & pride    
For Jerusalem lies in ruins & the Furnaces of Los are builded there"

CRITIQUE OF MILTON

Blake Archive

original in Library of Congress

Milton, Plate 1 

Harold Bloom as a young man was influenced by Northrop Frye's Fearful Symmetry. As one of his early books he wrote Blake's Apocalypse, A study in Poetic Argument, copyrighted in 1963. He became a a prolific writer and a renowned critic. Here he addresses Blake's analysis of Milton's Paradise lost in The Marriage of Heaven & Hell.

 

  Bloom: "Few passages of literary analysis, and this is a surpassingly excellent analysis, have been misread as Blake's excursus on Paradise Lost. The traditional misinterpretation, with its distinguished lineage for Swinburne to C. S. Lewis, holds that Blake's reading is an antinomian one. Blake is as uninterested in moral evil as he is in moral good. Paradise Lost and the Book of Job are theodicies: they seek to justify the existence of moral evil by asserting the ultimate reality and providence of moral good. Against such theodicies, with their final appeal to the necessity of fallen nature, Blake makes a double attack, on the one hand rhetorical and ironic, on the other argumentative and prophetically serious."(Page 80)

 

  In these quotes Bloom is critiquing Blake's critique of Milton. The words of Blake's The Marriage of Heaven & Hell are printed in blue. 

Bloom: "Plate 5 and 6 are a reading of the great English epic [Paradise Lost] deliberately, which is to say ironically, from a Devil's point of view. Why did Milton restrain his poet's desire, and how did the restrainer, or reason, usurp desire's place and come to govern the unwilling poet?" (Page 79)
  Marriage of Heaven & Hell, Plate 5 and 6, (E 34)

  Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough
to be restrained; and the restrainer or reason usurps its place &
governs the unwilling.
  And being restraind it by degrees becomes passive till it is
only the shadow of desire.
  The history of this is written in Paradise Lost. & the Governor
or Reason is call'd Messiah.

Bloom: "The inner history of this psychic process is written in Paradise Lost, where it is externalized as the progressive inhibition of Satan, who is degraded by his fall, from active rebellion into passive plotting against the restraints of Right Reason. The restrainer, called Messiah by Milton, is called Satan in the Book of Job." (Page 80)

 And the original Archangel or possessor of the command of the
 heavenly host, is calld the Devil or Satan and his children are
 call'd Sin & Death
  But in the Book of Job Miltons Messiah is call'd Satan.
  For this history has been adopted by both parties 

Bloom: "The two parties are Devils - or true poets who write to correct orthodoxy, and Angels - or ruined poets and theologians who write to uphold moral and religious conventions." (Page 81)

 It indeed appear'd to Reason as if Desire was cast out. but the
 Devils account is, that the Messi[PL 6]ah fell. & formed a heaven
of what he stole from the Abyss

Bloom : "The heaven of orthodoxy, or idea of restraint, was formed by the Messiah or Reason, but to get the stuff of creativity he had to 'fall' into the energetic world of imaginings, or else Reason would have no ideas to build on. So the Gospel promise to send the comforter is a desire for Desire, and the answering Jehovah of imagination, the Jehovah of the Bible, is a creator who dwells in flaming fire, not in the cold light of Milton's static heaven." (Page 81)

 This is shewn in the Gospel, where he prays to the Father to
  send  the comforter or Desire that Reason may have Ideas to build
  on, the Jehovah of the Bible being no other than he, who dwells
   in flaming fire.                                             
   Know that after Christs death, he became Jehovah.
   But in Milton; the Father is Destiny, the Son, a Ratio of the
   five senses. & the Holy-ghost, Vacuum!
   Note.  The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of
Angels & God, and at liberty when of Devils & Hell, is because he
was a true  Poet and of the Devils party without knowing it

Bloom: "Yet as Blake's altogether ironic Note to this section adds, Milton the poet could not be content with this desperate quietism. Energy and desire enter into the poem when Milton writes at liberty, for Milton's greatness was, at last, in spite of himself. Because he was a true poet, his creative exuberance burst the fetters of right reason, and the Satan who dominates the first third of the poem came into his powerful existence." (Page 82)

 

  Bloom: "The Devil is the artist William Blake, at work engraving the Marriage, and the corroding fires refer metaphorically both to his engraving technique ant the satiric function of the Marriage." (Page 83)

********

 

  Apparently Bloom's answer to the question which he asked in the second quote is that Milton's desire was too weak not to be controlled by his allegiance to orthodox beliefs. However his poetic inspiration was strong enough to escape from the restraints of reason when he wrote of the rebellion of Satan.

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