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New York Public Library
Milton
Plate 29 |
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New York Public Library
Milton
Plate 33 |
Companion full page illustrations of brothers William and Robert Blake appear in Blake’s poem Milton. Both images show men in an attitude of receptivity, leaning backward, arms spread, fingers extended, palms upward. The head is thrown backward, the gaze is upward. Most notable is the shooting star descending toward the foot which steps forward.
A blaze of light penetrates the darkness and follows the stars toward the extended feet of the figures. Behind the figures are stone steps which may be joining two worlds. Behind William are three steps, behind Robert are four. The men face in opposite directions.
When William Blake created these images, he was alive and active in the world of time and space; his younger brother Robert had died at the age of nineteen but continued his life in Eternity. Robert was always present to William in tangible ways. In Robert’s notebook William sketched drawings and composed poems. He followed Robert’s directions for making illuminated books.
Blake created his illuminated books with the intention that the reader would consolidate all of the clues which he incorporated to give a cohesive image transcending the individual pixils of data of which they were comprised. We gather Blake’s offerings, season them in our minds, extend the range of our inquiry beyond Blake’s acquaintance, and wait for the visionary experience to be given.
From Poetic Form in Blake’s Milton, by Susan Fox: Page 223
“The parallelism of the two books of Milton is upheld by several key pairs of illustrations divided between the books. The most obvious pair are the mirrored designs ‘William’ and ‘Robert’...In the first, William staggers backward toward three steps representing the threefold sexual existence of Beulaic inspiration; the star which is Milton’s falling form enters his left foot. Robert (Blake’s dead brother, with whom he claimed to communicate and who probably represents the poet’s eternal part), in the same posture, falls backward toward four steps (Edenic reality), a smaller star entering his right foot. The congruence of the two designs suggests the unification of time and eternity in the instant of Milton‘s descent, which in turn supports the simultaneity of the events in the poem’s text.” (Page 223)
Letters, To Butts, (E 720)
“Wife desires me to Copy out & send you with her kind love &
Respect they were Composed above a twelvemonth ago while
Walking from Felpham to Lavant to meet my
Sister
With happiness stretchd across the hills
In a cloud that dewy sweetness distills
With a blue sky spread over with wings
And a mild sun that mounts & sings
With trees & fields full of Fairy elves
And little devils who fight for themselves
Remembring the Verses that Hayley sung
When my heart knockd against the root of my tongue
With Angels planted in Hawthorn bowers
And God himself in the passing hours
With Silver Angels across my way
And Golden Demons that none can stay
With my Father hovering upon the wind
And my Brother Robert just behind
And my Brother John the evil one
In a black cloud making his mone
Tho dead they appear upon my path
Notwithstanding my terrible wrath
They beg they intreat they drop their tears
Filld full of hopes filld full of fears
With a thousand Angels upon the Wind
Pouring disconsolate from behind
To drive them off & before my way
A frowning Thistle implores my stay
What to others a trifle appears
Fills me full of smiles or tears
For double the vision my Eyes do see
And a double vision is always with me
With my inward Eye 'tis an old Man grey
With my outward a Thistle across my way
"If thou goest back the thistle said
Thou art to endless woe betrayd
For here does Theotormon lower
And here is Enitharmons bower
And Los the terrible thus hath sworn
Because thou backward dost return
Poverty Envy old age & fear
Shall bring thy Wife upon a bier
And Butts shall give what Fuseli gave
A dark black Rock & a gloomy Cave."
I struck the Thistle with my foot
And broke him up from his delving root
"Must the duties of life each other cross"
"Must every joy be dung & dross"
"Must my dear Butts feel cold neglect"
"Because I give Hayley his due respect'
"Must Flaxman look upon me as wild"
"And all my friends be with doubts beguild'
"Must my Wife live in my Sisters bane"
"Or my sister survive on my Loves pain'
"The curses of Los the terrible shade"
"And his dismal terrors make me afraid"
So I spoke & struck in my wrath
The old man weltering upon my path
Then Los appeard in all his power
In the Sun he appeard descending before
My face in fierce flames in my double sight
Twas outward a Sun: inward Los in his might
"My hands are labourd day & night"
"And Ease comes never in my sight"
"My Wife has no indulgence given"
"Except what comes to her from heaven"
"We eat little we drink less"
"This Earth breeds not our happiness"
"Another Sun feeds our lifes streams"
"We are not warmed with thy beams"
"Thou measurest not the Time to me"
"Nor yet the Space that I do see"
"My Mind is not with thy light arrayd"
"Thy terrors shall not make me afraid"
When I had my Defiance given
The Sun stood trembling in heaven
The Moon that glowd remote below
Became leprous & white as snow
And every Soul of men on the Earth
Felt affliction & sorrow & sickness & dearth
Los flamd in my path & the Sun was hot
With the bows of my Mind & the Arrows of Thought
My bowstring fierce with Ardour breathes
My arrows glow in their golden sheaves
My brothers & father march before
The heavens drop with human gore
Now I a fourfold vision see
And a fourfold vision is given to me
Tis fourfold in my supreme delight
And three fold in soft Beulahs night
And twofold Always. May God us keep
From Single vision & Newtons sleep”
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