Reconcilation

  From Chapter Nine of Ram Horn'd with Gold by Larry Clayton

New York Public Library

Milton

Plate 25

For five plates in 'Milton' Blake extols

the World of Los, the sum total of imaginative creation, the art,
the culture, the decency that has raised mankind at times, if on-
ly momentarily, above the satanic level of a universe groaning in
travail.

Milton, Plate 26 [28], (E 123)

"These are the Sons of Los, & these the Labourers of the Vintage
Thou seest the gorgeous clothed Flies that dance & sport in summer
Upon the sunny brooks & meadows: every one the dance
Knows in its intricate mazes of delight artful to weave: 
Each one to sound his instruments of music in the dance,      
To touch each other & recede; to cross & change & return
These are the Children of Los; thou seest the Trees on mountains
The wind blows heavy, loud they thunder thro' the darksom sky
Uttering prophecies & speaking instructive words to the sons
Of men: These are the Sons of Los! These the Visions of Eternity 

But we see only as it were the hem of their garments
When with our vegetable eyes we view these wond'rous Visions

...And every Natural Effect has a Spiritual Cause, and Not
A Natural: for a Natural Cause only seems, it is a Delusion 
 Of Ulro: & a ratio of the perishing Vegetable Memory."

This brief description of 'Milton' has only touched on
a few of the most essential meanings of a poem that contains a
thousand facets. But one other thing needs to be said about
'Milton'. Among all the hidden riches to be sought out there
emerges the realization that 'Milton' also represents a beginning
of Blake's reconciliation with the Church that had suffered his
violent enmity through the years. 

Blake had held the Church in
low regard for two reasons: First, it had too much blood on its
hands; Second, he had always understood how far the Church had
failed to be what it was called to. John Milton had also refused
to affiliate with worldly (in Blake's terminology 'satanic') or-
ganizations which called themselves the Church. Still as spirit-
ual leader of the English people Milton represented the best of
the English Church. Reconciliation with him was for Blake (among
other things) a symbolic first step in forgiving "God's people" for
failing to be that in the truest sense. 

So he joined Milton in
confession, in self annihilation, in the forgiveness which had be-
come his new and only abiding concept of the meaning of God. Like
Milton he remained outside the established Church, but he chose to
be buried with the Anglican order of worship!