Milton: A Poem

by William Blake, Robert N. Essick (Editor), Joseph Viscomi (Editor)

The core of William Blake's vision, his greatness as one of the British Romantics, is most fully expressed in his Illuminated Books, masterworks of art and text intertwined and mutually enriching. Made possible by recent advances in printing and reproduction technology, the publication of new editions of Jerusalem and Songs of Innocence and of Experience in 1991 was a major publishing event. Now these two volumes are followed by The Early Illuminated Books and Milton, A Poem. The books in both volumes are reproduced from the best available copies of Blake's originals and in faithfulness and accuracy match the acclaimed standards set by Jerusalem and Songs. These two volumes are uniform in format and binding with the first two volumes.


The Early Illuminated Books comprises All Religions Are One and There Is No Natural Religion; Thel; Marriage of Heaven and Hell; and Visions of the Daughters of Albion. Milton, A Poem, second only to Jerusalem in extent and ambition, is accompanied by Laocon, The Ghost of Abel, and On Homer's Poetry.

Genres: Poetry, Romanticism, Classics, Art, Mysticism, Religion, Philosophy

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1810

About the author

William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake's work is today considered seminal and significant in the history of both poetry and the visual arts.

Blake's prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the language". His visual artistry has led one modern critic to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced." Although he only once travelled any further than a day's walk outside London over the course of his life, his creative vision engendered a diverse and symbolically rich corpus, which embraced 'imagination' as "the body of God", or "Human existence itself".

Once considered mad for his idiosyncratic views, Blake is highly regarded today for his expressiveness and creativity, and the philosophical and mystical currents that underlie his work. His work has been characterized as part of the Romantic movement, or even "Pre-Romantic", for its largely having appeared in the 18th century. Reverent of the Bible but hostile to the established Church, Blake was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of the French and American revolutions, as well as by such thinkers as Emanuel Swedenborg.

Despite these known influences, the originality and singularity of Blake's work make it difficult to classify. One 19th century scholar characterised Blake as a "glorious luminary", "a man not forestalled by predecessors, nor to be classed with contemporaries, nor to be replaced by known or readily surmisable successors."

Reviews

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read here: https://genius.com/William-blake-milt...

Slight alterations for the modern day, indulge me if you will, only please understand that not many will pity and forgive - and eternity gives naught a fig.

AND all the Writs of Mueller sounded comfortable notes
To comfort USA's lamentation, for they said:
Are you the Dotard Trump that late drove in fury & fire
The Brave Everyday Citizens down into Swampy dark,
Rending the Heavens of Mueller with your thunders & lightnings?
And can you thus lament & can you pity & forgive?
Is terror chang'd to pity, O wonder of Eternity ?

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another very long poem that mixes Blake's own mythos with some real world figures and places. It apes Dante's Divine Comedy in that the spirit (I think) of John Milton is Blake's guide through all these fantastical places and events.

Blake really was relying on his readers having read all his previous work (other than his juvenilia) as it really isn't new reader friendly. It assumes you already know who Los, Urizen and the like are. I did as I'm going through Blake's work in chronological order but I'm not sure how much sense somebody reading this as their first Blake would make of it.

The reason I've only given it 3 stars is because I found it a bit of a slog to get through. I even gave myself some 'days off' because I felt like I was getting bogged down in it all. It's the first time I've felt like this with Blake's stuff, so perhaps I need a few days away before I come back to his next book.

Los listens to the Cry of the Poor Man: his Cloud
Over London in volume terrific, low bended in anger.
Rintrah & Palamabron view the Human Harvest beneath.
Their Wine-presses & Barns stand open: the Ovens are prepar'd:
The Waggons ready: terrific Lions & Tygers sport & play:
All Animals upon the Earth are prepar'd in all their strength
To go forth to the Great Harvest & Vintage of the Nations...

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clearly one reading isn't enough :/

[Angela Randall]

Free ebook and audiobook available here.

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blake’s Milton, like all his long mystical poems, is full of obscurties, many of which have not yet been made clear. But the central thread of the narrative is reasonably distinct. Milton in heaven, about the year 1804, hears a bard’s song dealing, in a very unintelligible way, with the attempt of evil to usurp power over good. Inspired by this song, which is of considerable length, the spirit of Milton returns to the world to teach men the true gospel about art and ethics, a gospel that does not wholly agree with what the world had supposed that he had taught in his writings while alive…. (The Genesis and General Meaning of Blake's "Milton" – Pierce; 1927)

This poem tells the story of the poet Milton’s descent to earth and entry into William Blake -- an event at once confidentially personal and of interstellar reverberation.

Blake accepts that the poet’s task is no less than the redemption of Mankind. The poet acts through divine stimulus and conveys, as best he can, within his historic and personal restrictions, divine truth. As history ensues, poets exemplify more and more of truth, and expose more and more of error.

The concluding result of this process will be the ‘Coming of Jesus’.

Now, as Blake sees it, Milton was a true poet, but excercised his poetic genius to escape error. His self-righteous religion interfered with his vision to correct this.

Milton must return to earth, annihilate his moralistic selfhood and unite with his rejected inspiration, which takes the form of a female ‘emanation’. He is aided in this quest by all the powers of imagination, and assailed by all the powers of mundane error. His ultimate success brings the entire universe a step nearer to its final nirvana in Jesus.

Aside from numerous debatable interpretations of detail, there are some decidedly vexed questions about the meaning of the principal themes:

1) How is the long, confusing song of the bard to be unriddled?

2) What is there in it which would make Milton feel compelled to revisit earth?

3) What was Blake’s attitude toward Milton the man, and toward the teachings, as he understood them, of Milton’s published works, etc.?

As all of these snags connect with Blake’s notion of Milton, it might be well to ask how much the living poet knew about the dead one at the time of composition, and from what foundations Blake drew his ideas.

Do your own research.

[JC · Rating 5 out of 5]

I basically discovered this work because a church minister brought up a William Blake hymn about ‘dark satanic mills’ during a Bible study I was attending on Matthew’s Gospel. It was during a discussion about the child labour rampant during the Industrial Revolution, something I would later read a lot about in Mother Jones’ Autobiography. Anyhow, I’ve only recently learnt about William Blake’s anti-colonial tendencies and his radical allusions to revolutionary politics. I was working on an audio piece on the Missinihe (Credit River) for the past couple months, and how the mills along the river destroyed the ecosystems indigenous communities relied on. So I was immediately interested upon hearing about these ‘dark satanic mills’. I ended up interviewing the minister about this hymn that uses the opening verses of this fairly long poem by William Blake. The conversation eventually led to him telling about how Dudley George’s family was a part of his congregation during the Ipperwash Crisis, and how horrifying it was for the indigenous community when Dudley George was shot and killed by police. I think it’s useful to connect the horror that unfolded under the colonization of Turtle Island with the atrocities committed against the poor and working classes back in Britain and even in the US. I have been reading Engel’s Conditions of the Working Class in England, and it was written just one year before the first mill opened in the Meadowvale Village area, a spot along the Missinihe I have been researching for my audio piece. I think Blake’s poetic rendering is very useful vis-a-vis a very concrete and direct documentation of the horrors that Engels saw all around him in his family’s mill in Manchester.

Now this poem was really weird. There were some parts I had to read multiple times, and I still don’t think I really know what this poem is about fully. I know there are contestations regarding the extent this poem is about the horrors of the Industrial Revolution. I think it is and I find it hilarious that Satan is a miller in this poem. Yet Blake certainly is not easy to pin down. I still don’t know what he’s trying to say about Calvinist predestination, Satan, nor the other characters in his mythological world. I am obsessed with the hymn Jerusalem now though. I sing it to myself all the time, often Billy Bragg style. Good tune.

[Gille Liath · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was Blake off his bonce? Was he a great spiritual teacher? Or was he just someone who had some fairly commonplace insights, but put them in very colourful, metaphorical, poetic form? This edition very much invites you to ponder the question, framing the poem Milton as a great prophetic, spiritual, classic - and to prove it they have offered 36 pages of commentary including a detailed analysis of the anatomy of the eye. Before that, the original illuminated book is reproduced in facsimile (fairly small, but then a lot of Blake's books were small) - and then the text given in ordinary print.

For me, this was a way to dip my toe in the waters of Blake's 'prophesy', which I feel does need the assistance of his own illustrations and design, without buying the large and expensive complete edition. But I don't believe he was truly a mystic or a prophet, or that one man can make up from scratch a mythology that resonates, or that this poem fulfils the visionary expectations aroused by the plates. It's interesting, but that's all. Actually his best work was done in service of Christianity, on the Book of Job and the Divine Comedy, and for me it would have been better if he'd concentrated on that. But - you pays your money, you takes your choice.

[Cooper Renner · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ll have to agree with the great American poet Louis Simpson who pooh-poohed the idea that Blake’s “prophetic” poems were necessarily poetry because Blake was a poet. Clearly they were extremely important to him, but to the rest of us?

[Hazelbautista · Rating 5 out of 5]

love it

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have about the same review for this as I did for Jerusalem (also by Blake)... except this book didn't keep me coming back for more. I'm not sure why, but I didn't really enjoy this one.

[Tuli Márquez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una autentica animalada.

[Bruce · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't like Blake. He seems to be intentionally abstract and confusing.

[Timothy Morrison]

This will take a long time to figure out

[Mollie · Rating 3 out of 5]

really fascinating but MY GOD i don't think i'll ever be able to understand this

[John Bleasdale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really loved reading this. Tough and dense but utterly his own

[joan · Rating 2 out of 5]

File this under Incommunicable Manic Nonsense.
If it’s too complicated, not only can I not understand it, but I suspect you don’t care to make it understood.

[Mitta Xinindlu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost done readıng ıt. Love ıt (:

[Tait Jensen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Blake was indeed a lunatic, but no doubt a genius. Read this if you want to take a trip into Christian mysticism and insightful mythology.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent presentation of Blake's Milton with useful commentary and annotations.