Page:Works of William Blake; poetic, symbolic, and critical (1893) Volume 2.djvu/299

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MILTON I.
285

that he was writing of Satan, — compare "Marriage of Heaven and Hell," p. 5) — came down to earth to Blake, who feels unable rightly to tell so strange and fourfold a story in mortal language.

P. 18, ll. 25 to 50. And Albion in Blake was aroused by his descent, which is re-described, and the gates referred to and partly explained. But many of the spiritual powers rushed into the arena of mortal effort and passed to Ulro.

P. 18, ll. 50 to 62. This grieved the prophetic spirit of poetry. But he, fixing his perceptions on the symbolic influence of Milton, saw, as by memory, that he had always known that it should do what Enitharrnon feared, only in a different sense, not letting loose Ore's Human remains in a Satanic sense, but in the sense of enthusiasm freed from restrictions of rule, especially in art and poetry, rule of dogmatism and realism, and classicalism, — the triple Tongue, all false ; the triple chain, all jealousy.

P. 19, ll. 1 to 3. So Los went down after Milton, passing the seat of Satan, who slept in Udan Adan, — the lake into which, as Blake's or Los's Spectre, he was cast.

P. 19, ll. 4 to 14. And Blake, by Los's power, being Los, and going down with him, saw the vast extent of the Human proportion of his mind, and where Milton's influence reached in his imagination, and where the influence of the world had power, — both in the nether regions of the imagination. Fearless of being controlled by either, he bound on experience as a sandal with which to walk through imagination.

P. 19, ll. 15 to 36. At this point a new poem practically commences. As at the entrance of Leutha, who claimed Satan's blame, a fresh view of the first myth was made perceptible, so now Ololon, the sorrowful feminine power, comes forth, and joins the story of Milton's journey.

It appears at first as of both sexes, lamenting with its female tears that its male fires had driven Milton (the State called Milton) into Ulro, — the moral error that attributes sin and righteousness to individuals.