Blake's Milton

Click on Blake's Milton above for the entire poetic text.

Turning pages in Blake's poetry I came upon 'Milton: a poem in two books' and became fascinated with Blake's radically intense perceptions. I was spurred on by a critic whom I had read stating that Blake's 'America A Prophecy' is exclusively about the American Revolution. How did he know that? Blake was elusive, not particularly sociable or wont to share his poetic secrets with friends! This critic argues 'prophecy' is meant in the sense of Biblical Prophecy, i.e. revealing the truth and not necessarily the future.

However, to say this is to seriously hamper an interpretation... Pondering further I came upon Milton. I guess this critic would put the hammer down here, and make sure that no students ever see this as maybe a 'real' document concerning future events which is the proper meaning of "prophecy" and "prophesy". I guess these guys would declare that the Revelation concerns only John of Patmos' speculations concerning the Destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and the terror of the Roman world power. I guess Nostradamus just gets cut out of the deal! It's like chocolate chip cookies ("but we substituted crushed peanuts for the chips") without the chips! If there were no clairvoyance in Blake I would deem him a lesser poet.

In Blake, the future is laid out clearly enough. Looking around the world affairs today we see his words highlighted in real events and personages. That is the 'juice' that is the pith, that is why we are interested in Blake. Not only Blake, but that is why poetry is not just saccharine, or pitiful rhythm, obvious rhymes, and more or less Hallmark productions level of intimate warm and fuzzies. Gone is the revolution, Shelley, the whole point of poetry is that it not be some lame academic requirement. When we study chemistry we speak of nitroglycerine---when we study poetry, we ignite nitroglycerine.