Page:Works of William Blake; poetic, symbolic, and critical (1893) Volume 2.djvu/290

276 Going to the extra page, numbered 3, intended to be placed where the later and interpolated p. 3 stands before it was written, and after Blake had concluded not to fill that space otherwise (presumably with a full-page illustration), allowing the book to read on so that l. 1 of p. 5 followed the last line of p. 3 as now numbered, (p. 3 was p. 2, p. 5 was p. 4, and the extra page 3 was designed as the first of two afterthoughts to come between them,) we find a hint of the biographical correspondence or personal meaning below the myth almost as plainly as in the scene between Los and Enitharmon in "Vala," Night VII.

Compare all this with the letters, and especially verses, written to Butts from Felpham, quoted in the explanation of the ballad "William Bond" and with that of "Mary," not forgetting that Enitharmon stands for the lovable side of Naturalism in life and art, just as Satan is its dangerous side, and the story of Blake's personal and emotional experiences at Felpham stands before us, from the time when he was "very much degraded" by Hayley, who even sought to act on his art by arraying the needs and the opinions of his wife against him, to the reconciliation before the Examiner period, and a fourfold vision indeed is given to the reader of "Milton."

It will then be easily understood that although the above explains to a certain degree the coherence of the symbolism, the mystic framework of the "Bard's prophetic song," it does not exhaust the relations between this and other portions of Blake's books and life. It hardly touches the artistic symbolism, a counterpart which may be considered in relation to each part separately, and it only indicates faintly the biographical suggestions.

It is impossible to work out in full extent each of these forms of comment. None of the books can in anything short of a whole bookshelf full of commentary be paraphrased three or four times over. In treating all it has been necessary to select some stream of interpretation and follow it from source