SOURCE: "Milton as a Revolutionary," in Angel of Apocalypse: Blake's Idea of Milton, The University of Wisconsin Press, 1975, pp. 188-219.

In the excerpt below, Wittreich treats The Marriage of Heaven and Hell not as satire, but as prophecy.

Blake's Milton

"The prophetic poet," Angus Fletcher has written, "is uniquely sure of himself, and this he shows by allowing his utterance to be enigmatic and obscure on its surface, knowing that the immediate surface of the riddle is supported by an underlying clarity."¹⁰¹ Since the time of Alexander Gilchrist, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell has received special acclaim among Blake's works; but it has also been denied, even by Gilchrist, the "underlying clarity" that Fletcher promises from prophecy. Gilchrist acknowledges that The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is "the most daring in conception and gorgeous in illustration of all Blake's works" but argues that these wild utterances "defy...