Milton, a poem in 2 books Pl.45
19th century
Marked 'Finis' at the top, this is the dramatic closing plate of William Blake's illuminated book *Milton*. A central female figure with wild hair stretches her arms wide, pulling back the sky like a curtain, while two figures wrapped in giant wheat sheaves stand guard on either side. The text announces the 'Great Harvest & Vintage of the Nations,' which sounds agricultural but is actually Blake's code for a spiritual apocalypse. Blake wrote this epic to 'correct' John Milton, famously arguing that the *Paradise Lost* author was secretly on the Devil's party without knowing it.
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