![]() ![]() Paracelsus calls the Wild Thyme the “Mother of Herbal where he describes the properties and the lore of herbs. Would have lead him to Robert John Thornton’s full plate illustrations of the plant species and to his And his familiarity with the writings of Erasmus Darwin In his famous rejection of Swedenborg in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell,īlake cites Paracelsus or Jacob Behmen as superior. The various traits attributed to this flowering herb emphasize that its strategicĪppearance three times in Milton is symbolic in itself, and suggest that Blake may haveĮxplored several sources in order to endow this plant with various significances in the poem.īlake could have found information about the Wild Thyme in two places, so his awareness of it Only provides a means to understand the poet’s method elsewhere, it illuminates Book II of Blake’s use of his background to enrich the symbolism of the Wild Thyme not Suggests that Blake chooses the herb because of a pun involved in the name. Main, with these observations but neither attempts to discover the source of this flowering herb. ![]() 380-82, and Kathleen Raine, BlakeĪnd Tradition (Princeton: Princeton Univ. 3 ↤ 3 See, for example, Harold Bloom Blake’s Apocalypse: A Study Thyme, no one has yet attempted to discover its possible sources. However, while commentators have recognized and discussed the presence of Blake’s Wild 2 ↤ 2 The Illuminated Blake, annotated by David V. and most recently, in an edition of Blake’s illuminated works, David V.Įrdman calls attention to the purposeful occurrence of flowers, vines, tendrils, and all manner of flora whichĪppear everywhere in the texts and the designs. Grant, “Two Flowers in the Garden of Experience,” in Milton, for it is now widely acknowledged that he assigned great importance to his flowers.Ĭritics have explored the symbolism of his roses and his lilies 1 ↤ 1 See, for example, John E. We should not be surprised that Blake attaches such a heavy freight of meaning to a flower in The institutional virginity that stands in the way of her union with Milton. Is an apt emblem in a poem so concerned with the necessary negation of selfhood, and in Ololon’s case, with Vintage of the Nations.” Knowledge of the sources Blake might have drawn upon demonstrates why the Wild Thyme His Messenger to Eden, and with Blake when he sees it mounting with the Lark before the “Great Harvest & It becomes associated with Ololon when she descends to Beulah, with Los when it becomes To see that it signals the approaching Apocalypse-not attained but at least forecast in The significations of the Wild Thyme accrue with each new presence of it, firstĪs the foremost flower in Beulah, then as the messenger of Los, and finally as Blake’s vision of it helps us The occurrence of the flower three times in Book II compels us to recognize the importanceīlake attaches to it in Milton in fact, discovery of its symbolic meaning reveals why Blake It reappears at the end of the poem after Blake falls in his own garden only to witness the imminent signs of It is in conjunction with the renovating moments of each day where it becomes “Los’s Messenger to Eden,” and The Wild Thyme is mentioned three times in Book II of Milton, and twice Blakeĭesignates it as “first.” Its initial appearance is in the flower passage the second time Blake writes about ![]() The individual flowers in Beulah, the Wild Thyme is prominent, and it remains prominent throughout the Ololon’s descent to Beulah incorporates Blake’s fullest description ofīeulah, a description which exhibits the opulent natural growth of Organized Innocence. ![]() Purgation of their self-hoods, demonstrates that their actions result in the recovery of Innocence, and ends Book II of the poem focuses on the poet’s and Ololon’s decision to undergo the In Milton the poet’s consciousness and the inward struggles it involvesĬommand our attention. ↑ back to top Los’s Messenger to Eden: Blake’s Wild Thyme ![]()
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