“Satan & Adam are States Created into Twenty-seven Churches
And thou O Milton art a state about to be created
Called Eternal Annihilation that none but the Living shall
Dare to enter: & they shall enter triumphant over Death
And Hell & the Grave: States that are not, but ah! Seem to be.
Judge then of thy Own Self: thy Eternal Lineaments explore
What is Eternal & what Changeable & what Annihilable:
The Imagination is not a State: it is the Human Existence itself
Affection or Love becomes a State, when divided from Imagination
The Memory is a State always, & the Reason is a State
Created to be Annihilated & a new Ratio Created
Whatever can be Created can be Annihilated Forms cannot
The Oak is cut down by the Ax, the Lamb falls by the knife
But their Forms Eternal Exist, For-ever.
Amen Hallelujah”
―
William Blake,
Milton: A Poem
