We are going to discuss the poetry of one of the most important poets in English poetry, John Milton, from the 17th century. We have examined the poems of metaphysical poets like John Donne, George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, and Andrew Marvell. They also belong to this 17th century, some early
17th century and some going on into the later part of the 17th century like Andrew Marvell. In fact, Andrew Marvell and John Milton were close friends and good friends. They helped each other. If John Milton helped Andrew Marvell to get a job in the government,
Andrew Marvell actually saved Milton from death when the there was a change in government that is after the Restoration. We will see the historical and literary context in which Milton imagined, Milton spoke for the freedom of speech, Milton worked for the people and the government,
And also improved himself by self-study, to write the best epic, the first epic, the first complete full-fledged epic in English, that is Paradise Lost. In this course, we will see Book 1 and, in this lecture, we will see lines
1 to 194. In the next lecture, we will see the rest of Book 1. We have some selected passages, dealing with Invocation to the Muse, The Lake, The Burning Lake in which we find all the devils, including Satan, and then Satan coming out of this Lake, addressing the devils to think about their
Plan of action for the next activity, that is they have some Hope of Revenge he speaks about. And we will analyze the selected passages and conclude this lecture and then move on to the second lecture dealing with lines 195 to 798 of Book 1. Similar historical context or incidents have
Shaped Milton as well. The appointment of William Laud as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1621 actually caused some of the serious problems in English society when Laud was trying to impose certain rituals from the Roman Catholic Church practices. And this was possible because of
This support from King Charles the I as well, who became the king in 1625 after his father s death, that is, King James death in 1625. As a mission, Charles also wanted to unite the two churches, Church of Eng Church of Scotland with the Church of England.
That led to one part of the Civil War, that is called the Bishops War of 1639 and 1640 together, they made up with the support from the Parliamentarians caused this English Civil War. It was a decisive and divisive event leading to the emergence of two parties, two kinds of people,
One supporting the king, that is, Tories, another supporting the Parliamentarians, that is, Whigs, leading to The Protectorate, that is, the Commonwealth from 1653 to 1660, but then, it did not last. The people s aspiration to have their own government without their king did not
Last long. In 1660, monarchy was restored with the arrival of King Charles the II The literary context is also similar but certain incidents, certain intellectual currents which took place in 17th century shaped Milton much more than other poets. For example,
Francis Bacon s book, The Advancement of Learning and another book, Novum Organum actually contributed to the scientific thinking, scientific temper, against which Milton was writing his Christian epic poem about God, heaven, hell and earth. A different kind of knowledge has arrived;
New knowledge has arrived from this geocentric to heliocentric world. But Milton was one of perhaps one of the last Renaissance scholars to retain or maintain the same old geocentric view in his greatest epic, Paradise Lost. Other poets like metaphysical poets,
Donne, Herbert, Crashaw, Vaughan and Marvell, they were writing more of religious poetry. As opposed to Cavalier poets like Thomas Carew, Sir John Suckling, Richard Lovelace, who were writing more of secular poetry, we have two interesting poets who were very
Popular during this time, but we don t know about much about them today, that is, one is, Edmund Waller, another is Abraham Cowley. Abraham Cowley, we have seen that Johnson, Dr. Johnson was writing a life of Cowley rather than a life of John Donne.
We have important books from Robert Burton, Thomas Browne and Thomas Hobbes, to shape up this English thought, English society, English philosophy at this time. Science took the decisive shape in the form of the Royal Society in 1662. More of exploration not only of this geographical space,
But also the inner realm, what man is capable of, what we can discover in this world, what we can discover with our own eyes, that is where this empirical philosophy, empirical approach to life was beginning to take shape during this time. John Milton has a rich life.
He was a defender of various political and social causes. Surprisingly, this freedom of speech, he had enough freedom of speech, but then it was not enough. He was an independent thinker. He wanted to express his ideas, not only his own ideas; anybody must have this freedom of speech.
He was also a republican supporting the Parliament. And interestingly, he was also supporting remarriage, because his own first wife, after immediately after marriage, left him and returned to him much later. So, he began to ask a question, just because
A woman leaves a husband, why should a husband remain single for a long time? Later on, he married another lady and one more lady. He had three wives, but two of them died of childbirth, unfortunately. Milton attempted various forms of poetry and
Also prose, in both Latin and English. In fact, Milton was a polyglot; he knew many languages, even Hebrew. He could read original Hebrew. And today he is remembered for some of his poems, including this Paradise Lost. Some other well-known poems like Lycidas;
And Samson Agonistes is actually a tragedy and Areopagitica is a prose tract in which he has spoken fiercely for the freedom of speech. As we have already noted, Milton is considered to be one of the four pillars of English poetic tradition, the other
Three being Chaucer, Spenser and Shakespeare. We have chosen to discuss Paradise Lost, that too, Book 1 only. We have 12 books totally. But we will deal with only one book, and that too we will have some selected passages. What is this whole Paradise Lost about which was published in 1667 in
10 books and later in 1674 in 12 books to conform to the tradition of 12 books in Virgil s Aeneid? When Milton was a young man, he planned to write a grand epic, a great epic for England, based on English history, that is, the legends of King Arthur.
He actually trained himself for six years for this task. He devoted himself to the study of all texts, available philosophy, religion, science, everything that was available to him. He was preparing himself to write only the greatest epic, that was his determined
Task. That was his ambition in life, apart from his ambition of contributing to the English church, English society that is the state. It was a huge task he set for himself. He composed the epic of Paradise Lost in 1667, that is, he published it. He
Started writing it around 1663 or so, he published the ten books in 1667 and later on expanded two of his books into four books and then made it up as twelve books in 1674. He also wrote a sequel to Paradise Lost called Paradise Regained in 1671.
But this one has only four books. It deals with the arrival of Christ to redeem humanity. This Paradise Lost is a celebrated English epic poem in blank verse unlike other heroic epics which have this heroic couplet. We have some major characters like God, Satan,
Adam and Eve, some angels and devils we have. This particular epic poem is known for this Grand Style. Mathew Arnold and other critics after him have identified the style of Milton as Grand Style and it has come to be called Miltonic Style after the author of this poem John Milton.
We will spend some time specially in the next lecture on this grand style. What is this Paradise Lost again? What does a contemporary like Pullman Philip, Pullman say on this great epic? According to Pullman, it is a great revenge story. Revenge
Stories are always popular, as we have in films and also in books and other stories. He says, I think it is a central story of our lives, the story that more than any other
Tells us, what it means to be human. But however, many different it is told in the future, and however many interpretations are made of made of it, I don t think the version created by Milton, blind and ageing, out of
Political favor, dictating it day by day to his daughter, will ever be surpassed. It is one of the greatest epics, we have, one of the greatest revenge epics we have in English. And nobody can surpass it, Pullman says, and probably no other poet can do that. Wordsworth
Attempted an epic in English. He also was toying with the idea of writing about historical matters concerning England. But, then, later he chose to write about his own self; that we will see when we come to romantic poetry. What do we have in Paradise Lost, Book 1?
As the picture shows us, we can see Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden near this apple tree, or tree of life, where we have Satan in the form of a serpent, and speaking to Eve,
Tempting her to eat this apple. The result of that eating forbidden fruit is their being sent out of this paradise by Michael from, that is, God, through Michael from this paradise. We have Satan receiving them here downwards and these, our great grandparents, they left the paradise for the earth
To suffer the misery of the human condition. This particular book, Book one has 798 lines. It has, the whole book actually begins with this verse and also the argument, where we have some summary of this book. Every book has this kind of summary at the beginning.
In this Book one, we have Invocation to the Muse, Statement of the Theme, Introduction of Satan, other characters like Beelzebub and many other devils, and the size, the huge size, the monstrous size of Satan is given much importance in this book.
And also, we come to know certain insights into what makes heaven, what makes hell from the mouth of Satan himself. And then as an epic convention, we have a list of warriors that is catalogue cataloguing of all the warriors who are participating in this war with God led by
Satan. We have the construction of Pandemonium, the capital city of hell. And, then, in this Pandemonium, in this hall, we have a discussion by all these devils led by Satan on the future course of action. Milton deliberately chose to write blank verse.
And so, he has explained, why he chose to write his epic in blank verse in this particular section called The Verse, in his book, The Paradise Lost. Milton, Milton justified using blank verse in his epic poem Paradise Lost. He says, The measure is English heroic verse
Without rhyme, as that of Homer in Greek, and Virgil in Latin. Rhyme being no necessary adjunct or true ornament of poem or good verse, in longer works especially. But the invention of a barbarous age, to set off wretched matter and lame meter.
He did not want to follow this rhyme; he did not want to follow these typical other kinds of heroic couplets and things like that. At the same time, he wants the readers that this lack of rhyme is not exactly a defect, but it is a deliberate design that he has brought into this
Poem Paradise Lost. So, he claims that, this is the first epic in English to use blank verse. We are already familiar with blank verse being used in other contexts in poetry and drama, particularly in the Elizabethan contexts, the whole many of the plays were,
Most of the plays were written in blank verse. But here for an epic poem, we have this use of blank verse. Later on, other poets will employ this, including Wordsworth for his own epic, The Prelude. This use of blank verse in the context of Restoration society in poetry is a
Kind of going against the grain of his own age of rhyming verse particularly John Dryden and later on Alexander Pope. But the primarily, Johnson was familiar with and concerned with Dryden, because he was his contemporary. When Milton published his Paradise Lost in 1667
For the first time, he did not publish this argument, that is, summarizing the whole book and presenting it at the beginning of every book. It seems when readers wanted to have this kind of summary of every book, remember Milton s Paradise Lost is not that easy to read,
Because it has its own Miltonic style, Grand Style. That means, some effort the reader has to make to understand what Milton has written. So, readers wanted to have this summary at the beginning, so he has given this summary in the form of an argument. He received the suggestions
From the readers, particularly the publishers to include a summary of each book in the expanded edition in 1674. This particular poem deals with man s disobedience, the loss of Paradise, the fall of man due to Satan s revolt against God and his temptation of man to eat this
Forbidden apple, to get this knowledge of the difference between innocence and experience. And so, this poem deals with the, the entire group of devils, the chief of which is Satan and all other fallen angels in hell. The mis miserable condition of the devils
In the Burning Lake is presented to us in this particular book, Book one. But Satan, though he has fallen, has not lost lost his motivation, his inspiration, or his energy to fight with God. So, he is he self-motivates himself and then he motivates his own fallen angels by his speeches.
We have a list of warriors and then the how this Pandemonium is built, that is by Malciber, that is mentioned. And then we have the big preparation for the debate on war with God, direct or indirect war, by force or fraud. We have this kind of
The beginning of that, setting up of that meeting we have at the end of Book one. So, we begin with this Invocation, we have some selected passages. We will read these passages one after another and please pay attention to the highlighted words, so that you
Can understand the kind of emphasis that we lay on certain special words and phrases or even lines. Of Man s first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater Man. Restore us and regain the blissful seat, Sing, Heav nly Muse, that on the secret top.
Or Oreb or of Sinai, didst inspire, That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed In the beginning how the heav ns and earth Rose out of chaos; or if Sion hill.
Delight thee more, and Siloa s brook that flow d Fast by the oracle of God, I thence Invoke thy aid to my advent rous song. Milton the poet, the narrator of this poem, invokes the muse, the classical muse. Normally we have this calliope, the epic muse
For every poet. So here Milton invokes the muse, the classical muse, but when he comes to this heavenly muse, when he comes to this secret top, the shepherd and all that, he indicates that he doesn t stop with this classical muse of epic.
He also includes the Christian epic, or Christian muse, the heavenly muse, the holy spirit, that inspired Moses, that is a shepherd, so, this Oreb and Sinai, this mountain area where Moses received this law from law for human beings from God. So, he wants to, Milton wants to, receive
That kind of blessing from the heavenly spirit, the heavenly muse to write his adventurous song. Certain words and phrases, for example, this Oreb, Sinai, and things like that are highly allusive. That is, one source of difficulty with Milton is the Latinate diction,
The Latinate diction. Another is the classical allusion or allusion to the whole range of knowledge that Milton was familiar with. It is said, he is only, he is the only poet with so much of scholarly learning. All other epic poets did not have so much of self-trained learning. So,
As a result, we will be facing challenges because of this enormous range of scholarship from Milton. But we can overcome these difficulties with a good annotated text. The text that we are using from Representative Poetry Online, we can use many other texts also. It has enough annotations
To help us, some points of explanation which will help us to understand the poem. The invocation continues. That with no middle flight intends to soar Above th Aonian mount, while it pursues, Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.
And chiefly thou, O spirit, that dost prefer Before all temples th upright heart and pure, Instruct me, for thou know st, thou from the first Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread. Dove like sat st brooding on the vast Abyss,
And mad st mad st it pregnant: What in me is dark Illumine, what is low raise and support, That to the height of this great argument I may assert Eternal Providence And justify the ways of God to men.
This is the task, Milton has set for himself to justify the ways of God to men, to assert eternal providence, to deal with the story of the first disobedience. The fruit of which man had to bear, that is to that is to be thrown out of this Paradise and
Suffer forever without any kind of relief except through Jesus Christ, the arrival of God. So here in this passage, we can see how Milton daringly says, Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. Nobody has attempted this kind of epic poem. But this is, scholars have
Noted that, this is a kind of paraphrase from another Italian poet. For that kind of influence study and all that some annotations may help us. But what we have to notice in this passage is the spirit, the Holy Spirit becomes very clear, when he mentions this simile like expression
Dove like sat st brooding on the vast Abyss, Dove, this Holy Spirit, or this Holy Ghost blessing, knowing everything. And so, he seeks the blessing of this Holy Spirit to enlighten what is dark in him and raise his morale, support him, so that he can assert eternal providence and justify
The ways of God to men. This is not an ordinary task. In poetry, in blank verse, to write a poem, that too when science was advancing, to destabilize this Christian view of the world, that is the center earth is the center of the world, there is a heaven above, there
Is a hell down, this is an old traditional view. It was being stabilized, at this time Milton was still, with conviction, writing. He was a Puritan, a Protestant, a Puritan not in the sense of very strict rigid Puritan, but in the sense of an independent
Thinker, in the sense of a free thinker. He was writing, a man with, with conviction, he was writing this epic for his readers. The invocation continues further. Say first – for Heav n hides nothing from thy view,
Nor the deep tract of Hell – say first what cause Mov d our grandparents in that happy state, Favour d of heav n so highly to fall off From their creator and transgress his will For one restraint, lords of the world besides?
Who first to seduc d them to that foul revolt? Th infernal Serpent, he it was, whose guile Stirr d up with envy and revenge, deceiv d The mother of mankind, what time his pride,
Had cast him out of out from heav n with all his host. In this particular passage we find the cause, the result, the effect; the mother of mankind, that is, Eve was tempted by this infernal serpent, that is, Satan.
What for, to because of his own envy, because of his own desire, strong desire for revenge against God s punishment for Satan and his colleagues to be thrown out of heaven into hell. So, Satan, Satan s strategy was not to fight with God directly, but fight God through human beings,
By destroying human beings. Of rebel Angels, by whose aid, aspiring To set himself in glory above his peers. He trusted to have equall d the Most High If he oppos d; and with ambitious aim. Against the throne and monarchy of God,
Raised impious war in heav n and battle proud With vain attempt. Satan s attempt to wage a war, civil war, impious war against God was a vain attempt. He did that out of pride. He wanted to equal God, the Most High, that was his ambitious aim.
Why should why he should be second to God, he did not, he could not, Satan could not, accept the fact that he could be less than God. That is where the pride, that is where the arrogance led, Satan to fight against God. And when he started this along with others,
Naturally God with all his power was able to win over Satan and his team. And then this particular defeat, did not allow Satan to remain silent. He could not accept it, though it was a vain attempt. So, to prove his arrogance, to prove his pride in himself, to prove his desire
For ambition, he continues his restless war with God. It is an eternal war between good and evil. The invocation is over. Milton invoked the muse, on the one hand classical muse, on the other hand Christian muse. Any power on earth to help him to write the greatest epic, specifically Classical
Muse and this Christian muse, Holy Spirit to write this rhyme or poem un-attempted yet. Now we find Milton describing the hell. This hell is a Burning Lake. And here again, if you use if you if you pay attention to the language, you will see how it is,
Though it is hell, how beautifully Milton describes hell, you can see. Let s begin. Him the Almighty power Hurl d headlong, flaming from th ethereal sky, With hideous ruin and combustion, down
To bottomless perdition there to dwell In adamantine chains and penal fire, Who durst defy th Omnipotent arms. Nine times the space that measures day and night To mortal men, he with his horrid crew Lay vanquish d, rolling in the fiery gulf,
Confounded though immortal. But his doom Reserv d him to move wrath; for now the thought Both of lost happiness and lasting pain, Torments him; round he throws his baleful eyes, The Almighty hurled him Satan headlong, flaming through the ethereal sky, celestial sky.
In all members of Satan s team, they were all hurling down, falling down into hell, to bottomless perdition, endless adamantine, or condemnation. This is a lake of fire, where these devils are bound in chains and they are in misery.
They are fallen and they are vanquished, they are confused, they are, but remember, they are also immortal angels. They were they were created angels, immortal angels, but then here they suffer, unlike other angels who are remaining with God. The
More of torment comes to Satan because he knows what is happiness, he knows what is pain now. When he compares this to more suffering Satan has, and his eyes are full of woe, suffering, misery. This hell is like a dungeon. And in this dark dungeon,
It is amazing to see Milton using this expression darkness visible. In 20th century, William Golding has a novel called Darkness Visible to specifically deal with this kind of good and evil conflict or conflict between good and evil. Darkness is visible. So, this Burning Lake in
The dungeon, this heaven, or in this hell is darkness, but it is visible. This is oxymoronic, this is a contradiction, but this is the real real picture that Milton produces for us. At once, as far as Angels ken, he views The dismal situation waste and wild,
A dungeon horrible on on all sides round, As one great furnace flam d; yet from those flames No light, but rather darkness visible. Serv d only to discover sights of woe, Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes, That comes to all, but torture without end Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed With ever-burning sulphur unconsum d. In this passage, when Milton describes hell, he also keeps in mind other kinds of hell,
Particularly the hell described by Dante in his Divine Comedy where we have a reference here. Hope never comes, that comes to all. Abundant all your hope, those who come here is what is written on the entrance of the hell in Dante s Divine Comedy. And that kind of memory or trace,
Milton brings in here in his own hell as well. This is a dungeon, this is dismal, horrible, woeful, sorrowful, full of torture. These words we have underlined to draw our attention to the kind of emphasis that Milton pays to the suffering in hell. In spite of all this suffering, misery,
Torment everything, Milton allows his Satan to rise as a great inspirer, motivator. Satan has not lost hope, so he addresses the devils on many occasions. And here we have some examples. Once he was very happy, he had excellent thoughts, he had excellent company.
Join d with me once, now misery hath join d In equal ruin, into what pit thou seest. From what highth fall n. So much the stronger prov d
He with his thunder- and till then who knew The force of those dire arms? Yet not for those, Nor what the potent victor in his rage Can else inflict, do I repent or change, Though chang d in outward luster, that fix d mind
And high disdain from sense of injur d merit, That with the mightiest rais d me to contend, And to the fierce contention brought along. Innumerable force of Spirits arm d, That durst dislike his reign and, me preferring.
In this motivating speech for this, for his fallen angels, he talks, talks about his own status as a preferred leader, as a leader with support from many other colleagues. And we can see his own toying of toying mind repent or change,
Fixed mind and all that. Now we can pay attention to this to content and contention. This is one example where we can see how Milton uses the same word content in a verb form and in another case
Contention as a noun form, plays with words. Word play is a characteristic of Milton s grand style. And in the first case joined and a line beginning with joined and ending with joined, it is a rhetorical feature called epanalepsis. There are many such rhetorical figures,
Only when we pay attention, only when we closely read, only when we are drawn to the sounds and words, the senses, the etymological roots, the syntactical structures, we will be able to enjoy the Miltonic poem, epic that is Paradise Lost. Everything is doleful, sorrowful, tormenting,
Woeful, miserable. In this kind of condition, nobody would have any hope. Abandon all your hope, those who come to those who come here, that is what Dante says. But Satan who has come to hell, doesn t abandon his hope. Here we have
Milton saying. Milton, that is Satan, saying, All is not lost- the unconquerable will, And study of revenge, immortal hate, And courage never to submit or yield: What is else not to be overcome? There is nothing that is impossible to overcome for Satan.
And what is else not to be overcome? That glory never shall his wrath or might Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace With suppliant knee and deify his power, Who from the terror of this arm so late Doubted his empire, that were low indeed;
That were an ignominy and shame beneath This downfall: Satan cannot accept the fact that it is a shame, it is an ignominy, this downfall is shameful, he will not accept. All is not lost; he has his unconquerable will. That will to independence of Satan, that is the first disobedience against
God. The second disobedience is by man, by eating this forbidden fruit. Here we find that courage never to submit or yield from Homer, Ulysses, not to yield, not to submit, we have in Satan, the kind of inversion we have in this particular line, that glory never shall his
Wrath or might extort from me. The glory that he has in himself, as an angel, as he may be fallen, but he is an angel, like he is immortal. He has his own spirit. So, we will pay attention to this
Later when we come to poetic device. That s why we have underlined it here. This kind of revengeful feeling comes to him because of this tyranny of God or tyranny of heaven. He says, Satan says, the authority of God is something which is intolerable,
Tyrannical. That s why there is a statement of this expression in this specific passage. Since by faith the strength of Gods And this empyreal substance cannot fail, Since through experience of this great event
In arms not worse, in foresight much advance d. We may with more successful hope resolve To wage by force, or guile eternal war, Irreconcilable to our grand foe (that is God,)
Who now triumphs and, in th excess of joy Sole reigning, holds the tyranny of heav n. Milton saw the king, Roman Church, or any form of authority as a source of tyranny and that is a kind of purest expression against tyranny that we have here through Satan.
Now what kind of mind does Satan have? He has a subverting mind, subversive mind. So, he addresses the devils, fallen Cherub, that is the second order of angels, the first one is Serafin, Fall n Cherub, to be weak is miserable, Doing or suffering: but of this be sure,
To do aught good will never be our task. But ever to do ill our sole delight, As being the contrary to his high will Whom we resist. If then his providence
Out of our evil seek to bring forth good, Our labour must be to pervert that end. And out of good, still to find means of evil; Which oft times may succeed so as perhaps
Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb His inmost counsels from their destin d aim. God is meant to do good all the time, even to fallen angels. From evil also God decides to bring out the good, but Satan says, his objective is to pervert that.
Our sole objective is, our sole delight is to do evil, even in good. That s what Satan s philosophy. So, he appeals to all his colleagues, let s continue to do evil. let s continue to do evil. And this is a Satan who will say later on,
Evil be the my good in another book. These passages in line numbers from one to 194, we have some thematic contrast that probably holds good for the entire book epic: obedience and disobedience. Obedience to God is paradise; disobedience to God is hell.
The conflict between good and evil represented by God and Satan. Haven is bliss; hell is perdition. Peace with God, or war with God is the option we have, the conflict between good and evil is presented to us. And in this conflict angels and devils participate;
We have light on the one hand in the heaven and darkness visible in hell. We have high heaven and low hell. We have all these three regions of heaven, earth and hell, this is a kind of geocentric view that Milton presents in this poem.
God created the world, the angels and human beings. Some of the angels became devils by disobeying God. And these angels, particularly Satan, he disobeyed God, he didn t stop with that. He received punishment from God,
He was not happy with that. He wanted to fight with God, but the only way he thought he could win over God is to make human beings disobey God. So, we have two kinds of disobedience: first disobedience by Satan, the next, second disobedience by human beings.
That s why human beings themselves did not commit this crime of disobedience. There was another agency that s why human beings have, according to Milton and Christianity, have this possibility of redemption. Whatever sins we commit, we have this redemption, sense
Of redemption through Christ or through divine grace. Those who disobeyed, including Satan, they were pushed down to hell from heaven by God. They took some nine plus nine, nine days nine nights, something like eighteen days they took to reach. Such a long distance from heaven to hell.
And similarly, for the disobedience by human beings, human beings were thrown out of Eden; they had to move from Paradise to Earth to suffer endlessly. But of course, with some hope. We have a number of poetic devices, we indicated some of them as we read the passages, selected
Passages, we have pun, word play endlessly in all places. The first one is fruit, fruit is apple, fruit the result, the effect of eating that fruit. I noticed something very interesting, defy is defiance, disobedience. But within this, we have deify, obedience, or accepting, glorifying
God. Simile we have dove-like in the case of Holy Ghost; we have parallelism in construction, in, what in me is dark, illumine, what is low, raise and support. We also have Latinate diction in combustion, perdition, adamantine, penal when it comes to
The description of hell. We have images of hell like lake of fire, darkness. We have a number of hyperbatons, examples, a variety of word orders, different kinds of word orders. We have actually Milton imitates Latin in English. That glory (never shall) [his wrath or might]
Extort from me. I have indicated certain ways through which we can rearrange this passage. His wrath or might, never shall extort that glory from me. That s how we can rephrase it. Similarly, the next one,
We may with more successful hope resolve to wage by force or guile eternal war. We may resolve to wage by force or guile eternal war with more successful hope. In the first case, we see that glory, object coming to the front. And in the second case, we have object is, subject is
Retained in the first position. But it is subject and verb, they are split with an adjunct with more successful hope. So, this kind of play with subject position, object position and the way, way in which he organizes words, is something remarkable, contributing to this through syntax,
He contributes to this Miltonic style, that is the grand style. Sound effects, that is the first characteristic of Miltonic style. He wanted to have freedom in using language. That s why he chose blank verse for his epic poem Paradise Lost.
He could manipulate English language in any way he liked without restriction. Sometimes in spite of this freedom that he wants to enjoy, some end rhymes all we have in certain places, like in line number 148 and 151, where ire rhymes with fire. We have a number of alliterations, first, fruit,
World, woe, restore, regain, sing, secret, heaven, hides, mother of mankind, ambitious aim. We also have anaphora, say first, say first he tells or requests Holy Ghost, that is the muse. We have, disyllabic words, monosyllabic words in iambic pentameter as well. We have a number
Of variations in pause and this run-on line and end-stopped line. We have some examples here, Restore us and regain the blissful seat, Restore us and regain the blissful seat, Sing heavenly muse, that on the secret top Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire.
So, we can see various kinds of play with sound effects that Milton creates in his poem. On the whole, we have this great poem, Milton s Paradise Lost, which is an epic poem on the
Grand theme of the fall of man. It begins with the invocation to both epic and the Christian muses. It presents the Burning Lake in which Satan and his colleagues have found. It suggests scope for revenge by force or fraud against the tyranny of God by Satan. Satan offers an encomium,
Praise to pervert the design of God, and Satan offers an encomium to pervert the design of God and turn good into evil, to hurt God and his creations. Milton s poetic and linguistic devices construct the grand style of his epic. In sum, we have the historical and literary
Context which actually shaped Milton to write his great epic Paradise Lost in 12 books. The book we have chosen is Book one. And in this lecture, we have discussed from lines from one to 194. Within this, we have some selected passages dealing with invocation to the muse of
Pagan muse or Classical muse. And then we have the Christian muse, that is Holy Spirit. The invocation we found in four sections. This invocation specifically asks for help to write an epic which has never been attempted by
Any poet anywhere. We find Satan in the Burning Lake and him addressing his devils, raising some hope in them for revenge against God, by drawing their attention to their own pride in being themselves, being immortal, being powerful. But it takes time to realize that he
May not be equal to God, but he will not resist from this temptation of fighting against God. We have interesting references for you. We have used this text from Representative Poetry Online from the University of Toronto Library. We have the reference; you can collect it or
You can use any other source. We also have another book by Pullman, Pullman, Pullman. He has edited this volume, Paradise Lost, whole entire book we have. You can read this introduction and also this Book one from here. Some, some critical references we have in
Typological Aporias. This will guide us or let us know about the kind of difficulties we have in reading this poem. Aporia, this undecidability, indeterminacy in meaning in language, has its own capacity to undecide the meaning. So how Milton does it, or the language used by Milton does it in
Paradise Lost, you could see that using contemporary critical terms. Thank you.
#John #Milton
