We come to the second lecture on Paradise Lost Book one. We will begin with Milton s grand style. We will see the features of Milton s grand style and then discuss lines 195 to 798. Of course, with reference to certain selected passages dealing with Satan s size,
Heaven and Hell, Catalogue of Warriors, Ecological strain, Building of pandemonium, Preparation for the debate in the second book. And then we will pay attention to specific poetic devices, particularly Epic similes. Matthew Arnold uses the expression grand style with reference to the use of blank verse in Milton s Paradise Lost.
He appreciated Milton for this achievement in English poetry. But this achievement fell into a controversy called Miltonic controversy, when F R Lewis and T S Eliot attacked Milton s use of language. However, we have spirited defense of Miltonic style by C S Lewis, William Empson,
Christopher Ricks and Stanley Fish. It s a whole debate we have this book by Christopher Ricks called Milton s Grand Style to understand all kinds of debates that have gone into this Miltonic controversy. According to Christopher Ricks, there are certain features. One: rhythm or music contributing the sound effects in the poem.
The second one is syntax, sentence construction following decorum demanding some long sentence constructions, inversions according to Latin style. This is different from the common language that we use. The next one is metaphor, all kinds of comparisons, extended comparisons,
Embedded comparisons, lots of with lots of allusions we have in Milton. That s a great source of difficulty for us, and similarly, word play or pun with words, play with words in different ways. Milton may use words in different forms with or archaic meanings or etymological sources
Or he may play with different words in different ways. So, these contribute to Milton s grand style. We have discussed his grand style in the beginning so that as we discuss the passages, we can pay attention to
These features, rhythm, syntax, metaphor and word play. And finally, when it comes to poetic devices and epic similes, we can further reinforce our understanding of grand style later. Let s look at Satan’s size; Satan s body was a monstrous size. How does Milton present the huge
Body of Satan to us? Prone on the flood, extended long and large, Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as huge As whom the fables are name of monstrous size,
Titaniun, or Earth – born that war d on Jove, Briareos or Typhon. whom the den By ancient Tarsus held or that sea-beast Leviathan, which God of all his works Created hugest that swim th ocean-stream: Him haply slumb ring on the Norway foam
The pilot of some small night- found d skiff, Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell, With fixed anchor in his scaly rind, Moors by his side under the lee, while night Invests the sea, and wished morn delays. The body of Satan was so gigantic, so titanic
Something like a titan, warring with Jove. And the sea beast Leviathan is also brought in such a huge beast, is so huge that it it could be like an island for a sailor to anchor his ship. Such is the shape of Satan. Very crucial passage for us to understand
What is heaven and hell. Farewell happy fields Where joy forever dwell: Hail horrors, hail Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell Receive thy new Possessor: One who brings A mind not to be chang d by Place or Time.
The mind is its own place and in it self Can make a heav n of Hell, a Hell of Heav n. What matter where, if I be still the same, And what I should be, all but less than he
Whom Thunder hath made greater? Here at least We shall be free; th Almighty hath not built Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: Here we may reign secure, and in my choice
This is a height of arrogance from Satan. To reign is worth ambition though in Hell: Better to reign in Hell, than serve in heav n. What is hell? The mind is its own place and
In itself can make a heaven or hell, a hell or of heaven. He may be pushed down from paradise that is heaven to hell but his mind doesn t change. He will remain with that ambition to fight with God to equal or to become superior to God
And his chief philosophy is better to reign in hell than serve in heaven. He doesn t want to be a servant; he wants to be a master. Master for, master for all things of the world,
Supreme Being of the world. How can, how can there be so many Gods with equal power? Satan does not think about that. Satan I do not care for God; I want to be better than, more than God. This is a typical individualistic Protestant philosophy, which has found excellent expression
Through Milton s character called Satan. That s why many critics have found that Milton is able to express his own independent spirit and mind through Satan much more than anything else. Satan has a shield which is compared to the moon in terms of size.
His scarce had ceas d when the superior fiend Was moving toward the shore; from the burning lake his ponderous shield, Ethereal timber, massy, large and round, Behind him cast; the broad circumference
Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views At ev ning from the top of Fesole, Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands,
Rivers or mountains in her spotty globe. His spear – to equal which the tallest pine Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast Of some great ammiral, were but a wand. Very interestingly Milton brings in the Tuscan optic glass, the Tuscan artist that is Galileo.
It seems that Milton had a chance to visit Italy and at that time he also had the chance to meet Galileo. Through that uptick, that is telescope, Galileo used to see the sky, moon, planets from that place called Fesole or Valdarno. And this through this by seeing this here, Milton
Compares the shield that Satan has to the size of the moon, hung on his shoulders like the moon and also, he has a spear which our poet compares to a tall pine, the tallest pine,
And also it s like a magic wand. We have a simile here in the form of locust. As when the potent rod Of Amram s soAmram s son, in Egypt s evil day, Wav d round the coast up called a pitchy cloud
Of locusts warping on the eastern wind, That ov r the realm of impious Pharaoh hung Like night, and darken d all the land of Nile: So numberless were those bad Angels seen
Hovering on wing under the cope of Hell, Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding fires; In this case, we have locusts, all these angels were coming together like locusts in the sky, like a cloud, in the night and this is referred to in the form of
Amram s son that is Moses. When Moses came to Egypt and he wanted to cross Egypt to Israel, he was given this kind of situation. We have a list of warriors. I have brought them together in one slide without much description these are the names, the warriors. He tells,
Milton tells or request the muse, Say muse their names then who first who last. The rhetorical inputs are there: first, next, behind and all that; Moloch, Chemos, Baalim, Ashtaroth, Astoreth, Thammuz, Dagon, Osiris, Isis, Orus, Belial. These are the
Warriors. They have all negative qualities Gods and Gods with different kinds of sins from human sacrifice to lust, so many kinds of ills or evils that is Gods do, these warriors do. And these warriors are ready to fight with God and all of them are ready, they are in place; Satan
Views or looks at them and then takes pride. His pride, Satan’s pride: Distands with pride and, hard ning in his strength, Glories: for never, since created man, Met such embodied force as nam d with these,
Could merit more than that small infantry. That is actual passage we have to look at, but then how is that infantry great? We have further connections through all historical forces or armies described in other epics. So, we, this kind of description to understand better,
We need to refer to an annotated edition. All kinds of battles that were fought in the past or described in the past in various epics, Milton has brought in here to show, Satan was ready to fight
With God. We have to remember, again and again we have to remember that, Satan is not exactly the hero but there is a question about that. The, this whole epic is presented from the vantage point of
The defeated. God defeated Satan. So, we have a perspective of this war from the defeated Satan. We have strength and weakness analysis in in Satan here. But he who reigns Monarch in heav n till then as one secure
Sat on his throne, upheld by world repute. Consent or custom, and his regal state Put forth full, but still his strength conceal d; Which tempted our attempt and wrought our fall.
Henceforth is might we know and know our own, So as not either to provoke or dread New or provok d or better part remains To work, in closed design, by fraud or guile
What force effected not: that he no less At length from us may find who overcomes By force had to overcome but half his foe. It appears that Satan could, could not have revolted against God if he really understood, if he had really understood the real strength of God.
It was appearing like that he could overcome God but he understood the real power of God only when God used his power to push Satan and all other devils down into hell. So now he has to
Think about different ways, he knows the power of God so he has to defeat God in different ways. One of the aspects of this war and army and all that is about having lot of wealth, a lot of resources. We have Mammon also here in this hell
And there is something to do with ecology; something very interesting in the lines highlighted for you in the last three lines here. Mammon is considered to be the God of wealth or riches. Or cast a rampart. Mammon led them on,
Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell From heav n for ev n in heav n his looks and thoughts Were always downward bent, admiring more The riches of heaven’s pavement, trod n gold, Than aught divine or holy else enjoy d
In vision beatific; by him first Men also and by his suggestion taught, Ransack d the centre, and with the impious hands Rifl d the bowels of their mother Earth For treasures better hid. Mammon, the God of riches,
He was in heaven along with the Satan and others but he was not happy with the celestial riches. He was happy with the golden riches or material riches which were found in below heaven. So, his eyes were always down, when he came here. Then along with others he ransacked the center of
The earth. He rifled the bowels of the earth. He explored and received or gathered more of wealth from the Mother Earth. And this is the, this is this has lot of meaning in the context of the
Ecological damage that we are doing today. We are exploring the earth for more and more wealth, for ourselves forgetting the health of Mother Earth. We have this pandemonium. Pandemonium is a word which Milton coined and gave to English vocabulary;
Demon from demon, where pandemonium is a place where demons live. All demons live, that is hell. Mulciber is the man who built this pandemonium. Mulciber in Greek mythologies Hephaestus and in Latin or Roman mythology is Vulcan. So here he is presented to us;
Men call him Mulciber; and how he fell From heav n they fabl d thrown by angry Jove Sheer o er the crystal battlements: from morn To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve. A summer’s day, and with the setting sun
Dropt from the zenith, like a falling star, Of Lemnos, th Aegean isle. Thus they relate, Erring: for he with his rebellious rout For Fell long before; nor aught avail d him now To have built in heav n high tow rs; nor did he scape
By all his engines, but was headlong sent With his industrious crew to build in Hell. At pandemonium, the high capital Of Satan and his peers. The capital, a straw-built capital like that we have here in
Pandemonium, that is, hell. In this hall the devils will assemble to discuss their strategy. We have a simile. Which, this is a common simile used in other epics, bees coming together swarming together: As bees In spring-time, when the sun with the Taurus rides,
Pour Pour forth their populous youth about the hive In clusters; they among fresh dews and flowers Fly to and fro, or on the smoothed plank, The suburb of their straw-built citadel New rubb d with balm, expatiate and confer
Their state-affairs: So thick the aery crowds Swarm d were strait n d till, the signal giv n, – Behold a wonder! – they but now who seem d In bigness to surpass Earth s Giant sons Now less than the smallest dwarfs, in narrow room
Throng numberless, like the Pygmean race Beyond the Indian mount or faery elves, And it continues. Bees, like bees all of them have come together and they are reduced in size, the devils are reduced in size in smallest dwarfs. And once they are called, once they are given the
Instruction, they all move from the lake, burning lake. They, first they move from the lake to the nearby dry land and then the Pandemonium is built there and then they enter this Pandemonium for discussion. It s a wonderful site of their huge size, size becoming small and small. And also,
They become numberless. We don t know how many angels, I mean devils are there. Huge numbers. These are the closing lines of Book one. Thus incorporeal Spirits to smallest forms Reduc d their shapes immense, and were at at large,
Though without numbers still, amidst the hall Of that infernal court. But far within, And in their own dimensions like themselves. The great Seraphic lords and cherubim In close recess and secret conclave sat, A thousand demi-gods on golden seats,
Frequent and full. After a short silence then, And summons read, the great consult began. The great consult began. What is that consult is given to us in Book Two, the consultation regarding how to fight with God. So, the, these spirits, angels who turned into devils,
Incorporeal spirits, spirits without body, from huge size to small size, in some from some numbers to numberless and they have all come to this court, the assembly hall, infernal, because this is hellish. And there is a tautological expression in this and in their own
Dimensions like themselves, there is no other comparison. They are compared with themselves and in their own dimensions like themselves. What is this? We have no idea, this small size; frequent and full alliteration the different kinds of words that he uses, conclave,
Secret place of meeting and consultation. As we saw in the previous lecture some thematic contrast, all of them apply here, specifically with reference to the lines 195 to 798. We can see the comparison or the contrast between huge size and small size, heaven on the one hand hell
On the other hand, pride on the one hand humility on the other, fraud and also force, appearance and reality, particularly when it comes to the real strength of, the real power of God, which Satan and other devils understood after the fight, after the impious civil war, not before that.
Their own strengths and weaknesses they understand and then they think about their own way of coping with what to do next. There is a spirit up in heaven and there is a material down in hell
And we have this crowded or isolated people. All of them are now crowded, frequent and full in this infernal court. And one, on the one hand we have corporeal huge size body and on the other hand we have incorporeal spirits without much body or without occupying space.
So, this kind of thematic contrast we have especially with reference to this good and evil, design, the sign of design, the sign of design of good and evil in hell in Pandemonium we have with reference to Mulciber, Mammon and many other devils, list of warriors we have in this.
We have already looked at the some of the poetic devices. So, we can quickly look at them; epic similes we have in leviathan, shieldless moon, locusts, bees. We have alliteration, just some examples we have here: Heaved his head, stench and smoke, sole, hail, horrors hail. Chiasmus we have;
Greatest example of Chiasmus we can have in terms of defining hell and heaven: The mind can make its own hell or heaven, a heaven or hell, a hell of heaven. We have transferred epithet in terms of happy fields, his ponderous shield, shield, ponderous thinking, it is Satan who thinks. So,
It is attributed to the shield. We have these epigrammatic sentences better to reign in hell than serve in heaven, who overcomes by force hath overcome but half his foe. So, this using force to win an enemy is only half the victory but this full victory probably Satan
Implies through winning God by fraud. We have the image of ransacking and rifling the earth, Mother Earth for gold and other resources. We have the simile in like that Pygmean race and some other similes also we have. And then lastly, we have this tautology and in their own
Dimensions like themselves. There is no additional meaning we have, it is circumlocution. The poetic devices in terms of sound effects and all that we have; it is unrhymed words but we have noted some occasional rhymes; we have tend and defend in 183 and 187; repair and despair in 188,
191 nearby. And then we have pledge and edge in 274 and 276. And similarly, some kind of partial rhyme we can see in anon, discern, down in 325 to 327 lines. We have the wide variety of caesuras and enjambments the mind is its own place,
And in itself Can make a heav n of Hell, a Hell of heav n. The whole poem uses iambic pentameter in unrhymed form that s why it is called blank verse. Here we have a different passage for us to understand this iambic pentameter:
With dread of death to fight or foul retreat, Nor wanting power to mitigate and swage With solemn touches, troubled thoughts, and chase Anguish and doubt and fear and sorrow and pain From mortal to immortal minds.
This and addition of and, polysyndeton you can see, and this dread of death you can see in terms of alliteration or flight or foul you can see, it s a beautiful passage. And Matthew Arnold
Says take any passage from Paradise Lost from the poetry of Milton you can see grand style. We have a number of conventions for an epic poem. Here are some: invocation to the muse, statement of the theme, supernatural element, heroic characters, descent to hell, in medias res, list of warriors,
Epic similes. We have seen all of them in our first lecture and also in this second lecture. We will pay attention to some specific epic similes. Whale, that is, leviathan that is used to refer to the size of Satan. Similarly, we saw this shield size, the size of the shield used
By Satan, the broad circumferences Hung on his shoulders like the moon and further connected with Galileo and other things. Locusts, numerous angels that is, the devils actually, the innumerable angels that is fallen angels groveling in the lake of, of fire compared to a cloud of locusts.
We also have bees the diminished shape of the devils is presented to us in the shape of bees. As bees In springtime, when the sun with Taurus rides. Pour forth that populous youth above the hire In clusters
That s why we have this frequent and full crowded place. In sum, we can see Milton s Paradise Lost as an epic poem on the grand theme of the fall of man. Book one of Paradise Lost describes the background for the entire story.
It introduces Satan, it introduces theme, it introduces the preparation of Satan to fight with God for taking revenge on him by fraud or force. Most importantly this particular book presents the mind of the fallen angels in hell and their building of Pandemonium and their palace.
Milton displays his astute scholarship in language, literature, the Bible, philosophy, different forms of government, etc., throughout the poem. Satan’s speeches, as we have seen, may be examples of the freedom of speech that Milton argued for in his life.
There are any number of readings, critical readings possible. There are many references you can see on your own, these are some suggestive. We can attempt religious reading or secular reading, political reading or didactic reading that is moral reading, psychological reading or sociological reading even archaeological and geographical mapping is possible to do;
So much of information we have in Paradise Lost. We can also think of scientific approach to the poem because it is a poem in the context of growing, advancing science. We have ecological interpretation, we hinted at it in the context of Mammon and his attempt to
Ransack the whole earth. We have feminist readings of this poem, why do we have Eve being treated in the way in which Milton has? It is in the Bible of course. Milton follows the Bible but then he also includes his own perspectives on the Biblical theme.
We have a quotation from William Blake who admired Milton like nobody else did. Blake said, The reason Milton wrote it in fetters when he wrote of Angels and God, and at liberty when of Devils and Hell, is because he
Was a true poet and of the devil’s party without knowing it. When we read Shakespeare s Macbeth, we don t feel bad about Macbeth for killing Duncan. We sympathize with him and the same case happens here when we find Satan fighting against God
Tempting human beings to eat the fruit, forbidden fruit, and making them lose paradise. He does all evil things but then Milton by his poetic language, by his imaginative effort or endeavor, enables us to sympathize with Satan himself.
Finally, we have a summary here. We began this lecture with Milton s grand style focusing on sound effects, rhythm and music, syntax, metaphor and word play. We have seen some examples of all these characteristics in this poem. We have discussed some selected passages
From line number 195 to 798 focusing on Satan s size, heaven and hell, catalogue of warriors, ecological strain, building of Pandemonium and preparation for the debate. Our analysis of this rhyme, rhythm, poetic devices, epic similes, all tell us
About the greatness of Milton s poetry written in grand style, Miltonic grand style. We have some references which will help you further to understand this poem much more. These are the references. Allusion as a Mode of Thinking in Paradise Lost is very interesting
To see. How Milton deliberate, deliberately suppressed the name of Prometheus, Milton Milton s Satan is like Prometheus. Prometheus brought fire from heaven to the earth for human beings and similarly Satan enabled human beings to eat that fruit, forbidden fruit and get that knowledge,
Wisdom or knowledge of the difference between good and evil or innocence and experience. So that kind of understanding you can have better from in a study of Allusion as a Mode of Thinking in Paradise Lost and many you have; multiple sources, just a few we have mentioned. Thank you.
#John #Milton