Milton And Paradise Lost

John Milton17th Century Englandand Paradise Lost

John Milton1608-1675

Education—raised in LondonAt home, then St. Paul’s Cathedral School1625—enters Cambridge1630—BA1632—MA1632-1638 continued study1638-1640 European travel—mostly in Italy

Milton’s travels influence hispoetryGeography:He circled, four times crossed the car of NightFrom pole to pole traversing each colure,On th’eighth returned and on the coast averseFrom entrance or cherubic watch by stealthFound unsuspected way. There was a placeWhere Tigris at the foot of ParadiseInto a gulf shot underground till partRose up a fountain by the Tree of Life.In with the river sunk and with it roseSatan involved in rising mist, then sought Where to lie hid.

Copernican Universe—andGalileoSome say He bid his angels turn askanceThe poles of earth twice ten degrees and moreFrom the sun’s axle: they with labor pushedOblique the centric globe.

Meanwhile—in English politics1629—Charles I dissolves Parliament and begins 11 years ofpersonal rule1640— “Short Parliament” opens at Westminster1640—“Long Parliament” begins and continues until 16601649—Oliver Cromwell declares himself “Lord Protector”Charles I is executed.1660—Cromwell dies and Charles II returns to England: “TheRestoration”

Some Milton dates:1649–marries Mary Powell1652–Milton became totally blind, his wife dies1656—marries Katherine Woodcock, who dies that year.1658—begins to write Paradise Lost1660—Milton goes into Hiding, is jailed, then pardoned1663—marries Elizabeth Minshull1666—Paradise Lost completed1670—Paradise Lost published

Areopagitica: a Speech for Liberty of UnlicensedPrinting to the Parliament of England (1644)“Books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain apotency of life. . . they do preserve as in a vial the purestefficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bredthem . . a good book is the precious life-blood of amaster-spirit.”

When I Consider How My Light Is SpentWhen I consider how my light is spentEre half my days, in this dark world and wide,And that one talent which is death to hideLodged within me useless, though my soul more bentTo Serve therewith my Maker, and presentMy true account, lest he returning chide;“Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?”I fondly ask; but Patience to preventThat murmur, soon replies, “God doth not needEither man’s work or his own gifts; who bestBear his yoke, they serve him best. His stateIs Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speedAnd post o’er land and ocean without rest:They also serve who only stand and wait.”1852

from Samson AgonistesHis servants he with new acquistOf true experience from this great eventWith peace and consolation hath dismissed,And calm of mind, all passion spentMilton dies in 1675

Paradise Lost

Epic“Sing Heav’nly Muse . . .”—a long narrative poem on serious subject.Vast setting, deeds of great valor, aid fromsupernatural forces.

Epic ConventionsInvocation of the MuseOpens in medias resLists—epic catalogueExtended and elaborate formal speeches—called “epicmonologue”Elaborate family backgrounds provided—epic geneologyExtended comparisons—epic simileStock phrases—formulaic language

What in me is darkIllumine, what is low raise and support,That to the heighth of this great argumentI may assert the ways of God to men.

Working with some passages(Narrator)So spake the enemy of mankind, enclosedIn serpent, inmate bad, and toward EveAddressed his way not with indented waveProne on the ground, as since, but on his rear,Circular base of rising folds that toweredFold above fold, a surging maze. His headCrested aloft and carbuncle his eyesWith burnished neck of verdant gold erectAmidst his circling spires that on the grassFloated redundant. Pleasing was his shapeAnd lovelyfrom Book IX

Eve—and NarratorHere grows the cure of all: this fruit divine,Fair to the eye, inviting to the taste,Of virtue to make wise. What hinders thenTo reach and feed at once both body and mind?So saying, her rash hand in evil hourForth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she eat:Earth felt the wound and Nature from her seatSighing though all her works gave signs of woeThat all was lost.Greedily she engorged without restraintAnd knew not eating death.from Book IX

Eve—an epic monologueBut to Adam in what sortShall I appear? Shall I to him make knownAs yet my change and give him to partakeFull happiness with me? Or rather not,But keep the odds of knowledge in my pow’rWithout copartner so to add what wantsIn female sex, the more to draw his loveAnd render me more equal and, perhaps,A thing not undesirable, sometimeSuperior: for who inferior is free?But what if God have seenAnd death ensue? Then I shall be no moreAnd Adam wed to another EveShall live with her enjoying. I extinct:A death to think! Confirmed then I resolveAdam shall share with me in bliss or woe.

Lucifer in dialogue with BeelzebubFarewell happy fieldsWhere joy forever dwells! Hail horrors, hailInfernal world! And thou, profoundest Hell,Receive thy new possessor, one who bringsA mind not to be changed by place or time!The mind is its own place and in itselfCan make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.Here at leastWe shall be free. Th’ Almighty hath not builtHere for His envy, will not drive us hence.Here we may reign secure, and in my choiceTo reign is worth ambition, though in Hell:Better to reign in Hell that serve in Heaven!from Book I

And why might Milton choose theepic for his great work?Terry Eagleton writes, “Paradise Lost is a poemwrihen on the ruin of utopian political hopes.Epics are master narratives which define anddelimit what is known and what is valued. Theyoffer a mythological history which is above allan account of their own present. The project ofepic is to fix the values of the society.”

Terry Eagleton writes, “Paradise Lost is a poem wrien on the ruin of utopian political hopes. Epics are master narratives which define and delimit what is known and what is valued. They offer a mythological history which is above all an account of their own present. The project of