The Muse's Method: An Introduction to Paradise LostExcerpt: "In reading Paradise Lost for a number of years, I have found that my admiration for the poem has increased along with my sense of the problems which the poem presents. Each of the following essays derives from a question about a passage, a book, a motif, or a device in the poem: why is it there? what does it do? how does it work? In attempting to answer those questions, I have discovered that each concerned major aspects of Milton's (or his Muse's) method, poetic and religious. In writing about Milton, as in writing about Shakespeare, one's enormous debts to the living and the dead become inextricably entangled. For this reason, and because I have hoped for readers who might be interested in Milton's poetry while not interested in Milton scholarship, I have omitted footnote references from my text. I wish, however, to acknowledge the illumination and pleasure I have received from a number of scholars and critics who have recently written about Milton and his poetry: Frank Huntley, Isabel MacCaffery, William Madsen, M. M. Mahood, F. T. Prince, B. Rajan, Howard Schultz, Arnold Stein, Rosemond Tuve, W. B. C. Watkins, and Bernard Wright. I owe more personal debts to the criticism, conversation, and often, too, the writings of the following: Rufus and Jane Blanshard, J. B. Broadbent, William Coles, David Daiches, John Davenport, Jack Davis, Leonard Dean, Robert Durr, Helen Gardner, George Hemphill, John Huntley, C. S. Lewis, Charles McLaughlin, Edwin Muir, and E. M. W. Tillyard. I owe a great deal to Douglas Bush, who taught me to read Milton, and to Merritt Hughes, whose text in his finely annotated John Milton: Complete Poems and Major Prose (The Odyssey Press: New York, 1957) I quote throughout. Chapters III and VII have previously appeared in slightly different form in Publications of the Modern Language Association of America. Chapter IV has appeared in Studies in English Literature . . ." |
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Page 11
... begins with “ And , ” they are almost one sentence ) as the " proposal " of the " whole Subject " in the widest ... begin " ; I believe that in them the " great thing " has already begun . The poem tells us what the greatest single long ...
... begins with “ And , ” they are almost one sentence ) as the " proposal " of the " whole Subject " in the widest ... begin " ; I believe that in them the " great thing " has already begun . The poem tells us what the greatest single long ...
Page 12
... begins and ends with Man , but it is neither Man as we know him in ordinary daily life nor as he is usually treated ... begin before time and end after it , with the final action of " one greater Man " infinitely farther beyond our ...
... begins and ends with Man , but it is neither Man as we know him in ordinary daily life nor as he is usually treated ... begin before time and end after it , with the final action of " one greater Man " infinitely farther beyond our ...
Page 67
... begins by dramatizing his heroic perils , but shifts to his best ironical vein when he relates how absurdly easy the ... begin their mission on earth . After Satan's reaction to Paradise , we should not be surprised that Death is not ...
... begins by dramatizing his heroic perils , but shifts to his best ironical vein when he relates how absurdly easy the ... begin their mission on earth . After Satan's reaction to Paradise , we should not be surprised that Death is not ...
Contents
Preface page ix | 11 |
Satan Sin and Death | 32 |
Grateful Vicissitude | 71 |
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Abdiel action Adam and Eve Adam's Addison angels anxiety behold Belial believe bliss Book XI C. S. Lewis comic concerned continue created creation Creatures dark Death Death wreck delight desire destruction divine dramatic dream E. M. W. Tillyard Earth emotions epic eternal Eve's evil experience eyes fair faith fall fear freedom Fruit fulfilment glory God's happy hast hath Heav'n Heav'nly Hell heroic poem human human sexuality hymn imagine immediate inevitably knowledge light literary live man's Messiah Michael Milton motions move movement narration nature Paradise Lost passage passion peace perceived perfection perversion poet poetry possible praise Prevenient Grace providence Raphael reality reason recognize Redeemer rejoicing relation reminded response Satan seem'd seems sense sexual sight speech Spirit sweet Thammuz thee thine things thir thou thought tion unfallen VIII vision War in Heaven warfare wish