Page 174 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

Unit 19: John Milton—Paradise Lost

Self Assessment Notes

State the following sentences are True or False:
1. William Shakespeare was the author of the poem, Paradise Lost.
2. The poem concerns the Christian story of the fall of woman.
3. Milton was politically active during the time of the English civil war.
4. Grotius would be the epic poet of the English nation.
5. John Milton was born on December 7, 1608.
6. Milton was met many of the great Renaissance minds including Galileo and Grotius during
his tour in 1638-39.
7. Paradise Lost was published in 1667.
8. The Iliad and the Aeneid are the great epic poems of Greek and Latin.
Milton’s approach to the invocation of the muse, in which he takes a classical literary convention
and reinvents it from a Christian perspective, sets the pattern for all of Paradise Lost. For example,
when he catalogs the prominent devils in Hell and explains the various names they are known by
and which cults worshipped them, he makes devils of many gods whom the Greeks, Ammonites,
and other ancient peoples worshipped. In other words, the great gods of the classical world have
become—according to Milton—fallen angels. His poem purports to tell of these gods’ original natures,
before they infected humankind in the form of false gods. Through such comparisons with the
classical epic poems, Milton is quick to demonstrate that the scope of his epic poem is much greater
than those of the classical poets, and that his worldview and inspiration is more fundamentally true
and all-encompassing than theirs. The setting, or world, of Milton’s epic is large enough to include
those smaller, classical worlds. Milton also displays his world’s superiority while reducing those
classical epics to the level of old, nearly forgotten stories. For example, the nine muses of classical
epics still exist on Mount Helicon in the world of Paradise Lost, but Milton’s muse haunts other
areas and has the ability to fly above those other, less-powerful classical Muses.

Milton both makes himself the authority on antiquity and subordinates it to his
Christian worldview.

The Iliad and the Aeneid are the great epic poems of Greek and Latin, respectively, and Milton
emulates them because he intends Paradise Lost to be the first English epic. Milton wants to make
glorious art out of the English language the way the other epics had done for their languages. Not
only must a great epic be long and poetically well-constructed, its subject must be significant and
original, its form strict and serious, and its aims noble and heroic. In Milton’s view, the story he will
tell is the most original story known to man, as it is the first story of the world and of the first human
beings. Also, while Homer and Virgil only chronicled the journey of heroic men, like Achilles or
Aeneas, Milton chronicles the tragic journey of all men—the result of humankind’s disobedience.
Milton goes so far as to say that he hopes to “justify,” or explain, God’s mysterious plan for
humankind. Homer and Virgil describe great wars between men, but Milton tells the story of the
most epic battle possible: the battle between God and Satan, good and evil.

19.3 Summary

• Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton.
• The poem concerns the Christian story of the Fall of Man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by
the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

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