4. John Milton (1608-1674)
Life
Milton is the greatest writer of the seventeenth century, and one of the giants in English literature. In his life and literary career the two dominant historical movements of Renaissance and Reformation combine and receive their most intense and intelligent expression. He towers over his age as Shakespeare towers over the Elizabethan age, and as Chaucer towers over the medieval period.
Milton was born in London. His father was a prosperous scrivener, a Puritan and a lover of music and literature. His education began at St. Paul's school, where he showed from the beginning a talent for mastering the ancient languages and literatures: Greek, Latin. He went on to distinguish himself at Cambridge University, where he graduated B. A. in 1629, and M. A. in 1632. He might well have entered the ministry upon completing his formal studies. But Milton decided that he had still not fully equipped himself for the work he was capable of performing, and he retired for five years to his father's country house in Buckinghamshire, where he read virtually all there was to read of ancient and modern writings. His poetic compositions came only occasionally during this period of intense private study. But basically during this period Milton was preparing himself for more ambitious undertakings, in religion and politics as well as in poetry. In 1638 he left England to complete his education with two years of travel in Europe, France, Switzerland and Italy. When he returned home in 1639, England was on the verge of a civil war.
After his return to England, he soon plunged himself into the struggle for which he had long been preparing. He gave all his energies to the writing of pamphlets dedicated to the people’s liberty. At that time, the Church of England was the major bulwark of the monarchy. Milton was stirred by the controversy and wrote a series of pamphlets headed by Of Reformation in England, in which he urged the necessity of a thorough religious reform. After the Revolution succeeded, and the commonwealth was established, Milton became Latin Secretary to the council of Foreign Affairs in 1649. He wrote a number of pamphlets defending the English revolution, such as Defence of the English People, and Second Defence of the English People. In these pamphlets he attacked the enemy without mercy. He played an active role in public affairs during the Civil War and the Commonwealth. Until the end of the Commonwealth, there were two leaders in England, Cromwell the man of action, and Milton the man of thought.
Milton was married to Mary Powell in June 1642, but the marriage proved to an unhappy one. The Powell family was strongly royalist and Mary was not able to share his political views. Six weeks after the marriage she left to return to her parents, and for several years Milton issued pamphlets in which he argued that all Englishmen should have the right to get a divorce.
Quite understandably, Milton gained the reputation of being a political radical during the Revolution Period. It was while he was engaged in this project that Milton went blind in 1652, doubtlessly due to the severe eyestrain brought on by ceaseless reading and Latin composition. But with the help of various scribes and secretaries, he was still able to perform his valuable services as Latin Secretary for Cromwell's government.
With the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Milton not only was confronted with the collapse of the cause to which he had given so much, but also was imprisoned and threatened with execution. Through the intervention of some friends who carried some influence with the new royal government, Milton was let off with a fine and some loss of property. Shortly afterward, living in blindness and virtual seclusion from all but the members of his immediate family, Milton began his masterpiece Paradise Lost. Before his death Milton published two other works on a grand scale, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes. Both appeared in 1671; neither is as successful as Paradise Lost. Milton died in 1674,11,8.
Works:
Paradise Lost 1665
Paradise Regained 1671
Samson Agonistes 1671
1) Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is Milton's masterpiece, and the greatest English epic. It is a long epic in 12 books, done in blank verse. The stories were taken from the Old Testament: the creation;the rebellion in Heaven of Satan and his fellow-angels; their defeat and expulsion from Heaven; the creation of the earth and of Adam and Eve; the fallen angels in hell plotting against God; Satan's temptation of Eve; the departure of Adam and Eve from Eden; and the possible salvation.
A.Theme and Characterization
The poem, as we are told at the outset, was "to justify the ways of God to man", and the reader soon gets the impression that the main idea of the poem is the heroic revolt against God's authority.
In the poem God is no better than a selfish despot（暴君，独裁者）, seated upon a throne with a chorus of angels about him eternally singing his praises. He is cruel and unjust in his struggle against and punishing Satan. His angels are silly. It has been noted by many critics that the picture of God surrounded by his angels, who never think of expressing any opinions of their own, and who indeed never seem to have any opinion of their own, resembles the court of an absolute monarch. While the rebel Satan who rises against God and, though defeated, still seeks for revenge, is by far the most striking character in the poem. Satan and his followers who freely discuss all issues in council bear close resemblance to a republican Parliament. This epic expresses the reactionary forces of his time and shows passionate appeal for freedom.
What makes Paradise Lost a powerful poem is precisely the way in which the Biblical past is pulled into the present in an intriguing way. Running through the poem are the key political questions of freedom and justice. These begin in Book 1 when the fallen angels debate what to do next. From the perspective of Satan and his followers, rebellion against God was inevitable. Heaven demanded obedience and servitude. The revolt may have failed, but it has left them their freedom. Freedom here may seem heroic, defiant and attractive, but it is clear that the fallen angels have also lost their former glory. Milton does blame Eve for wanting to gain knowledge and equality with Adam, and blame Adam for taking the fruit and joining her in sin. Yet Milton knows that Adam and Eve act of their own free will. The final image of the poem is profoundly forward-looking, an image of gain through loss. As Adam and Eve go hand in hand out of Eden, the loss of Paradise is seen as the gain of a future for humanity on earth.
The Image of Satan
The finest thing in Paradise Lost is the description of hell, and Satan is the real hero of the poem. As a conquered and banished giant, he remains obeyed and admired by those who follow him down to hell. He is firmer than the rest of the fallen angels. It is he who, overcoming so many obstacles, makes man revolt against God. Though defeated, he prevails, since he has won from God the third part of his angels, and almost all the sons of Adam.
He prefers independence to servility, and welcomes his defeat and his torments as a glory, a liberty and a joy. To Milton, the proud Satan represented the spirit of rebellion against an unjust authority. By using Satan as his mouthpiece, Milton is uttering his intense hatred of tyranny in the capacity of the Revolutionary.
2) Paradise Regained
It explores the theme of temptation and fall: in this case, it is the tempting of Jesus by Satan to prove his godhead.
3) Samson Agonistes
Samson Agonistes is a poetical drama modeled on the Greek tragedy. The story was taken from the Old Testament. Samson was an athlete of the Israelites. He stood as their champion, fighting for the freedom of his country. But he was betrayed by his wife and blinded by his enemies the Philistines.
In this poetical drama, Milton is telling us his own story. Like Samson, he has been betrayed by his wife. He has suffered from blindness and been scorned by his enemies, and yet he has struggled heroically against his enemies. Samson’s miserable blind servitude among his enemies, his longing for sight and freedom, and the last terrible triumph are all allusions to the poet’s own story. So the whole poem strongly suggests Milton's passionate longing that he too could bring destruction down upon the enemy at the cost of his own life. Samson is Milton.
4) Features of Milton's Poetry
A. Milton is a great revolutionary poet of the 17th century. He is also an outstanding political pamphleteer of the Revolution period. He dedicated himself to the revolutionary cause. He made a strong influence on the later English poetry. Every progressive English poet since Milton has drawn inspiration from him.
B. Milton is a great stylist. His poetry has a grand style. That is because he made a life-long study of classical and Biblical literature. His poetry is noted for sublimity of thought and majesty of expression.
C. Milton is a great master of blank verse. He is the glorious pioneer to introduce blank verse into non-dramatic poetry. He has used it as the main tool in his masterpiece Paradise Lost. His blank verse is rich in every poetic quality.
D. Milton wrote the greatest epic in English literature. He made a strong influence o later English poetry.
: Under Cromwell's Puritan dictatorship, John
Milton continues to write, but we also find writers like Andrew Marvell and Sir Thomas Browne.
25. What is ‘L’ Allegro’s’ companion piece called?
(A) Lamia (B) Hyperion (C) Il Penseroso (D) Thyrsis
. It is nearly impossible to understand and appreciate John Milton's L'Allegro without also having read its companion piece, Il Penseroso. Whereas l'allegro is "the happy person" who spends an idealized day in the country and a festive evening in the city, il penseroso is "the thoughtful person" whose night is filled with meditative walking in the woods and hours of study in a "lonely Towr." First published in 1645, the two poems complement each other structurally and contain images which are in specific dialogue with one another.
30. Which of the following works of
John Milton is an elegy ?
(A) Lycidas
(B) L’Allegro
(C) Camus
(D) Paradise Lost
Ans:Lycidas
Lycidas by John Milton is an elegy on his friend Edward King who was drowned on a voyage to Ireland. In its very form it is pastoral. In this poem we can see excellent images of nature and village life. In this elegy Edward King is been pasteurized as a shepherd in its idyllic setting.
Milton borrows the name Lycidas and gives to Edward King from the profounder of pastoral elegy (Theocritus) himself. He has taken this name from Theocritus’ Idylls in which Lycidas is a shepherd and poet. By giving the very name Lycidas to King, Milton fulfills the first requirement of a pastoral poetry. In this genre we can also see praises for the shepherd. Here in Lycidas Milton calls King as selfless even though he was of clergy.
Lycidas begins with a pastoral image, “Symbols of poetic fame; as their berries are not yet ripe.” When we read these lines we are sure to get a picture of nature. Milton tries to compare Cambridge to pasture, latter on he tries to speak about the heavy change suffered by nature because of the death of King. He says that willows, hazel groves, woods and caves lament Lycidas’s death. At the end of the poem Lycidas appears as a rejuvenated figure, Milton says, “Burnished by the sun’s rays at down, King resplendently ascends heavenward to his eternal reward.
The balance between elegy and pastoral imagery throughout the poem has created an impression that Lycidas is one of the most original pastoral elegies.
The first line of Paradise Lost is :
(A) Of man’s first disobedience and
the fall
(B) Of man’s prime disobedience
and the fall
(C) Of man’s initial disobedience
and the fall
(D) Of man’s last disobedience and
the fall
Ans; 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 heavenly muse, that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
In Paradise Lost, Milton invokes his
‘Heav’nly Muse’, ‘Urania’ at the
beginning of :
Codes :
I. Book one
II. Book four
III. Book nine
IV. Book seven
The right combination according to
the code is
(A) I and II are correct.
(B) I, III and IV correct.
(C) II and III are correct.
(D) I and IV are correct.
ANS (D) I and IV are correct.
Book I:
OF Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat, [ 5 ]
Sing Heav'nly Muse, that on the secret top
Of 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
Book I of Paradise Lost begins with a prologue in which Milton performs the traditional epic task of invoking the Muse and stating his purpose. He invokes the classical Muse, Urania, but also refers to her as the "Heav'nly Muse," implying the Christian nature of this work. He also says that the poem will deal with man's disobedience toward God and the results of that disobedience. He concludes the prologue by saying he will attempt to justify God's ways to men.
Book VII:
Escend from Heav'n Urania, by that name
If rightly thou art call'd, whose Voice divine
Following, above th' Olympian Hill I soare,
Above the flight of Pegasean wing.
The meaning, not the Name I call: for thou [ 5 ]
Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top
Of old Olympus dwell'st, but Heav'nlie borne,
Before the Hills appeerd, or Fountain flow'd,
Thou with Eternal Wisdom didst converse,
Wisdom thy Sister, and with her didst play [ 10 ]
In presence of th' Almightie Father, pleas'd
With thy Celestial Song.
Book VII opens with another prologue to Urania, who in classical mythology was the Muse of Astronomy but whom Milton has transformed into a heavenly or Christian inspiration. In this prologue, Milton asks Urania to bring his thoughts down from Heaven and back to Earth and to inspire him once more to rise above his physical limitations.
Identify the classical tragedy from
the following :
(A) Samson Agonistes
(B) Lycidas
(C) Il Penseroso
(D) Comus
Ans;(A) Samson Agonistes
Which of the following works by
Milton is an elegy ?
(A) Samson Agonistes
(B) Lycidas
(C) Paradise Regained
(D) Il Penseroso
Ans: Lycidas
elegy:
elegy, meditative lyric poem lamenting the death of a public personage or of a friend or loved one; by extension, any reflective lyric on the broader theme of human mortality. In classical literature an elegy was simply any poem written in the elegiac metre (alternating lines of dactylic hexameter and pentameter) and was not restricted as to subject. Though some classical elegies were laments, many others were love poems. In some modern literatures, such as German, in which the classical elegiac metre has been adapted to the language, the term elegy refers to this metre, rather than to the poem’s content. Thus, Rainer Maria Rilke’s famous Duineser Elegien (Duino Elegies) are not laments; they deal with the poet’s search for spiritual values in an alien universe. But in English literature since the 16th century, an elegy has come to mean a poem of lamentation. It may be written in any metre the poet chooses.
A distinct kind of elegy is the pastoral elegy, which borrows the classical convention of representing its subject as an idealized shepherd in an idealized pastoral background and follows a rather formal pattern. It begins with an expression of grief and an invocation to the Muse to aid the poet in expressing his suffering. It usually contains a funeral procession, a description of sympathetic mourning throughout nature, and musings on the unkindness of death. It ends with acceptance, often a very affirmative justification, of nature’s law. The outstanding example of the English pastoral elegy is John Milton’s “Lycidas” (1638), written on the death of Edward King, a college friend. Other notable pastoral elegies are Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Adonais” (1821), on the death of the poet John Keats, and Matthew Arnold’s “Thyrsis” (1867), on the death of the poet Arthur Hugh Clough.
Other elegies observe no set patterns or conventions. In the 18th century the English “graveyard school” of poets wrote generalized reflections on death and immortality, combining gloomy, sometimes ghoulish imagery of human impermanence with philosophical speculation.
Representative works are Edward Young’s Night Thoughts (1742–45) and Robert Blair’s Grave (1743), but the best known of these poems is Thomas Gray’s more tastefully subdued creation “An Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard” (1751), which pays tribute to the generations of humble and unknown villagers buried in a church cemetery. In the United States, a counterpart to the graveyard mode is found in William Cullen Bryant’s “Thanatopsis” (1817). A wholly new treatment of the conventional pathetic fallacy of attributing grief to nature is achieved in Walt Whitman’s “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” (1865–66).
In modern poetry the elegy remains a frequent and important poetic statement. Its range and variation can be seen in such poems as A.E. Housman’s “To an Athlete Dying Young,” W.H. Auden’s “In Memory of W.B. Yeats,” E.E. Cummings’s “my father moved through dooms of love,” John Peale Bishop’s “Hours” (on F. Scott Fitzgerald), and Robert Lowell’s “The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket.”
Life
Milton is the greatest writer of the seventeenth century, and one of the giants in English literature. In his life and literary career the two dominant historical movements of Renaissance and Reformation combine and receive their most intense and intelligent expression. He towers over his age as Shakespeare towers over the Elizabethan age, and as Chaucer towers over the medieval period.
Milton was born in London. His father was a prosperous scrivener, a Puritan and a lover of music and literature. His education began at St. Paul's school, where he showed from the beginning a talent for mastering the ancient languages and literatures: Greek, Latin. He went on to distinguish himself at Cambridge University, where he graduated B. A. in 1629, and M. A. in 1632. He might well have entered the ministry upon completing his formal studies. But Milton decided that he had still not fully equipped himself for the work he was capable of performing, and he retired for five years to his father's country house in Buckinghamshire, where he read virtually all there was to read of ancient and modern writings. His poetic compositions came only occasionally during this period of intense private study. But basically during this period Milton was preparing himself for more ambitious undertakings, in religion and politics as well as in poetry. In 1638 he left England to complete his education with two years of travel in Europe, France, Switzerland and Italy. When he returned home in 1639, England was on the verge of a civil war.
After his return to England, he soon plunged himself into the struggle for which he had long been preparing. He gave all his energies to the writing of pamphlets dedicated to the people’s liberty. At that time, the Church of England was the major bulwark of the monarchy. Milton was stirred by the controversy and wrote a series of pamphlets headed by Of Reformation in England, in which he urged the necessity of a thorough religious reform. After the Revolution succeeded, and the commonwealth was established, Milton became Latin Secretary to the council of Foreign Affairs in 1649. He wrote a number of pamphlets defending the English revolution, such as Defence of the English People, and Second Defence of the English People. In these pamphlets he attacked the enemy without mercy. He played an active role in public affairs during the Civil War and the Commonwealth. Until the end of the Commonwealth, there were two leaders in England, Cromwell the man of action, and Milton the man of thought.
Milton was married to Mary Powell in June 1642, but the marriage proved to an unhappy one. The Powell family was strongly royalist and Mary was not able to share his political views. Six weeks after the marriage she left to return to her parents, and for several years Milton issued pamphlets in which he argued that all Englishmen should have the right to get a divorce.
Quite understandably, Milton gained the reputation of being a political radical during the Revolution Period. It was while he was engaged in this project that Milton went blind in 1652, doubtlessly due to the severe eyestrain brought on by ceaseless reading and Latin composition. But with the help of various scribes and secretaries, he was still able to perform his valuable services as Latin Secretary for Cromwell's government.
With the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Milton not only was confronted with the collapse of the cause to which he had given so much, but also was imprisoned and threatened with execution. Through the intervention of some friends who carried some influence with the new royal government, Milton was let off with a fine and some loss of property. Shortly afterward, living in blindness and virtual seclusion from all but the members of his immediate family, Milton began his masterpiece Paradise Lost. Before his death Milton published two other works on a grand scale, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes. Both appeared in 1671; neither is as successful as Paradise Lost. Milton died in 1674,11,8.
Works:
Paradise Lost 1665
Paradise Regained 1671
Samson Agonistes 1671
1) Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is Milton's masterpiece, and the greatest English epic. It is a long epic in 12 books, done in blank verse. The stories were taken from the Old Testament: the creation;the rebellion in Heaven of Satan and his fellow-angels; their defeat and expulsion from Heaven; the creation of the earth and of Adam and Eve; the fallen angels in hell plotting against God; Satan's temptation of Eve; the departure of Adam and Eve from Eden; and the possible salvation.
A.Theme and Characterization
The poem, as we are told at the outset, was "to justify the ways of God to man", and the reader soon gets the impression that the main idea of the poem is the heroic revolt against God's authority.
In the poem God is no better than a selfish despot（暴君，独裁者）, seated upon a throne with a chorus of angels about him eternally singing his praises. He is cruel and unjust in his struggle against and punishing Satan. His angels are silly. It has been noted by many critics that the picture of God surrounded by his angels, who never think of expressing any opinions of their own, and who indeed never seem to have any opinion of their own, resembles the court of an absolute monarch. While the rebel Satan who rises against God and, though defeated, still seeks for revenge, is by far the most striking character in the poem. Satan and his followers who freely discuss all issues in council bear close resemblance to a republican Parliament. This epic expresses the reactionary forces of his time and shows passionate appeal for freedom.
What makes Paradise Lost a powerful poem is precisely the way in which the Biblical past is pulled into the present in an intriguing way. Running through the poem are the key political questions of freedom and justice. These begin in Book 1 when the fallen angels debate what to do next. From the perspective of Satan and his followers, rebellion against God was inevitable. Heaven demanded obedience and servitude. The revolt may have failed, but it has left them their freedom. Freedom here may seem heroic, defiant and attractive, but it is clear that the fallen angels have also lost their former glory. Milton does blame Eve for wanting to gain knowledge and equality with Adam, and blame Adam for taking the fruit and joining her in sin. Yet Milton knows that Adam and Eve act of their own free will. The final image of the poem is profoundly forward-looking, an image of gain through loss. As Adam and Eve go hand in hand out of Eden, the loss of Paradise is seen as the gain of a future for humanity on earth.
The Image of Satan
The finest thing in Paradise Lost is the description of hell, and Satan is the real hero of the poem. As a conquered and banished giant, he remains obeyed and admired by those who follow him down to hell. He is firmer than the rest of the fallen angels. It is he who, overcoming so many obstacles, makes man revolt against God. Though defeated, he prevails, since he has won from God the third part of his angels, and almost all the sons of Adam.
He prefers independence to servility, and welcomes his defeat and his torments as a glory, a liberty and a joy. To Milton, the proud Satan represented the spirit of rebellion against an unjust authority. By using Satan as his mouthpiece, Milton is uttering his intense hatred of tyranny in the capacity of the Revolutionary.
2) Paradise Regained
It explores the theme of temptation and fall: in this case, it is the tempting of Jesus by Satan to prove his godhead.
3) Samson Agonistes
Samson Agonistes is a poetical drama modeled on the Greek tragedy. The story was taken from the Old Testament. Samson was an athlete of the Israelites. He stood as their champion, fighting for the freedom of his country. But he was betrayed by his wife and blinded by his enemies the Philistines.
In this poetical drama, Milton is telling us his own story. Like Samson, he has been betrayed by his wife. He has suffered from blindness and been scorned by his enemies, and yet he has struggled heroically against his enemies. Samson’s miserable blind servitude among his enemies, his longing for sight and freedom, and the last terrible triumph are all allusions to the poet’s own story. So the whole poem strongly suggests Milton's passionate longing that he too could bring destruction down upon the enemy at the cost of his own life. Samson is Milton.
4) Features of Milton's Poetry
A. Milton is a great revolutionary poet of the 17th century. He is also an outstanding political pamphleteer of the Revolution period. He dedicated himself to the revolutionary cause. He made a strong influence on the later English poetry. Every progressive English poet since Milton has drawn inspiration from him.
B. Milton is a great stylist. His poetry has a grand style. That is because he made a life-long study of classical and Biblical literature. His poetry is noted for sublimity of thought and majesty of expression.
C. Milton is a great master of blank verse. He is the glorious pioneer to introduce blank verse into non-dramatic poetry. He has used it as the main tool in his masterpiece Paradise Lost. His blank verse is rich in every poetic quality.
D. Milton wrote the greatest epic in English literature. He made a strong influence o later English poetry.
: Under Cromwell's Puritan dictatorship, John
Milton continues to write, but we also find writers like Andrew Marvell and Sir Thomas Browne.
25. What is ‘L’ Allegro’s’ companion piece called?
(A) Lamia (B) Hyperion (C) Il Penseroso (D) Thyrsis
. It is nearly impossible to understand and appreciate John Milton's L'Allegro without also having read its companion piece, Il Penseroso. Whereas l'allegro is "the happy person" who spends an idealized day in the country and a festive evening in the city, il penseroso is "the thoughtful person" whose night is filled with meditative walking in the woods and hours of study in a "lonely Towr." First published in 1645, the two poems complement each other structurally and contain images which are in specific dialogue with one another.
30. Which of the following works of
John Milton is an elegy ?
(A) Lycidas
(B) L’Allegro
(C) Camus
(D) Paradise Lost
Ans:Lycidas
Lycidas by John Milton is an elegy on his friend Edward King who was drowned on a voyage to Ireland. In its very form it is pastoral. In this poem we can see excellent images of nature and village life. In this elegy Edward King is been pasteurized as a shepherd in its idyllic setting.
Milton borrows the name Lycidas and gives to Edward King from the profounder of pastoral elegy (Theocritus) himself. He has taken this name from Theocritus’ Idylls in which Lycidas is a shepherd and poet. By giving the very name Lycidas to King, Milton fulfills the first requirement of a pastoral poetry. In this genre we can also see praises for the shepherd. Here in Lycidas Milton calls King as selfless even though he was of clergy.
Lycidas begins with a pastoral image, “Symbols of poetic fame; as their berries are not yet ripe.” When we read these lines we are sure to get a picture of nature. Milton tries to compare Cambridge to pasture, latter on he tries to speak about the heavy change suffered by nature because of the death of King. He says that willows, hazel groves, woods and caves lament Lycidas’s death. At the end of the poem Lycidas appears as a rejuvenated figure, Milton says, “Burnished by the sun’s rays at down, King resplendently ascends heavenward to his eternal reward.
The balance between elegy and pastoral imagery throughout the poem has created an impression that Lycidas is one of the most original pastoral elegies.
The first line of Paradise Lost is :
(A) Of man’s first disobedience and
the fall
(B) Of man’s prime disobedience
and the fall
(C) Of man’s initial disobedience
and the fall
(D) Of man’s last disobedience and
the fall
Ans; 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 heavenly muse, that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
In Paradise Lost, Milton invokes his
‘Heav’nly Muse’, ‘Urania’ at the
beginning of :
Codes :
I. Book one
II. Book four
III. Book nine
IV. Book seven
The right combination according to
the code is
(A) I and II are correct.
(B) I, III and IV correct.
(C) II and III are correct.
(D) I and IV are correct.
ANS (D) I and IV are correct.
Book I:
OF Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat, [ 5 ]
Sing Heav'nly Muse, that on the secret top
Of 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
Book I of Paradise Lost begins with a prologue in which Milton performs the traditional epic task of invoking the Muse and stating his purpose. He invokes the classical Muse, Urania, but also refers to her as the "Heav'nly Muse," implying the Christian nature of this work. He also says that the poem will deal with man's disobedience toward God and the results of that disobedience. He concludes the prologue by saying he will attempt to justify God's ways to men.
Book VII:
Escend from Heav'n Urania, by that name
If rightly thou art call'd, whose Voice divine
Following, above th' Olympian Hill I soare,
Above the flight of Pegasean wing.
The meaning, not the Name I call: for thou [ 5 ]
Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top
Of old Olympus dwell'st, but Heav'nlie borne,
Before the Hills appeerd, or Fountain flow'd,
Thou with Eternal Wisdom didst converse,
Wisdom thy Sister, and with her didst play [ 10 ]
In presence of th' Almightie Father, pleas'd
With thy Celestial Song.
Book VII opens with another prologue to Urania, who in classical mythology was the Muse of Astronomy but whom Milton has transformed into a heavenly or Christian inspiration. In this prologue, Milton asks Urania to bring his thoughts down from Heaven and back to Earth and to inspire him once more to rise above his physical limitations.
Identify the classical tragedy from
the following :
(A) Samson Agonistes
(B) Lycidas
(C) Il Penseroso
(D) Comus
Ans;(A) Samson Agonistes
Which of the following works by
Milton is an elegy ?
(A) Samson Agonistes
(B) Lycidas
(C) Paradise Regained
(D) Il Penseroso
Ans: Lycidas
elegy:
elegy, meditative lyric poem lamenting the death of a public personage or of a friend or loved one; by extension, any reflective lyric on the broader theme of human mortality. In classical literature an elegy was simply any poem written in the elegiac metre (alternating lines of dactylic hexameter and pentameter) and was not restricted as to subject. Though some classical elegies were laments, many others were love poems. In some modern literatures, such as German, in which the classical elegiac metre has been adapted to the language, the term elegy refers to this metre, rather than to the poem’s content. Thus, Rainer Maria Rilke’s famous Duineser Elegien (Duino Elegies) are not laments; they deal with the poet’s search for spiritual values in an alien universe. But in English literature since the 16th century, an elegy has come to mean a poem of lamentation. It may be written in any metre the poet chooses.
A distinct kind of elegy is the pastoral elegy, which borrows the classical convention of representing its subject as an idealized shepherd in an idealized pastoral background and follows a rather formal pattern. It begins with an expression of grief and an invocation to the Muse to aid the poet in expressing his suffering. It usually contains a funeral procession, a description of sympathetic mourning throughout nature, and musings on the unkindness of death. It ends with acceptance, often a very affirmative justification, of nature’s law. The outstanding example of the English pastoral elegy is John Milton’s “Lycidas” (1638), written on the death of Edward King, a college friend. Other notable pastoral elegies are Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Adonais” (1821), on the death of the poet John Keats, and Matthew Arnold’s “Thyrsis” (1867), on the death of the poet Arthur Hugh Clough.
Other elegies observe no set patterns or conventions. In the 18th century the English “graveyard school” of poets wrote generalized reflections on death and immortality, combining gloomy, sometimes ghoulish imagery of human impermanence with philosophical speculation.
Representative works are Edward Young’s Night Thoughts (1742–45) and Robert Blair’s Grave (1743), but the best known of these poems is Thomas Gray’s more tastefully subdued creation “An Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard” (1751), which pays tribute to the generations of humble and unknown villagers buried in a church cemetery. In the United States, a counterpart to the graveyard mode is found in William Cullen Bryant’s “Thanatopsis” (1817). A wholly new treatment of the conventional pathetic fallacy of attributing grief to nature is achieved in Walt Whitman’s “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” (1865–66).
In modern poetry the elegy remains a frequent and important poetic statement. Its range and variation can be seen in such poems as A.E. Housman’s “To an Athlete Dying Young,” W.H. Auden’s “In Memory of W.B. Yeats,” E.E. Cummings’s “my father moved through dooms of love,” John Peale Bishop’s “Hours” (on F. Scott Fitzgerald), and Robert Lowell’s “The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket.”
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