Paradise Lost pagan gods
In Paradise Lost, Milton depicts the Greek and Egyptian "gods" as among the fallen angels. It does not seem to matter whether the individual god had an evil or good character in its original myths. As...
View ArticleWas Paradise Lost the first major work of literature to give "sympathy for...
John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost was first published in England in 1667. While this is long after the Protestant Reformation where alternative ideas about Christianity became slightly more...
View ArticleDid John Milton ever mention Martin Luther directly or indirectly?
Martin Luther’s auspicious life on earth began in 1483 A.D. and he got salvation in the year 1546 A.D. John Milton’s scared life began in 1608 and he went to God’s abode in the year 1674 A.D.As far as...
View ArticleMeaning of "beauty stands in the admiration only of weak minds led captive"...
Here are lines 205–224 of book II of "Paradise Regained" by John Milton:But he whom we attempt is wiser far Then Solomon, of more exalted mind, Made and set wholly on the accomplishment Of greatest...
View ArticleIs Keats' swan with "neck of arched snow" an allusion to Milton's "swan with...
I discovered something quite interesting today in John Milton's Paradise Lost. Here is Milton (this is the Archangel Raphael relating to Adam and Eve the creation of the world): the...
View ArticleWhat do these two segments mean in Milton's "On Shakespeare"?
I find two amphibolous segments in Milton's poem "On Shakespeare" when translating into Chinese, and thus need some help.In first stanzaWhat needs my Shakespeare for his honored bones,The labor of an...
View ArticleDid Satan feel genuine remorse for his actions and compassion for his...
Related: Is John Milton's Lucifer a tragic hero?Towards the end of book 1 (starting around line 600 in my edition), Satan addresses his followers.Above them all th' Arch-Angel: but his faceDeep scars...
View ArticleSource of Milton's idea that God tilted the Earth's axis after the fall of man
Could someone please help me identify the source of the following passage in Book X of Paradise Lost:Some say, he bid his angels turn askanceThe poles of Earth twice ten degrees or moreFrom the sun's...
View ArticleIs John Milton's Lucifer a tragic hero?
Loosely related: Was Paradise Lost the first major work of literature to give "sympathy for the devil"?In Paradise Lost, Lucifer/Satan appears to have at least some heroic characteristics, such as...
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Which traits of Milton's Lucifer from "Paradise Lost" did Neil Gaiman carry...
Lucifer Morningstar, the Vertigo Comics character, was created by Neil Gaiman with influence from John Milton's Paradise Lost - at least that's what is written on his Wikipedia page, and even on the...
View ArticleSatan's motivation in Paradise Lost
In Paradise Lost, Milton gave an explicit motivation for Satan's rebellion against God. All the angels were called the sons of God and thought of themselves as such, but then God called all the angels...
View ArticleIn "Paradise Lost", how can a fleet of ships "hang in the clouds"?
In book II of Paradise Lost, Milton makes an elaborate simile comparing Satan’s flight in Hell to the voyage of a fleet of ships in the Indian Ocean:Meanwhile the Adversary of God and Man,Satan with...
View ArticleWhy aren't God's pronouns capitalized in Paradise Lost?
I noticed that God's pronouns are not capitalized in Paradise Lost. Take for example Book III lines 62-3: "on his right/The radiant image of his glory sat..." I would expect a Christian author such as...
View ArticleWhat might Milton mean by "the work of male and female" in his "The Doctrine...
In book one of The Doctrine & Discipline of Divorce, it is written:Not that licence and levity and unconsented breach of faith should herein be countnanc’t, but that some conscionable, and tender...
View ArticleWhat "easie curbs" of the flesh are meant by Milton in chapter IIII of "The...
In book one of The Doctrine & Discipline of Divorce, it is written:But all ingenuous men will see that the dignity & blessing of mariage is plac’t rather in the mutual enjoyment of that which...
View ArticleWhat can be meant by "an image of earth and fleam" in chapter V of Milton's...
In book one, chapter V, of The Doctrine & Discipline of Divorce, it is written:And yet there follows upon this a worse temptation; for if he be such as hath spent his youth unblamably, and layd up...
View ArticleWhat "unsinning weaknesses" are meant by Milton in chapter V of "The Doctrine...
In book one, chapter V, of The Doctrine & Discipline of Divorce, it is written:Thirdly, Yet it is next to be fear'd, if he must be still bound without reason by a deafe rigor, that when he...
View ArticleWhat passage of the Book of Malachi does Milton refer to in chapter VI, book...
In book one, chapter VI, of The Doctrine & Discipline of Divorce, it is written:If Solomons advice be not overfrolick, Live joyfully, saith he, with the wife whom thou lovest, all thy dayes, for...
View ArticleWhat is meant by "the crotchet of the law" in chapter VIII of Milton's "The...
In book one, chapter VIII, of The Doctrine & Discipline of Divorce, it is written:Upon these principles I answer, that a right beleever ought to divorce an idolatrous heretick unlesse upon better...
View ArticleWhat is an epic and why is there “only one epic in English Language so far”?
I’m quite familiar with novels and stories, if my personal view is concerned I would say that story is just a compact and summarised form of novel. The level of detail in novels is, obviously, much...
View Article"That Christ deny’d divorce to his own", what does Milton mean here in this...
In book one of The Doctrine & Discipline of Divorce, it is written:That indisposition, unfitnes, or contrariety of mind, arising from a cause in nature unchangeable, hindring, and ever likely to...
View ArticleWhat is the "manhood of a Roman recovery" in John Milton's Areopagitica?
This sentence appears in Milton's "Areopagitica":To which if I now manifest by the very sound of this which I shallutter, that we are already in good part arrived, and yet from such asteep disadvantage...
View ArticleProsodic features and rules for Miltonic verses?
Are there any special prosodic features to Milton's blank verse?Is it just unrhyming iambic pentameter, or does it have any restrictions on what the final sound in a line must be like even though they...
View ArticleDid Milton invoking the Muse imply that he didn't want to rely on the Bible?
Can it be inferred from John Milton's Paradise Lost, that by invoking the Muse in book 1, he wanted to reject biblical literalism (despite the Muse being the Holy Spirit, which itself formed the Bible)?
View ArticleWhat are the "concurring signs" of which Satan speaks?
In Paradise Lost Book II, Satan explains to Sin why he wants to leave Hell: ... through the void immenseTo search with wand'ring quest a place foretoldShould be, and, by concurring signs, ere...
View ArticleMeaning of a passage in Milton's Sonnet 21
I'm reading Milton's Sonnet 21 and a couple of lines are unintelligible to me. Here is the full poem. The emboldened lines 5 and 6 are the ones I'm having trouble with:Cyriack, whose Grandsire on the...
View ArticleDifficulty understanding the meaning of a line in Paradise Regained
I'm having trouble understanding the phrase "For no allurement yields to appetite" in the following passage from Milton's Paradise Regained:"By hunger, that each other creature tames,Thou art not to be...
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