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sonnet
14 lines
Single stanza
Iambic pentameter
Love
Volta (turn)
Oxymorons
Hunting, martial, and ship metaphors
english/shakespearean vs italian/petrarchan
renaissance
A transition in time that took place late 14th - early 17th century, which referred to a rebirth and renewal of culture and ideas - beginning of modernism
An era of development in terms of scientific progress, exploration, and travel.
A newfound focus on humanism (the idea that humans are at the center of the world) and reformation (break up of the christian church)
iambic pentameter
A meter of poetry where there are 5 unstressed 5 stressed syllables per line going in a pattern of unstressed stressed… Shakespeare uses it a lot
coterie audience
A literary group, set, or circle, sometimes exclusive, joined by friendship and common interest
Shakespearean / English Sonnet
Composed of 14 lines
iambic pentmeter
3 quatrains and a couplet
Abab cdcd efef gg OR
Abba cddc effe gg
Metaphysical Poets
surprise, pun, paradox
wit
dexterous use of colloquial speech
flexibility of rhythm and meter
Dunne, Herbert, Marvell
Aubade
Literally, “dawn”; a genre that is a morning song, a lamentation of how lovers must part once the new day is upon them. This new day is signaled through the sun rising or birds chirping, letting the lovers know they must awaken and say goodbye.
Pattern Poems
Play with shape of the poem
Lines of the poem represent the shape of the subject of the poem, often by implying motion
Pastoral
A genre of poetry that is fantasizing about country life and shepherds, often written by high born or non-rural authors.
Epic
long verse narrative
serious subject
formal and elevated style
hero quest with high stakes
heroes usually have tragic flaw
Blank verse
Poem written in unrhymed iambic pentameter
Theodicy
The part of theology that is concerned with defending the goodness and omnipotence of God in the face of suffering and evil in the world. It is a defense of God’s justice that is meant to prove how his goodness and omnipotence can coexist with evil.
Free Will Defense
Evil in the world is entirely due to the bad, free choices made by humans. God isn’t responsible for the evils of the world; it was good God created free beings, but bad they misuse their freedom.
Ptolemaic Model
earth is at the center of the universe
Uxoriousness
Over the top devotion to ones wife, simp, fatal flaw of Adam in Paradise Lost
protoevangelium
The promise concerning the seed of the woman in the curse upon the serpent regarded as the earliest intimation of the gospel—basically when it says that one day the seed of Eve will stamp upon the serpent's head it could be literal but also metaphorically mean that a child of hers (Jesus) will defeat Satan
romance
Courtly world
Quest by knight to win lady
Chivalry: courage, loyalty, honor, good manners
Set far away
High-born characters
Subtype of/predecessor to the novel?
novel
1. A small tale, generally of love
blazon
whoso list to hunt, i know where is an hind, A
But as for me, alas, i may no more. B
The vain travail hath wearied me so sore, B
I am of them that farthest cometh behind. A
Uyet may I, by no means, my wearied mind A
Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore, B
Fainting I follow. I leave off, therefore, B
Since in a net I seek to hold the wind. A
Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt,C
As well as i, may spend his time in vain D
And graven with diamonds in letters plain D
There is written, her fair neck round about, C
“Noli me trangere, for caesar’s i am, E
And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.
“Whoso list to hunt” - Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder
Significance:
Wyatt is in love with a woman who doesn’t love him back, using hunting metaphors to describe his attempt to conquer her.
states that if you want to hunt, that he is an expert and then narrows that the hunt is targeting a specific deer/woman
Obsession - even though wyatt is unsuccessful in chasing her, he can’t stop
doing obsessive courtly love
describing a woman that is wild and that needs to be tamed by a man - problematic
The deer is dangerous - making the hunter into the hunted
he’s pursuing her, but he can’t have her and therefore he becomes haunted
They flee from me that sometime did me seek
With naked foot, stalking in my chamber.
I have seen them gentle, tame, and meek,
That now are wild and do not remember
That sometime they put themself in danger
To take bread at my hand; and now they range,
Busily seeking with a continual change.
Thanked be fortune it hath been otherwise
Twenty times better; but once in special,
In thin array after a pleasant guise,
When her loose gown from her shoulders did fall,
And she me caught in her arms long and small;
Therewithall sweetly did me kiss
And softly said, “Dear heart, how like you this?”
It was no dream: I lay broad waking.
But all is turned thorough my gentleness
Into a strange fashion of forsaking;
And I have leave to go of her goodness,
And she also, to use newfangleness.
But since that I so kindly am served
I would fain know what she hath deserved.
“They flee from me” - Sir Thomas Wyatt the elder
Significance:
equating women to animal
problematic and weird
in the past, the speaker enjoyed recieving female vistors - he is in control of these actions and them - calling them gentle and meek
but then, the roles are subverted - the hunted becomes the hunter - which upsests the speaker
One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
But came the waves and washed it away:
Again I wrote it with a second hand,
But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.
"Vain man," said she, "that dost in vain assay,
A mortal thing so to immortalize;
For I myself shall like to this decay,
And eke my name be wiped out likewise."
"Not so," (quod I) "let baser things devise
To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:
My verse your vertues rare shall eternize,
And in the heavens write your glorious name:
Where whenas death shall all the world subdue,
Our love shall live, and later life renew."
Amoretti - Edmund Spenser
Significance:
woman says that he is a fool and that his writing is foolish and writing her name is foolish because all writing will be destroyed just like the writing in the sand; trying to remember any mortal human and trying to preserve their memory is futile because all humans are moral and will die
spenser argues against this saying that poetry can immortalize a mortal thing - outlasting time
Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show,
That she, dear she, might take some pleasure of my pain,—
Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know,
Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain,—
I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe;
Studying inventions fine her wits to entertain,
Oft turning others' leaves, to see if thence would flow
Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sunburn'd brain.
But words came halting forth, wanting invention's stay;
Invention, Nature's child, fled step-dame Study's blows;
And others' feet still seem'd but strangers in my way.
Thus great with child to speak and helpless in my throes,
Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite,
"Fool," said my Muse to me, "look in thy heart, and write."
Astrophila and Stella - Sir Phillip Sidney
Significance:
he hopes stella will take pity on him and win the grace of her attention
courtly love - “that she, dear she, might take some pleasure of my pain”
concern with his own writing
last two lines suggest that there is a divine influence that the lyrical voice finds while writing and that the lyrical voice constructs hiw own poetic and literary consciousness towards his own writings and those of others
how he has to come to learn poetry and where to find that inspritation - he has to find it wihtin himself
Not at first sight, nor with a dribbèd shot,
Love gave the wound which while I breathe will bleed:
But known worth did in mine of time proceed,
Till by degrees it had full conquest got.
I saw, and liked; I liked, but lovèd not;
I loved, but straight did not what love decreed:
At length to love’s decrees I, forced, agreed,
Yet with repining at so partial lot.
Now even that footstep of lost liberty
Is gone, and now like slave-born Muscovite
I call it praise to suffer tyranny;
And now employ the remnant of my wit
To make myself believe that all is well,
While with a feeling skill I paint my hell.
Astrophila and Stella - Sir Phillip Sidney
“not at first sight” - his love is different - rejecting the conventions of love which is still a convention in its self - he had to be persuaded
“i saw, and liked; i liked, but loved not”
O joy too high for my low style to show! \n O bliss fit for a nobler state than me! \n Envy, put out thine eyes, lest thou do see \n What oceans of delight in me do flow! \n My friend, that oft saw through all masks my woe, \n Come, come, and let me pour myself on thee. \n Gone is the winter of my misery! \n My spring appears, O, see what here doth grow: \n For Stella hath, with words where faith doth shine, \n Of her high heart giv'n me the monarchy; \n I, I, oh I, may say that she is mine! \n And though she give but thus conditionly \n This realm of bliss, while virtuous course I take, \n No kings be crown'd but they some covenants make.
Astrophila and Stella - Sir Philip Sidney
Significance:
a moment of happiness where he claims stellas has returned his advances
but he has to remain virtious “and though she give but thus conditional this relam of bliss, while virtous course i take”
must follow the conventions of courtly love
takes it on the end - barely notices the condition for her love
frames himself as a conqueror or a king - owning stella in a way
From fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauty’s rose might never die,
But as the riper should by time decease,
His tender heir might bear his memory;
But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed’st thy light’s flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel
Thou that art now the world’s fresh ornament,
And only herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own bud buriest thy content
And, tender churl, mak’st waste in niggarding.
Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
To eat the world’s due, by the grave and thee
william shakespeare sonnet
significance:
speaker declares we want beautiful peopel to make babies so that beauty will last in the world - it is beautiful people’s duty to reproduce
“madking a famine where abudnacne lies”
you’re not going out making babies because you’re paying attention only to yourself, wasting your beauty
you’re beautiful and decorative, you’re like springtime, but you’re hiding it all to yourself
have sex and have babies
share yourself and your beauty with the world
you mgith die but your memory will liveo n in your children
achieve immortality
going against courtly love
Don’t value your virginity over the possibility of reproduction
A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted
Hast thou, the master mistress of my passion;
A woman’s gentle heart but not acquainted
With shifting change as is false women’s fashion;
An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,
Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;
A man in hue all hues in his controlling,
Which steals men’s eyes and women's souls amazeth
And for a woman wert thou first created,
Till nature as she wrought thee fell a-doting
And by addition me of thee defeated
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing
But since she pricked thee out for women’s pleasure
Mine be thy love, and thy love’s use their treasure
william’s shakespeare sonnet
siginificance:
Oxymoron
You have the face of a woman , but then he calls the person master mistress (both female and male)
Not only do you look like a woman, you have the internal characteristics of a woman too but better
Third quatrain
Nature fell in love with you
And added something to you that defeated me that’s not to my purpose
Couplet
Since she gave you a penis for women's pleasure “pricked thee out”
You and i still can have a love but women will still have sex with you
Anti woman sentiment
This character is superior to all woman
Women are inconstant, fickle, obscure themselves with makeup and clothing
Exploring the paradox of the beautiful man
Literary hypothesis
How far can you take that paradox
A male speaker imaigngin erotic posiblity with another man
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask’d, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks
I love to hear her speak, yet well i know
Music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant i never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, i think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare
william shakespeare sonnet
significance:
making fun of other poets
Radical honesty
I still love her
These conventioan metaphors for beauty are not realistic
Cliche, lazy, but also if real horrifying and sitrubing
Anxiety about women wearing makeup
Reissiting literary conventions
What does it mean to take poetry as truth?
Does art have to be truthful?
Busy old fool, unruly sun
Why dost thou thus,
Through windows, and through curtains call on us?
Must to thy motins lovers’ seasons run?
Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide
Late school obys and sour prentices,
Go tell court huntsmen that the king will ride,
Call coutnry ants to harvext offices,
Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime,
Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time
The Sun Rising - John Donne
Significance:
The speaker is quite aggressive in his qualms with the sun
Tells it to bother other people (farmers, school children, etc.)
Lots of mono-syllables
Can be read as somewhat harsh
This is a pseudo-aubade, which is typically a poem that alerts lovers they have to part, as it is the dawn of a new day
But the speaker has very intense feelings about the sun itself
Against typical conventions of the sun
Seems as though the speakers are not bound by the laws of time; love does not know time’s rules
Calls hours/seasons the “rags” of time (negative connotation)
Most of the poem is spent addressing the sun rather than talking about his love and his lover
challneges the sun’s authority - elevting the importance and power of love above work, duty, and eve nthe natural rhytms of the day itself
She's all states, and all princes I,
Nothing else is.
Princes do but play us; compared to this,
All honor's mimic, all wealth alchemy.
Thou, sun, art half as happy as we,
In that the world's contracted thus.
Thine age asks ease, and
since thy duties be
To warm the world, that's done in warming us.
Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere;
This bed thy center is, these walls, thy sphere
The Sun Rising - John Donne
Significance:
their love is so important to the universe that kings and princes simply copy it
the world is contained within their bedroom
speaker is bending the rules of the universe
reverse of power - speaker diverts the sun from everyone else, demanding that it shine only them
For God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love,
Or chide my palsy, or my gout,
My five gray hairs, or ruined fortune flout,
With wealth your state, your mind with arts improve,
Take you a course, get you a place,
Observe his honor, or his grace,
Or the king's real, or his stampèd face
Contemplate; what you will, approve,
So you will let me love.
the canonization - john donne
love is a serious, lasting, and even holing force
love can make people into saints
love overcomes age
Call us what you will, we are made such by love;
Call her one, me another fly, \n We're tapers too, and at our own cost die, \n And we in us find the eagle and the dove. \n The phœnix riddle hath more wit \n By us: we two being one, are it. \n So, to one neutral thing both sexes fit. \n We die and rise the same, and prove \n Mysterious by this love.
the canonization - john donne
They’re so deeply in love that they seem to become one
These images are passionate, but they’re also sacred. Both the idea of fusing with a beloved and the idea of death and resurrection fit right into Donne’s Christianity: the first image echoes the biblical notion that Christ literally becomes part of Christians, and the second echoes the tale of Christ’s death and resurrection. By adoring each other so completely, then, the lovers play out the Christian story in their own lives, mirroring what the passionately religious Donne saw as the order of the universe itself. In fact, they become holy through their love, treating each other’s very bodies as “hermitage[s]” (that is, private chapels for solitary holy men).
Lord, who createdst man in wealth and store, A
Though foolishly he lost the same, B
Decaying more and more A
Till he became B
Most part A
With thee C
O let me rise D
As larks, harmoniously, C
And sing this day by victories: D
Then shall the fall further the light in me C
My tender age in sorrow did begin
And still with sickness and shame
Thou didst so punish sin
That i became
most thin
With thee
Let me combine,
and feel this day thy victory:
for, if i limp my wing on thine,
Affliction shall advance the flight in me
Easter Wings - George Herbert
mimics the shape of bird wings
each line is two syllables shoter than the last
human kind sins in the garden of eden and falls wants to rise again
speker meditates on how one’s relationship to god offers relief from pain, nd how that pain is what allows for spiritual redemption in the first place
through devotion to god, one can overcome suffering and find spiritual freedom and redemption
just as adam fell from gace, the spear has falle on hard times
without falling so low, the speaker wouldn’t be able to rise up so high upon god’s metaphorical wings
easter wings connects to easter sunday where christ rose from the dead
i want to rise like a bird, but also like the resurrected christ
this idea of rising
suffering is terrible but leads to good things
Who says that fictions only and false hair
Become a verse? Is there in truth no beauty?
Is all good structure in a winding stair?
May no lines pass, except they do their duty
Not to a true, but painted chair?
Is it no verse, except enchanted groves
And sudden arbors shadow coarse-spun lines?
Must purling streams refresh a lover's love?
Must all be veiled, while he that reads, divines,
Catching the sense at two removes?
Shepherds are honest people: let them sing;
Riddle who list, for me, and pull for prime:
I envy no man’s nightingale or spring;
Nor let them punish me with loss of rhyme,
Who plainly say, My God, My King
Jordan (1) - George Herbert
call for true and honest poetry
shames pastoral poetry - often an idealized version of the coutnry side
goes against the poetic convention
How vainly men themselves amaze
To win the palm, the oak, or bays,
And their uncessant labours see
Crowned from some single herbo r tree,
Whose short and narrow verged shade
Does prudent their toils upbraid;
While all flowers and all trees do close
To weave the garlands of repose
The Garden - Marvell
Significance:
Retreat from the world
How foolishly or without success , how they do this out of pride
People confuse themselves to win even win honor, military, civic, poetric
Plants are criticizing humans for striving so hard just to get a little crown
Why work so hard for this little crown when you hang out with garden
True peace true happiness can be found in the garlands
The natural world, in this poem, offers the end-all and be-all of earthly pleasures, providing everything a person could possibly need—and in a perfectly wholesome and innocent form, unlike the often corrupt or dangerous wider world. Sitting alone in a garden is as close to heaven as this speaker can imagine getting on earth.
What wondrous life is this i lead!
Ripe apples drop about my head;
The luscious clusters of the vine
Upon my mouth do crush their wine;
The nectarine and ciroc peach
Into my hands themselves do reach;
Stumbling on melons as i pass,
ensnared with flowers, i fall on grass
Meanwhile the mind, from pleasure less,
Withdraws into its happiness;
The mind, that ocean where each kind
Does straight its own resemblance find,
Yet it creates, transcending these,
Far other worlds, and other seas,
Annihilating all that’s made
To a green thought in a green shade
Such was that happy garden-state,
While man there walked with a mate;
After a palace so pure and sweet,
What other help could yet be met!
But ‘twas beyond a mortal’s share
To wander solitary there:
Two paradises ‘twere in one
To live in paradise alone
The Garden - Marvell
signifiance:
the speaker can enjoy the sensuality of sweet, abundant fruits and cool shade without worrying about sex, sin, and heartache. Pleasure, in the garden, comes without pain.
phyiscal, mental, and psiritual pleasures the garden offers are all innocent and enduring, as human civlization rarely is
speaker suggests public life is a corrupt nd foolish endeavor
prefers nature over women
danger of female sexuality
“To sing of wars, of captains, and of kings,
Of cities founded, commonwealths begun,
For my mean pen are too superior things:
Or how they all, or each their dates have run
Let poets and historians set these forth,
My obscure lines shall not so dim their worth.”
Prologue - Anne Bradstreet
Opens by naming the topics that are suitable to epic
Unsuited to her
Wars, heroes, leaders, kings, founding of cities, founding of nations
Humility topos
Traditional
I’m not myself a poet or a good enough poet
Undermines that as she’s saying that
She’s not qualified, but in the very first line she is echoing one of the great epics, Aeneid
Arma virumque cano virgil, aeneid, line 1)
She knows the tradition
Formal in their construction
Neat meter and rhyme scene
Mimicking virgil
“I Am obnoxious to each carping tongue
Who says my hand a needle better fits,
A poet’s pen all scorn I should thus wrong,
For such despite they cast on female wits:
If what i do prove well, it won’t advance,
They’ll say it’s stol’n, or else it was by chance.”
Prologue - Anne Bradstreet
Undoes her humility topos
Last two lines
If my poetry is good, people still won’t like it
They’ll say it’s stolen or luck
Implies her poetry could be good
Is it different from a woman to use a humility topos?
Trying to find to work within the poetic tradition as a female writer
Signaling she is just as good as the male writers who falsely use that topos
Other scholars say that this is female modesty
Women are trained to be modest
This isn’t a performance for her, she truly is humble
“Let Greeks be Greeks, and women what they are.
Men have precedency and still excel,
It is but vain unjustly to wage war;
Men can do best, and women know it well
Preeminence in all and each is yours;
Yet grant some small acknowledgment of ours
And oh ye high flown quills that soar the skies,
And ever with you prey still catch your praise,
If e’er you deign these lowly lines your eyes
Give thyme or parsley wreath, I ask no bays.
This mean and unrefined ore of mine
Will make your glist’ring gold but more to shine
Prologue - Anne Bradstreet
Refusing to the bays for the award of the best poetry
Carval rejects striving for the bays
Does something similar But she says that she don't want this artificial
She wants herbs
Stanza 7
Leave women alone
Give women a little credit
Stanza 8
If you happen to look at her poetry, i’m not asking for a lot, but give me some small acknowledgement like thyme or parsley
Hard to know how to interpret the tone of this
7
Us vs. them
Women are different
Men are still in charge, still have all the power
What does she mean?
What are women? What should women be allowed to be?
Whose war is unjust?
Is it men supressing women? Or is it women trying to fight for a little acknowledgment?
Ambiguous
Men still have the power so it is foolish to wage an unjust war
Men are foolish to fight against women who don’t have power
“Go native”
Might go uncivilized if you leave civilization
Bradstreet’s poetry - can still live in the colonies and still be english
“Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain,
Who after birth dist by my side remain,
Till snatched from thence by friends, less wise than true
Who thee abroad, exposed to public view,
Made thee in rags, halting to th’ press to trudge,
Where errors were not lessened (all may judge).
At thy return my blushing was not small,
My rambling brat (in print) should mother call,
I cast thee by as one unfit for light,
Thy visage was so irksome in my sight;”
The Author to Her Book - Anne Bradstreet
Common conceit that the author is like a mother and the poem is like their child
Textual production comapred to biological/sexual reproduction
Usually males use this metaphor
How is it different for a female author to do this who has actually given birth?
Humulitiy topos
Poetry comes out but it’s ill-formed, it;s wearing rags, it’s full of errors
Special fears
Fear of a monstrous birth
Child with birth defects
Idea that if a child was born with birth defects, it was the fault of the mother who used her imagination to think about inappropriate things when the child was being conceived
No father here
Rags
Essential to production of paper
She’s aware of how paper was produced
Book being amde from rags - she knows rags depend on women’s domestic labor
Print industry depends on women’s household labor
Women are always present in the paper itself even if they don’t get to write on the paper
Even though it seems like she’s using this humility topos , she is asserting that women are already apt of the industry, they hsould be allowed to write
Inherent ot the print industry
“Because print required women’s domestic labor with rags for its material existence, wormn were always already present in print and therfore belong as writers too”
“Yet mine own, at length affection would
Thy blemishes amend, if so i could:
I washed thy face, but more defects I saw,
And rubbing off a spot, still madea flaw
I stretch thy joints to make thee even feet,
Yet still thou runn'st more hobbling than is meet;
In better dress to trim thee was my mind,
But nought save home-spun cloth, i’ th’ house i find.
In this array ‘mongst vulgars mayst thou roam
In critic’s hands beware thou dost not come,
And take thy way where yet thou art not known;
If for thy father asked, say, thou hadst none;
And for thy mother, she alas is poor,
which caused her thus to send thee out of door.”
The Author to Her Book - Anne Bradstreet
My childrens were born with legs of different lenghtsn ad i tried to mainpuate my child’s body to
Reference to feet in poetry
You can go among commoners
22 - bastard child
If there’s no father, then what kind of reproduction is this
Both sexual and textual
Diaswoving a father being involved sexually and disavoing a father being innolved in the inspiration for the poem
Shame to not have a father in this time period
Reisst that binary
Iti s about women but it’s not necessarily a full turn away from being suverisve
No sooner come, but gone, and fal’n afleep,
Acquaintance short, yet parting caus’d us weep,
Three flowers, two scarcely blown, the last i’ th’ bud,
Cropt by th’ Almighty’s hand; yet is He good,
With dreadful awe before him let’s be mute,
Such was His will, but why, let’s not dispute,
With humble hearts and mouths put in the dust.
Let’s say he’s merciful as well as just;.
He will return, and make up all our losses,
And smile again, after our bitter crosses.
Go pretty babe, go rest with sisters twain;
Among the blessed; in endless joys remain.
ON MY DEAR GRANDCHILD SIMON BRADSTREET, WHO DIED ON 16 NOVEMBER, 1669, BEING BUT A MONTH, AND ONE DAY OLD - Anne Bradstreet
Precision in the title
Uncertainty and doubt in poem vs. concrete known of the title
What is the speaker saying?
In the beginning, they have all died so young but it’s god's decision and he remains good and merciful
Even though these terrible losses occurred
We should be silent and not complain
Don’t question it , let it happen
Implication of doubt
Let’s be or let’s say
Repetition
Let’s pretend let’s be mute let’s not dispute let’s say
Very different from line 4 saying He is good
Let’s say this rather than we believe this, this is absolutely true
Is he actually good? Or are we just saying that?
How can god be all powerful and a good god yet allow terrible things to happen in the world?
Question in paradise lost
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 Heav’nly Muse, that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, dist 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
Delight thee more, and Siloa’s brook that flowed
Fast by the oracle of god; I thence
Invoke thy aid to my advent’rous song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above th’ Aonian mount, while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme
Paradise Lost - John Milton
Invocation - ask for help to be a better poet
Similar to general prologue of canterbury tales - long sentence - showy
Humility topos - generally occurs with innovations
Not this
My song is so good and it’s going to do something you’ve never done before
I don’t have to obey commands
My poem will fly high
They could obey or not obey
Leaves it open
Royalist could read it as pro-king
Implication is that the greater man is christ
Who becomes man
Who is better than any human
And chiefly thou O spirit, that dost prefer
Before all temples th’ upright heart and pure, instruct me, for thou know’st ; thou from the first Wast present, and with might wings outspread
Dove-like stat’st brooding on the vast Abyss
Ad mad’st it pregnant: what in me is dark
Illumine, what is low raise and support;
That to the height of this great argument
I may assert eternal providence,
And justify the ways of god to men
Paradise Lost - John Milton
He needs the divine muse to teach him about that
He can’t know that on his own
Instruct me
Covered with education and knowledge
Some knowledge is deadly - if you eat from the tree of knowledge you will die
He doesn't want take the moderate path, he wants to soar to the highest heights
Illumine - imitates the bible “let there be light” - opening of genesis
One one hand, milton seems humble
Needs your insight
I am low, i need you to raise me
But he says that imitating god
He asks the same thing god asks his creations
More bold - he wants to ask for eternal providence and show god is just
Not humble
Please help me so i can defend God - to show his actions or just
Bold thing to claim that you’re poem can do this
So stretched out huge in length the Arch-fiend lay
Chain’d on the burning Lake, nor ever theme
Had ris’n or heaved his head, but that the will
And high permission of all-ruling Heaven
Left him at large to his own dark designs,
That with reiterated crimes he might
Heap on himself damnation, while he sought
Evil to others, and enraged might see
how all his malice served but to bring forth
Infinite goodness, grace and mercy shown
On man by him seduced , but on himself
Treble confusion, wrath and vengeance poured.
paradise lost - john milton
Same paradox before with herbert
The fall is necessary because the fall brings all the good things that christ does to forgive and redeem mankind
Him God beholding from his prospect high,
Wherein past, present, future he beholds,
Thus to his only Son foreseeing spake.
.so will fall
He and his faithless progeny: whose fault?
Whose but his own? Ingrate, he had of me
All he could have; i made him just and right,
Sufficient to have stop, through free to fall
Such i create all the’ ethereal Powers
And Spirits, both them who stood and them who failed;
Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell
paradise lost - john milton
God knows they’re going to fall
Thereating , less merciful
More focused on justice
Bad things happen but because of humankind
I created humans and angels with the power to stand , the power to obey , to be good, to do right
But i made them free to fall
He’s saying don’t blame me, i didn’t cause this
They therefore as to right belonged,
So were created nor can justly accused
Their maker, or their making , or their fate,
As if predestination overruled
Their will, disposed by absolute decree
Or high foreknowledge; they themselves creed
Their own revolt, not I: if I foreknew,
Foreknowledge had no influence on their fault,
Which had no less proved certain foreknown
So without least impulse or shadow of fate,
Or aught by me immutably foreseen,
They trespass, authors to themselves in all
Both what they judge and what they choose; for os
I formed them free, and free they must remain,
Till they enthrall themselves: i else must change
Their nature, and revoke the high decree
Unchangeable, eternal, which ordained
Their freedom, they themselves ordained their fall.
paradise lost - john milton
If god knows they're going to fall, does that mean he caused their fall/
God says no
God’s experience of the future is like humankind’s experience of the past
He can know they’re going to fall, but he did n’t make it happen
They od this - creating the problems they have
He knows is going to happen and he made them all free so knowing it’s going to happen that angels will rebel and humankind would eat the apple
He says he could have changed it, he could have prevented it, but in order to prevent it, he would have to change the nature of humans and angels
Man shall not quite be lost, but saved who will,
Yet not of will in him,but grace in me
Freely vouchsafed
paradise lost - john milton
Not all humans will be lost because god will grant some of them grace
Free will leaves humankind to make bad choices but god’s grace will be given to all and some will be saved
God is framed and having his own free will
Are we supposed to compare stan and god as leaders of hell and heaven in book 1 and book 2 as figures for rule and what kind of justice exists in the world
The son, christ also is just getting god to say what god already wanted from the first just like stan’s parliament gets the decision they wanted in the first place
Unlike the fallen angels, christ makes his voice out of disobedience
His words here ended, but his meek aspect
Silent yet spake, and breathed immortal love
To mortal men, above which only sone
Filial obedience: as a sacrifice
Glad to be offered, he attends the wil
Of his great father.
paradise lost - john milton
How do you reckon free will and choice?
The point here is that we all have the choice to obey or not
The son chooses to sacrifice himself for humankind
He chooses obedience to his father
His loyalty is meaningful because it is a true choice
This obedience to his father, this leader figure
Nto a tyrannical monarchy
Sets god apart from stan or human kings
Book 3 offers the explanation or justification for the existence of evil in the world
Its humankind's fault or satan's fault that god is all powerful and good and that because of that he gave humankind free will, and it’s our fault if evil happens
Not because it’s predetermined or god determined it to happen or he wouldn't intervene, he chooses not to, he chooses not to take away free will
…horror and doubt distract
His troubled thoughts, and from the bottom stir
The hell within him; for within him hell
He brings, and round about him, nor from hell
One step no more than from himself can fly
By change of place: now conscience wakes despair
That slumbered, wakes the bitter memory
Do what he was, what is, and what must be
Worse; of worse deeds worse sufferings must ensue
paradise lost - john milton
Hell is physical and psychological
Satan brings hell with him
He can’t escape hell anymore he can’t escape himself
Even if he could get all he wanted, he would never truly escape hell
Which he said was one of its goals
He wants to get out of hell
But it’s impossible
He is hell or his mind is hell
Echoes of god’s eternal presences near the end of this section
Remembers what he used to be and what the future will be
He also sees his past, present, and future just like God could in book 3
Suggests satan might have a conscience
Through all of his speeches in the early books, he doesn’t remember what happened when he was in heaven as an angel before the rebellion
Satan may not seem heroic
One of the challenges
Why would Milton create sympathy for the devil?
Ah, wherefore! He deserved no such return
From me, whom he created what i was
In that bright eminence, and with his good
Upbraided none; or was his service hard
paradise lost - john milton
Satan hates the sun because it reminds him of what he lost
He has regret
Why did I rebel against God in the first place?
Acknowledges God created him
Obedience wasn’t so ad
Resonates differently if you think about this being said during the context of the english war
Should you rebel against your king?
Even satan knows god was right
Hadst thou the same free will and power to stand?
Thou hadst: whom hast thou then or what to accuse,
But heav’n’s free love dealt equally to all?
….
Nay cursed be thou
paradise lost - john milton
He blamed his free will
God gave us all equal chance to not rebel
Why did I rebel?
He curses himself
But say i could repent, and could obtain,
By act of grace, my former state; how soon
Would height recall high thoughts, how soon unsay
What feigned submission swore: ease would recant
Vows made in pain, as violent and void
For never can true reconcilement grow
Where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep:
Which would but lead me to a worse relapse,
And heavier fall: so should i purchase dear
Short intermission bought with double smart.
This knows my punisher, therefore as far
From granting he, as i from begging, peace
paradise lost - john milton
Conditionals
I can’t repent because it would be shameful
Even if i could repent, it still wouldn't’ work out
He’s saying he would be faking it
He wouldn’t really want to repent or
If i was removed from my suffering, i would take back my repentance
Referring to god as a punisher
Now he’s blaming god
Because if i repent, will fall again
It’s not worth it to beg for mercy from God
God is just willing to grant mercy as satan is to ask for it
Why does Satan assume he will fall again?
He doesn’t truly know if he will fall again or what god will do
He assumes
It might trick us into believing it or stan into believing it
But we should be suspicious
The rest of the poem offers the possibility that humankind after they fall will choose differently
They will ask for God’s mercy and god will give it
Maybe satan is wrong
All hope exluded thus, behold, instead
Of us outcast, exiled, his new delight,
Makind created, and for him this world
So farewell hope, and, with hope, farewell fear,
Farewell remorse: all good to me is lost;
Evil be thou mygood; by thee at least
Divided empire with heav’n’s king i hold
By thee, and more than half perhaps will reign
paradise lost - john milton
Goodbye hope
By giving iup hope, he gives up fear and remorse
Only hope gives you desire, wishes, and expectations
Satan doesn't want those wishes to go unfilled
He is truly evil
If i can’t have good, i’ll have evil
And i can still hold divided emprie with god by ruling hell and by trying to cnquer humankind and earth
He threatens to rule even mroe than his half
What does it mean to say “evil be thou my good”
Does it suggest that the boudnary between an evil and good is porous , it can be crossed easily
Is the boundary arbitrary
Who determines what is evila nd what is good
Is this a turning point?
Do you think he was evil and hopless all alnog?
When I behold this goodly frame,* this world
Of heav'n and earth consisting, and compute
Their magnitudes, this earth a spot, a grain,
An atom, with the firmament compared
And all her numbered stars, that seem to roll
Spaces incomprehensible (for such
Their distance argues and their swift return
Diurnal*) merely to officiate* light
Round this opacous* Earth, this punctual* spot
One day and night; in all their vast survey
Useless besides, reasoning I oft admire,
How Nature wise and frugal could commit
Such disproportions
paradise lost - john milton
adams desire for knowlege groves over the course of this single conversation, as his appeitite increases and leans towards knoweldge above his station
asks raphael instead of god
But whether thus these things, or whether not,
Whether the sun predominant in heav'n
Rise on the earth, or earth rise on the sun...
Solicit* not thy thoughts with matters hid,
Leave them to God above, him serve and fear;
Of other creatures, as him pleases best,
Wherever placed, let him dispose: joy thou
In what he gives to thee, this Paradise
And thy faire Eve; heav'n is for thee too high
To know what passes there; be lowly wise:
Think only what concerns thee and thy being;
Dream not of other worlds, what creatures there
Live, in what state, condition or degree,
Contented that thus far hath been revealed
Not of earth only but of highest Heav'n
paradise lost - john milton
such broad questions often have no possible answers, becausse god does not intend human beings to comphrehend everything about his creation
hierarchy
raphael warns adam that she should be satifisied with the knowledge that god has made avaialble and to ressit the urge to gain further understanding outside of the limits he has set
even in paradise, there are still limitations to freedom
Two of far nobler shape erect and tall, \n Godlike erect, with native honor clad \n In naked majesty seemed lords of all, \n And worthy seemed, for in their looks \n divine \n The image of their glorious Maker shone, \n Truth, wisdom, sanctitude severe and pure, \n Severe, but in true filial freedom placed, \n Whence true authority in men; though both \n Not equal, as their sex not equal seemed; \n For contemplation he and valor formed, \n For softness she and sweet attractive grace; \n He for God only, she for God in him.
paradise lost - john milton
nakedness ws the proper and holy state of humans before they were corrupted by lust and shame
even in paradise, women is subordinate to man
man is strong , while owman is soft - gender norms
As I bent down to look, just opposite, \n A shape within the wat'ry gleam appeared, \n Bending to look on me, I started back, \n It started back, but pleased I soon returned, \n Pleased it returned as soon with answering looks \n Of sympathy and love; there I had fixed \n Mine eyes till now, and pined with vain desire, \n Had not a voice thus warned me: 'What thou seest, \n What there thou seest, fair creature is thyself: \n With thee it came and goes: but follow me, \n And I will bring thee where no shadow stays \n Thy coming, and thy soft embraces, he \n Whose image thou art.... \n what could I do \n But follow straight, invisibly thus led?
paradise lost - john milton
eve becomes entranced by her reflection
she is easly distrcted by vain surfaces, and also that she herself is a reflection of adam - adam was made in god’s image, while eve was made in adam’s image
eve immidiately obeys an invisible voice, foreshadowing how she wil be lster swayed by satan’s sugestions
e
Till I espied thee, fair indeed and tall,
Under a platan, yet methought less fair, [plane tree]
Less winning soft, less amiably mild,
Than that smooth wat'ry image; back I turned,
Thou following cried'st aloud, 'Return, fair Eve,
Whom fli’st thou? Whom thou fli’st, of him thou art,
His flesh, his bone; to give thee being I lent
Out of my side to thee, nearest my heart
Substantial life, to have thee by my side
Henceforth an individual solace dear;
Part of my soul I seek thee, and thee claim
My other half:' with that thy gentle hand
Seized mine, I yielded, and from that time see
How beauty is excelled by manly grace
And wisdom, which alone is truly fair.
paradise lost - john milton
eve is created out of adam’s rib, and is therefore less close to god than adam is
eve reflects miltons misogynsitic sentiments by addmitting that she is inferior to adam and sbumitting to his call
I now see
Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, my self
Before me; woman is her name, of man
Extracted; for this cause he shall forgo
Father and mother, and to his wife adhere;
And they shall be one flesh, one heart, one soul
paradise lost - john milton
adam immideately falls in love with eve
his weakness concerining her beauty
As new-waked from soundest sleep
Soft on the flow’ry herb I found me laid
In balmy sweat, which with his beams the sun Soon dried, and on the reeking* moisture fed. [steaming]
Straight toward heav'n my wond’ring eyes I turned,
And gazed a while the ample sky
paradise lost - john milton
adam’s cretion story is different from eve’s, showing how he is both superior and closer to god
he wakes up in the sunlight instead of the shade, and he immediately knows hte true names of htings, instead of being distracted by reflections like eve was
That day I oft remember, when from sleep \n I first awaked, and found my self reposed \n Under a shade on flowers, much wond’ring where \n And what I was, whence thither brought, and how. \n Not distant far from thence a murmuring sound \n Of waters issued from a cave and spread \n Into a liquid plain, then stood unmoved \n Pure as th' expanse of Heav'n; I thither went \n With unexperienced thought, and laid me down \n On the green bank, to look into the clear \n Smooth lake, that to me seemed another sky
paradise lost - john milton
women are inherently inferior to men and should ‘submit to them’
eve awakens in the shade, separated from God’s light, and she imediately becomes entranced by her reflection
Sad task, yet argument
Not less but more heroic than the wrath
Of stern achilles on his foe pursued
Thrice fugitive about troy wall
paradise lost - john milton
Who is the hero?
1st book - satan tries to be the hero
Adam consistently represents the figure of the epic
Unlike heroes, adam doesn’t beat up satan
Milton criques the romantic knight, the tiltin (jousting)
Adam is in some ways more heroic than achilles
Adam has a sense of virtue and right which makes him a hero
He has a tragic flaw
So saying, through eahc thicket dank or dry,
Like a black mist low creeping, he held on
His midnight search, where soonest he might ifnd
The serpent: him fast sleeping soon he found
In labyrinth of many a round self-rolled,
His head the midst, well stored with subtle wiles:
Not yet in horrid shade or dismal den,
Nor nocent yet, but on the grassy herb
Fearless unfeared
he slept: in at his Mouth \n The Devil entered, and his brutal sense, \n In heart or head, possessing soon inspired \n With act intelligential; but his sleep [ 190 ] \n Disturbed not, waiting close [hidden] th' approach of \n Morn
paradise lost - john milton
satan has totally devolvedi n his transformations now
image of a maze returns as a negative image of forbidden knowledge, which leads one to become lost
the snake'‘s labrythine body thus becomes a living symbol of devlish complexity
If this be our condition, thus to dwell
In narrow circuit straitened by a foe,
Subtle or violent ,we not endured
Single with like defense, wherever met,
How are we happy, still in fear of harm?
So spake the patriarch of mankind, but eve
Persisted, yet submiss, thought last, replied…
paradise lost - john milton
How can eve be happy if she is in fear
Satan - more about pride
Eve shares a kind of kinship of a satan
She is a copy of copy
Subservient to adam
Fairest resemblance of thy maker fair,
Thee all things living gaze on, all things thine
By gift, and thy celestial beauty adore
With ravishment beheld, there best beheld
Where universally admired; but here
In this enclosure wild, these beasts among,
Beholders rude, and shallow to discern
Half what in theei s fair, one man except,
Who sees thee (and what is one ?) who shoudst be seen
A goddess among gods , adored and served
By angels numberless, thy daily train
paradise lost - john milton
Satan’s mental heal
He tell us that literal hell is greater than servitude because he can play hn his own imagination
Eve has to be subservient
She is below adam
A copy of a copy
Satan beings his plot by flattering her
Pretends to be a servant
Uses her vanity
Goddess among gods
Displacses th singularity of gods
Elevates eve
He uses this kind of petarchan language to woo her
Something sexual about it
Those righid threats of death; ye shall not die:
How should ye? By the fruit? It gives you life
To knowledge. By the treat’ner? Look on me,
Me who have touched and tasted, yet both live,
And life more perfect have attained than fate
Meant me, by ben’tring higher than my lot
Shall that be shut to man, which to the beast
Is open? Or will god increase his re
For such a petty trespass, and not praise
Rather your dauntless virtue [courage], whom the pain
Of death denounced, whatever thing death be,
Deterred not from achieving what might lead
To happier life, knowledge of good and evil;
Of good, how just? Of evil, if what is evil
Be real, why not known, since easier shunned?
God therefore cannot hurt ye, and be just;
Not just, not God; not feared then nor obeyed.
paradise lost - john milton
satan is trying to convince eve to eat the fruit
eve is rightfully a goddess, and she should not have to submit to god simply based on his arbitrry commandement
he uses earlier flattery nd barrge of arguemnts, which wins her over
falliacious argument
forbidding knoweldge of good and evil is unjsut
god must be just
Therefore he would be unjust, and not God
Threat of death should not be feared then. Since being unjust would mean he was not God, and being just means he would not punish her
Of course... all assumed on the predicate thatforbidding knowledge is unjust
is forbiding knowledge unjust?
But if death \n Bind us with after-bands, what profits then \n Our inward freedom? In the day we eat \n Of this fair fruit, our doom is, we shall die. \n How dies the serpent? He hath eat’n and lives, \n And knows, and speaks, and reasons, and discerns, \n Irrational till then. For us alone \n Was death invented? Or to us denied \n This intellectual food, for beasts reserved? \n For beasts it seems: yet that one beast which first \n Hath tasted, envies not, but brings with joy \n The good befall’n him, author unsuspect, \n Friendly to man, far from deceit or guile. \n What fear I then, rather what know to fear \n Under this ignorance of good and evil, \n Of God or death, of law or penalty? \n Here grows the cure of all, this fruit divine, \n Fair to the eye, inviting to the taste, \n Of virtue to make wise: what hinders then \n To reach, and feed at once both body and mind?
paradise lost - john milton
Eve’s desires an inward freedom but fears death
She starts to sound like satan
Shall I to him make known \n As yet my change, and give him to partake \n Full happiness with me, or rather not, \n But keep the odds of knowledge in my power \n Without copartner? so to add what wants [lacks] \n In female sex, the more to draw his love \n And render me more equal, and perhaps, \n A thing not undesirable, sometime \n Superior; for inferior who is free?
paradise lost - john milton
Goes from equal to superior - similar to what satan does
Wants adam to join her
She wants him so he goes to cinvince him
She becomes a mini satan
The enemy can’t convince him but eve can convince him
She ends up turning against adam
Adam is not without his own faults
Unlike satan, her desire seems more geniuine
She has a genuine love
How can i live without thee, how forgo
Thy sweet converse and love so dearly joined,
To live agin inthese wild woods forlorn?
Should god create naother even, and i
another rib afford, yet loss of thee
Would never from my heart; no no, i feel
The link o f nature draw me: flesh of flesh
Bone of my bone thou art, and from thy state
Mine never shall be parted, lbiss or woe
paradise lost - john milton
Oneness in them
He values this more than staying in paradise
adam’s weakness - uxiourness
placing his love for eve above his love for god, which upsets god’s proper order
innocent flaws - these flaws can lead to fully-fledged sin in the right situation
He [satan] ended, and his words replet with guile
Into her heart too easy entrance won:
Fixed on the fruit she gazed, which t obehiold
Might tempt alone, and in her ears the sound
Yet rung of his persuasive words, impregned
Wit reason, to her seeming ,ad iwth truth
paradise lost - john milton
Satan is part of the fall, integral to why this occurred
He’s almost liek a forceo fnature
All of his designs fit within god’s plan
The poem tell us for eve that satans
Already has these conerns beforehead, she wants to believe
Although it was easy she still was deceived
She gave him of that fair enticing fruit
With liberal hand: he scrupled not to eat
Against his better knowledge, not decieved,
But fondly overcome with female charm
paradise lost - john milton
adams’s fall as a hero
he willing disobeys god, aware that what he is doing is wrong
“Was I to have never parted from thy side? \n As good have grown there still a lifeless rib. \n Being as I am, why didst not thou the head \n Command me absolutely not to go, \n Going into such danger as thou saidst? \n Too facile then thou didst not much gainsay [oppose], \n Nay didst permit, approve, and fair dismiss. \n Hadst thou been firm and fixed in thy dissent, \n Neither had I transgressed, nor thou with me.”
paradise lost - john milton
blaming each other
the eve milton portrays is a weak woman who brings harms to others and then blames them for it
“I also erred in overmuch admiring \n What seemed in thee so perfect, that I thought \n No evil durst attempt thee, but I rue \n That error now, which is become my crime, \n And thou th’ accuser. Thus it shall befall \n Him who to worth in women overtrusting \n Lets her will rule; restraint she will not brook [accept], \n And left to herself, if evil thence ensue, \n She first his weak indulgence will accuse.”
mysognisitic
blmes eve entierely even though adam knows that eating the fruit would lead to their fall
his flaw was seeing that eve was perfect but she is not
Upon thy belly groveling thou shalt go,
And dust shalt eat all the days of thy life
Between thee and the woman i will put
Enmity, and between thine and her seed:
Her seed shall bruise thy head, thou bruise his heel
paradise lost - john milton
God's punishment for the serpent is to crawl on the ground
You and humankind will have this dislike of each other and you can both punish each other
Snakes can bite humans, but humans can step on snakes
…though all by me is lost,
Such favor i unworthy am vouchsafed,
By me the promised seed shall all restore
paradise lost - john milton
Such an unworthy person am promised this wonderful reward
She realizes that the seed won't be just people stepping on serpents but christ defeating satan and death
But it is through women, that humankind will be redeemed
It is through childbirth which is a curse but through miraculous pregnancy to come that humankind is ultimately redeemed
“Did i request thee, maker, from my clay
to mold me man?”
paradise lost - john milton
Adam is questioning everything and his existence
Why did god make him if he knew it would be like this
“Out of my sight, thou serpent…
But for thee
I had persisted happy”
paradise lost - john milton
Adam calls eve a serpent and blames her directly for their suffering
If it weren’t for
He laments that god made women
Adam knew what he was doing when he ate the apple
Adam needs eve to her to pull him out of this cycle of despair
Without eve, adam would turn like satan
It is eve who snaps adams out
And convinces him to work together and ask god for mercy
She ended weeping, and her lowly plight
Immovable till peace obtained from fault
Acknowledged and deplored, in adam wrought
Commiseration; soon his heart relented
Towards her, his life so late and sole delight,
Now at his feet submissive in duress,
Creature so fair his reconcilement seeking
His counsel whom she had displeased, his aid
As one disarmed, his anger all he lost
paradise lost - john milton
He moved to pity eve because she is submissive
Misogynistic
He is moved because she positions him as superior
She has to see his forgiveness, his advice, his aid
That ‘s what makes him lose her anger
She is modeling for adam what they both need to do to God
She is a copy of a copy
She has to throw herself at adam and humiliate herself so he can moved to pity her as a model for both humans should have to go to God and be submissive god, seek god's advice, move him to lose all his anger
It is eve who makes humankind fall but it is also eve who redeems adam , who pulls him out of this suicidal lament
By part by being submissive but also in part wanting to be reunited
...then wilt thou not be lath
To leave this paradise, but shalt possess
A paradise within thee, happier far
paradise lost - john milton
If you live well, you can have paradise inside you
Contrast satan who can’t flee from hell because he brings it psychologically
Adam and eve can bring paradise wherever they go
Paradise is an inner being or a psychological state
Henceforth i learn, that to obey is best
And love with fear the only God..
And on him sole depend,
Merciful over all his works, with good
Still overcoming evil
paradise lost - john milton
He’s saying he figured out his problem was uxiourness
Depend on god, not eve
Has Milton achieved his promise for his first sentence of book 1?
Has he justified the ways of God to men?
The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide:
They hand in hand with wand’ring steps and slow,
Through Eden took their solitary way
paradise lost - john milton
Satan is attempting to colonize earth
In this case, adam and eve would be innocent
There oft the Indian hersman shunning heat
Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herds
At loopholes cut through thickest shade: those leaves
They gathered, broad as amazonian target,
And with what skill they had, together sewed,
To gird their waist, vain covering if to hide
their guilt and dreaded shame. O how unlike
To that first naked glory. Such of late
columbus found the american so gift
With feathered picture, naked else and wild
Among the trees on isles and woody shores
paradise lost - john milton
Adam and eve are dressed like native peoples
In one view, imperial associated with satan
Also possible to argue adam and eve are the lords of this new world
Even if we look in milton’s other writing, it’s hard to say how he feels about conquest
Complicated image
Hints In paradise lost that miton is thinking about england and its place to the larger world specifically colonialism and conquest
By the time milton is writing, it is a cliche to say americas is like a new eden
People in england talking about americas like a new world and that new world is a place of great abundance and prosperity , with no people (problematic) that they can come and conquer and take advantage of
But the fear is - will there be another fall?
Set up to imagine eden as a new world and therefore it can be linked to americas as the new world
Hard to figure out what exactly milton’s attitude is to this
Adam and eve are like conquer figures - they could go anywhere they want
He’s all for england conquering ireland, but anti spanish conquest of the americas
Because he’s not catholic
He equates adam and eve to native people at their moment of shame and most vulnerability
Problematic to frame native people as innocent, uncivilized, untouched by western europe as adam and eve are presented as pure, perfect