The Creation of Paradise Lost

University of Kentucky UKnowledge Literature in English, British Isles English Language and Literature 1982 With Mortal Voice: The Creation of Paradise Lost John T. Shawcross University of Kentucky Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Shawcross, John T., "With Mortal Voice: The Creation of Paradise Lost" (1982). Literature in English, British Isles. 55. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_english_language_and_literature_british_isles/55 WITH MORTAL VOICE This page intentionally left blank WITH MORTAL VOICE The Creation of PARADISE LOST John T. Shawcross THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY ACKNOWLEDGMENTS University of Pittsburgh Press for permission to reprint "The Rhetor as Creator" from Milton Studies 8 (1975) 209-219, ed. James D. Simmonds, in revised form as Chapter 1, and "Paradise Lost and the Theme of Exodus" from Milton Studies 2 (1970) 3-26, ed. James D. Simmonds, in revised form as Chapter 11. Duquesne University Press for permission to reprint "The Metaphor of Inspiration" from Th'Upright Heart and Pure, ed. Amadeus P. Fiore (Pittsburgh, 1967), pp. 75-85, in revised form as Chapter 2. University of Washington Press for permission to reprint "The Son in His Ascen· dance: A Reading of Paradise Lost" from Modern Language Quarterly 27 (1966) 388-401, in revised form as Chapter 3 and in part in Chapter 8. University of Wiscon sin Press for permission to reprint "The Hero of Paradise Lost One More Time" from Milton and the Art of Sacred Song, ed. J. Max Patrick and Roger Sundell (Madison, 1979), pp. 137-147, in revised form as Chapter 4. University of North Carolina Press for permission to reprint "The Balanced Structure of Paradise Lost" from Studies in Philology 62 (1965) 696-718, in revised form as Chapters 5 and 6 and as sections in Chapters 3, 8, and 9. Rowman and Littlefield for permission to reprint sections from Paradise Lost (Philadelphia, 1966) in revised form in Chapters 3, 8, and 9. University of California Press for permission to reprint "The Style and Genre of Paradise Lost" from New Essays on Paradise Lost, ed. Thomas Kranidas (Berkeley, 1970), pp. 15-33, in revised form in Chapters 8 and 9. Eastern Michigan University for permission to re print "Paradise Lost and 'Novelistic' Technique" from journal ofNarrative Technique 5 (1975) 1-15, in revised form as Chapter 12. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Shawcross, John T. With mortal voice. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Milton, John, 1608-1674. Paradise lost. I. Title. PR3562.S48 821'.4 80-51944 ISBN 978-0-8131-5486-2 AACR2 Copyright © 1982 by The University Press of Kentucky Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Club, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. Editorial and Sales Offices: Lexington, Kentucky 40506 Contents Preface vn 1. The Rhetor as Creator 1 2. Inspiration & Meaning 12 3. The Thesis & the Theme 21 4.TheHero 33 5. Structural Patterns 42 6. Numerological Relationships 56 7. Sources as Meaning & Structure 68 8. The Genre 84 9. The Style 100 10. The Myth of Return 110 11. The Myth of Exodus 119 12. The Poem as Novelistic Technique 139 13. The Poem as Entity 156 Appendix: The Dates of Composition 173 Notes 178 Index 195 This page intentionally left blank Preface RECENTLY a friend observed that studies of literature and literary figures have generally been distasteful to readers, including him, be cause they have so often not been concerned with literature. And he specifically instanced John Milton and his works, citing a number of highly regarded and influential scholarly books. Though I am strongly convinced that Milton and his works must be given historical treatment for us to be confident of the context in which he wrote, I certainly have long agreed with the major thrust of the observation that Milton has not always been treated as a literary artist. Most fre quently he is treated as poetic theologian or polemicist or exemplar of Renaissance man. And what literary propensities the less recent past has found in his poems have usually centered on narrative and character or traditions only. The aim of the present book is to examine some literary approaches to Paradise Lost and to analyze the poem in these several ways to determine its literary achievement. Such approaches to the poem, seemingly disparate but ultimately in teracting, allow a more complete picture of the poem as an artistic creation. The poem is more than the sum of its parts, but only by ex posing those parts will we receive a more valid understanding of Mil ton's literary achievement. A literary work comes into being through what I call its pre-text and its execution. Those elements which constitute its pre-text are its structure, its theme(s), its underlying beliefs or formative concepts (its thesis), and its genre. Those elements which constitute the liter ary work's execution include the writing process itself; the language (including imagery and sources); style (a function of both pre-text and the elements of execution); and subject, theme, narrative, or character development. The form of the work, in Burkian terms, is viii PREFACE created by the elements of the pre-text and by the results of the execution. As any creative artist knows, the writing process for Para dise Lost, like any other work of art, was not a beginning at the first line, a continuous putting down of successive parcels of lines, and an ending at the last. Nor, indeed, do such elements of the pre-text as structure allow that misconception to persist. Allan H. Gilbert, among others, has shown that the poem was developed over anum ber of years by employment of various sections revised and rear ranged or newly written for changing intent, genre, and structure see On the Composz"tz"on of Paradise Lost (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1947). But the completed work is an entity, unified by repetitions, echoes, developments in later sections of materials appearing earlier, and the like. Additionally, Paradise Lost is unified by recurrent metaphor which takes on full, or at least fuller, meaning through its repeated and various use. This is not identical with saying that there are repe titions of language, for example, the well-known symbol of Adam and Eve hand in hand, which help chart recurrent or varying forms of action or characterization. Metaphoric meaning, as I use the term, implies the meaning imbued in a word or phrase and deter mined by its usage and particularly its continued usage. It becomes a key to the unity of the poem and its craftsmanship, and to such mat ters as structure, thesis and theme, style, and rhetorical stance. A study of metaphoric meaning shows Paradise Lost to be an inte grated poem in a literary way that has been insufficiently investi gated, and it adds a significant depth to characterization, to thenar rative voice, to the message, to the process of writing itself, and to style. Citations of repetitions or echoes or developments of larger nar rative elements or symbols do not supply this texture. Besides, meta phoric meaning proclaims the constant conscious control that Milton exerted over his lengthy poem. More than any other literary work outside the Bible, John Milton's Paradise Lost continues to be read as religious document, with atten dant questions as to the acceptability of its thought and philosophy. Of significance in answering such questions is the way the poem is read, and for the most part, it seems to me, the poem has run afoul of some critics because it has been read superficially and not really as literature. It has been most frequently pursued by scholars as a store house of knowledge, allusion, influence, and the humanistic world of the classics and the Renaissance. And the reputation thus denounced Preface ix upon it has often been that of a dusty old classic read in school be cause it looms large in western culture. What one means by literature, of course, hovers about any study. In broad terms, literature may certainly include gesture and plastic commodity, and the meaning or relevance of a work may be of al most total significance for the modern reader. But this demands comprehension of literature as something which is created by a writer to achieve some communication of idea, effect, emotion, aesthetic reaction. The writer takes raw material and does something with it; he does not simply present it. The communication of idea, effect, emotion, aesthetic reaction is dependent upon both the writer and the reader. If either fails, the communication fails. But I hasten to warn loudly that one should condemn without extensive analysis neither the writer (as, say, Ezra Pound has been in The Cantos) nor the reader (as, say, those who find in Lawrence Durrell's Alexan drian Quartet a meaningless contrivance only) when communication seems to fail. The writer may simply be misunderstood or he may evoke unrelated prejudices, as in Pound's case, or the reader may simply be too astute to be taken in by technique alone. At least there is some communication in both these examples, and insofar as there is communication, the work is successful at some level.

Load more