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John Milton's Influence on Poets, Writers and Composers of His

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John Milton's Influence on Poets, Writers and Composers of His John Milton’s Influence on Poets, Writers and Composers of His Period and Aftermath 1 Mehmet Recep TAŞ, Erdinç Durmuş INFO ABSTRACT ARTICLEAvailable Online September 2014 John Milton is doubtless one of the most important and influential poets Key words: nglish Language and Literature. He has always been a major Milton; influence in literature both during his lifetime and after his death. His Poetry; reputationin E among the readers and the poets is a known fact since it has Pamphlet; been proven that several writers and poets frequently wrote under the influence of this great epic poet. Milton was an artist who had written about various subjects, he was both a poet and a renowned prose writer. English Literature. As he had something to say about every field of life his admirers and followers were not necessarily from just one category. Many people, including politicians, poets, writers, composers found something valuable in Milton and his works. The purpose of this article is to reevaluate Milton’s controversial works and lay down the influence of Milton on the mentioned figures of the period and aftermath. " Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour:, – Wordsworth- It is interesting that John Milton first bec England hath need of thee." However, this kind of reputation was not something to be envied of as he soon happened to be known a ame a famous figureattracted in Englanda great deal through of attenti his ondivorce at that pamphlets. time. It is known that Milton's reputation and influence was not as great in his lifetime as it was after his death. His poemsdivorce of in 1645 England. were In hardly addition, noticed his attacks by the onliterary the bishops world except a few poets such as Benlowen and Marvell. The poetry of these writers who knew Milton very well and actually who did a very close reading of Milton's poetry shows signs from the writings of John Milton. Milton was than he was famous for he was known as the defender of regici more notorious in both England and Europe unnoticed because of his political thoughts and reputation. After hede hadafter written 1651. hisAnd major the "Defenses" poem "Paradise were Lost”,apparently he g more widely read abroad than in England. During the Restoration, his lotpoems to advance may have Milton's gone reputation, it was after 1688 that his political ideas seemed to have been accepted and his reputation and radually became famous in the Literary beworld. established. Although One Dry may den think did that a Milton was not really a renowned person at all in his life time, on the contrary, despite all the realities about his writings and personal thoughtsinfluence aswhich a great was literary reflected figure in ofhis England pamphlets began it tois helpful to look at what Aubrey said of Milton in 1681 to refute a probable claim: He was visited much by learned, more than he did desire. He was mightily importuned to go to France and Italy. Foreigners came much to see hi, and much admired him, and offered him great preferments to come over to them and theMnly Oliver Protector and Mr. John Milton...He was much more admired abroad than at home" (Rivers,inducement 63). of several foreigners that came over into England, was chiefly to see As already stated above John Milton was also known for his controversial pamphlets on various subjects. The first of his pamphlets to catch the attention of the publication of this pamphlet Milton may be thought to have become very famous all of a sudden. On the contrary, this pamphlet brought Milton nothing but grief.public It wasonly "Doctrinecaused Milton and Disciplineto become ofnotorious Divorce." among With the great mistake by publishing those tracts at that time. After the publication of the pamphlets he once said, "It might perhaps more fitly have been writtenpublic. Afterwards, in another tongue. he wrote I could "Defensio Prima." It seems that Milton made a vulgar readers, who are usually unconscious of their own good fortune an ridicule the misfortune of others" (Parker 18). As it is obvious fromwish his only own that statement I had not Milton written regretted it in English, that for he then had I wouldever written not have those had 1 [email protected] Assistant Professor, Head of Foreign Language Department of Education Faculty at Yüzüncü Yıl Universty, Turkey. Email: 57 | Page Journal of Arts and Humanities (JAH), Volume -3, No.-9, September, 2014 brought him a celebrity and he became more countriespamphlets such at such as Holland,a time and Sweden, in English. Germany Milton's and first France. "Defensio" In the meantime, there were also countless efforts tofamous suppress in European his book countries and others than but he wasin fact, in hisit resultedown country. in much His publicity.books circulated Milton hadthrough actually all Europeanmade an impression through all these events and he began to be recognized by learned people all over the continent. As a result of all these stormy times in Milton's life he turned out to be known as a person who was more notorious than famous. Nevertheless, the crucial point here is that somehow he was known that his abroad. "Eikonoklastes" had been officially translated into French after the "Defensio Prima" had become famous As he was a writer of a great deal of significance, Milton's influence and reputation continued to flourish among the poets and writers of later generations. In fact, the most part of his fame is due to his poetry. Poets frequently resorted to Milton for their works, and in doing so they imitated his poetry. Milton was the poet who altered the epic genre and wrote "Paradise Lost" in blank verse. As the publications of this epic poem began to appear its effects were seen in the works of the writers. Most of the writers who tended to imitate Milton's art were affected by his use of blank verse, the language, style and the sublime ideas. Not only "Paradise Lost" was the factor to make Milton such an influential poet and bring him a reputation but also his minor poems like "L'Allegro" and "II Penseroso" played an essential role in Milton's influence. These two companion poems attracted the attention of the poets of that age for their images, language, general setting and theme. Apart from these works of Milton his sonnets were also used as a model especially for their form and subject matter. Several sonnets were produced in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries following the model of Milton's sonnets. Milton's whole body of works was considered to be an example of excellence so that his position as a literary figure had been risen so high in the literary world. His use of blank verse and the elements of imitation by other writers continued to increase. A great Romantic poet who was affected by Milton was William Wordsworth. In his life time Wordsworth wrote hundreds of sonnets and clearly enough it was Milton who started him to write sonnets. He was an ardent admirer of Milton and he often used the qualities which can be found in the sonnets of Milton such as dignity, simplicity, unity of objects, republican austerity etc. He learned to introduce pauses within line from Milton. The characteristics of Milton's sonnet form are the chief characteristics of Wordsworth's sonnets. He was tremendously indebted to Milton concerning all of his works as a poet but he owes Milton much more in the sense of writing sonnets. Wordsworth knew how deeply under the influence of Milton's art he was and he declared it in the advertisement to the volume of his collected sonnets as, "My admiration of some of the sonnets of Milton, first tempted me to write in that form. The fact is…mentioned…as a public Acknowledgement of one of the innumerable obligations, which, as a Poet and a Man, I am under to our great fellow- countryman" (McNulty 745). Admirers of "Paradise Lost" have been attracted to Milton's art, his versification, diction and the way he said things in his work. They used Milton's tools and tried to imitate his method of handling poetry even though most of them have been indifferent to his personality, to his conceptions of poetry and life. Now, Wordsworth is one of the poets who was inspired as no other poet has been by the life and character of Milton. Wordsworth's delight and interest both in Milton and his poetry began in his boyhood.. He could repeat portions of Milton's poetry by heart when he was very young. Milton's poetry was an earlier favorite of Wordsworth than that of Shakespeare. His enthusiasm for Milton was a permanent one. His lifelong admiration for Milton must have been so deep that at age of thirty two he knew all the sonnets by heart. This reality shows that Wordsworth was too familiar with Milton's poetry. His poems contain at least more than hundred borrowings from Milton all of which has been scattered through the whole body of his poetry. On the other hand these borrowings were taken not only from Milton's major epic poem "Paradise Lost" but also from his minor poems such as "L'Allegro", "II Penseroso", "Comus" and "Lycidas" to name a few of them. Some of the interesting borrowings from Milton are to be found in his Convention of Cintra. In this prose work Wordsworth mentions Milton as a defender and the work itself contains at least five quotations from Milton's poetry.
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