-05_Milton^s Epic Lyricism.htm IV Milton's Epic Lyricism We have asserted the total effortlessness of Milton's complicated and deliberate-looking poetry. However, in asserting this, we must not imply that he did nothing to make such effortlessness possible. A hint of what he did is found in the mention in Book III of his mighty poetic outpouring - the passage from which we have already quoted some lines. It throws light on several matters. We shall first dwell upon its bearing on that effortlessness itself and, through the aspects disclosed by it in this connection, we shall proceed to the power behind Paradise Lost, as distinct from the power beyond the poem - what makes it, in

V The Preparation for Paradise Lost When apropos of Milton we speak of the lyric inspiration and of spontaneity, we must remember that he is spontaneous in a particular way that lyric poets are not. And here I mean more than the epic character of his lyricism. I mean what I have called the power behind in addition to the power beyond the poem, what he himself did to. make his total effortlessness possible. I may now specifically term it his sedulous cultivation of the inner mood - a deliberate travail seldom undergone by the lyric poets. And in the lines I have cited about harmonious numbers and the nightingale's nocturnal note we have the indica

-04_The Inner and Outer Process of Milton^s Composition.htm III The Inner and Outer Process of Milton's Composition The usual picture of Milton composing Paradise Lost is constructed from the testimony of a number of contemporary biographers. 1 Milton frequently composed lying in bed in the morning. It is supposed that this was his practice during winter. At other times we have to think of him as getting up early and, since he was already blind, impatiently waiting for his amanuensis to come and take dictation. At times he would have as many as thirty lines ready and, if the amanuensis arrived late, he would complain, saying "he wanted to be milked". When he was dictating, "he sa

VI Derivative Originality and Artistic Puritanism The paradox of the immense mood-cultivation by Milton for the inspired effortless composition of Paradise Lost leads us to yet another curiosity connected with him. We have spoken of the poetry of the past in which he steeped himself. From the literary point of view, what most constitutes his long preparation of the inner mood for his masterpiece is his constant immergence in the high holy fire of the Old and New Testaments, the wide steady light of the Greek and Roman Classics, the strange or sombre or changing chiaroscuro of the Mediaeval and Renaissance writers. Out of this immergence

X Why Paradise Lost Became What It Is We have seen how the manifold greatness of Paradise Lost was prepared by Milton through decades and how the growth towards it can be traced from youth along middle age to the poet's fifties. Nothing interfered with its evolution: even the twenty years of ecclesiastical, social and political controversy helped it. But just the things that helped the greatness were responsible for draining out or at least thinning the psychological diversity in which they were one intermixed element, and aggrandising it at their expense. The conventions of controversy in those days permitted harsh language, but Milton the poet

-08_Milton^s Art ~ His Plane of Inspiration and Shakespeare^s.htm VII Milton's Art His "Plane" of Inspiration and Shakespeare's Now we may note a few examples of Milton's art. On the more obvious yet none the less genuinely expressive level we have the four rivers of Hell conjured up, each by the appropriate phrase elaborating the etymological connotation of the river's Greek name and running in the right psychologically effective rhythm of vowels and consonants: Abhorrèd Styx, the flood of deadly hate; Sad Acheron of sorrow, black and deep; Cocytus, named of lamentation loud Heard on the rueful stream; fierce Phlegeton, Whose waves of torrent fire i

The Inspiration of Paradise Lost The Inspiration of Paradise Lost AMAL KIRAN (K.D. SETHNA) The Integral Life Foundation P.O. Box 239 Waterford CT. 06385 USA First published 1994 (Typeset in 10.5/13 Palatino) © Amal Kiran (K.D. Sethna) Published by The Integral Life Foundation, U.S.A. Printed at Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry PRINTED IN INDIA

XI The Complex Theme of Paradise Lost At the very outset the problem of the theme of Paradise Lost is bedevilled by the figure of Satan. So mightily alive - indeed the sole living character in the poem - is the Arch-demon that all other concerns than his are from the dramatic viewpoint dwarfed. And, if by the theme is meant whatever grips us most out of a work, Paradise Lost has its burning centre in the fortunes of Satan. Whether Milton intended it or no, the Fall of Satan, his fight against God and Man, his heroism or villainy, his success or failure are the main interest of the epic. But Satan's doings have evidently to be seen with chief re

II Milton, Macaulay and Sri Aurobindo I hope my introductory words have toned up the reader to an interest in Paradise Lost and in the difficult job I have taken on myself under the influence of the ardours and rigours of Milton's epic inspiration. But before I actually start, let me evoke two pictures in which our poet does not directly figure yet which may aid our minds better to appreciate him. Go back to 1834. A British ship is on way to India. In those days it used to take five months to make the voyage and there were many hazards: the ships were far more at the mercy of storms than our modern luxury-liners. And this particul

XII The Metaphysics of Paradise Lost B. Rajan, in his important study, Paradise Lost and the Seventeenth Century Reader, has observed that Paradise Lost was meant to be an epic of the Christian world and therefore aimed at the utmost general conformity to the body of universal Christian belief. The words "utmost general" are, of course, the operative ones. Rajan would hardly deny unorthodox traces. Milton, being what he was, would certainly not violate his own integrity by quite submerging his differences from universal Christianity; but, according to Rajan, he would never let them obtrude in a work which was intended to be a moral and religious po