Milton - Joann Buffington

Paradise Lost

October 18th, 2010 | Author: preimagination

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Paradise Lost: Paradise Lost, an epic poem in blank verse, written by the 17th-century poet John Milton as he became blind at the end of his life, is a retelling of the Biblical story of the Fall of Man. While based on the Christian tale, the poem incorporates many topics, and spends most of its verses detailing the journey of Satan and his war on the angels. The depiction of Adam and Eve draws an elaborate panorama of their trials. This classic of Western literature is wide-reaching and enormously influential, and should not be absent from the modern reader’s bookshelf. Too dense – BV CLOSE –
First, let me state that I am not a fan of poetry. I find the way it obscures meaning and ebroiders every last thought in metaphor and simile to be frustrating and distracting. I’m so busy trying to figure out what each line means that I forget where I am in the overall scheme of things.

After making my way through The Oddysey, Beowulf and the Divine Comedy, I thought I could handle Milton’s Paradise Lost. I was wrong.

I make it a personal mission that try to I finish every book I start. In the last 10 years, I can remember having failed in this only 4 times:
– On The Origin of Species (Charles Darwin);
– The Republic (Plato);
– The Four-Gated City (Doris Lessing); and
– Paradise Lost by John Milton.

My major criticisms include the following:

– Sentences are drawn out to intolerable length, stacked with metaphor upon metaphor, until I get halfway down the page and I’ve forgotten how the sentence started!
– Although stated at the start of the book that rhyme was deliberately avoided, I found the absence of any rhyme reduced the poetic impact for me.
– It was hard to fall into the metre of the verse, which made it more difficult for me to get into the flow of the tale (possibly related to the lack of rhyme stated above).
– The decriptions were so flowery and interwoven that I often found that what I thought was a decription of one entity was in fact two or more!

In the end, I just couldn’t do it.

To be fair though, of the small section I read (I got to the end of Book III I think) there were a few passages which were clear enough that I was able to appreciate the beauty of the language. Also, I appreciated the way Milton attempted to characterise the War in Heaven and its aftermath. Such a critical foundation of Judeo-Christian theology is given short shrift in the Bible and other works; giving it some depth was a valiant effort. But there weren’t enough of the good parts to keep me engaged, more’s the pity.

This may be a cornerstone of English literature, but it wasn’t for me. If you enjoy thick, dense poetry, and apocryphal theology, then enjoy with my blessing. It was too much for me.

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Joann Buffington

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Paradise Lost