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An edition of Milton's later work rk includes the text of six books of Paradise Lost, The History of Britain and the whole of Samson Agonistes. Through his introduction, commmentary and full annotations, Tony Davies sets the works in their political and cultural contexts, and discusses such themes as the `heroic'; sexuality and gender; and Milton's interrogation of the meaning of history.
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Yes, you can access John Milton by John Milton, Tony Davies, Tony Davies in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & Literary Criticism. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
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JOHN MILTON
Selected Longer Poems and Prose
Paradise Lost
The verse
The measure is English heroic verse without rhyme, as that of Homer in Greek, and of Virgil in Latin; rhyme being no necessary adjunct or true ornament of poem or good verse, in longer works especially, but the invention of a barbarous age, to set off wretched matter and lame metre; graced indeed since by the use of some famous modern poets, carried away by custom, but much to their own vexation, hindrance, and constraint to express many things otherwise, and for the most part worse than else they would have expressed them. Not without cause therefore some both Italian and Spanish poets of prime note have rejected rhyme both in longer and shorter works, as have also long since our best English tragedies, as a thing of itself, to all judicious ears, trivial and of no true musical delight; which consists only in apt numbers, fit quantity of syllables, and the sense variously drawn out from one verse into another, not in the jingling sound of like endings, a fault avoided by the learned ancients both in poetry and all good oratory. This neglect then of rhyme so little is to be taken for a defect, though it may seem so perhaps to vulgar readers, that it rather is to be esteemed an example set, the first in English, of ancient liberty recovered to heroic poem from the troublesome and modern bondage of rhyming.
Book I
Of manâs 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 that blissful seat, 5
Sing, heavenly Muse, that on the secret top
Of Oreb or of Sinai didst inspire
That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed
In the beginning how the heavens and earth
Rose out of chaos; or if Sion hill 10
Delight thee more, and Siloaâs brook that flowâd
Fast by the oracle of God, I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventârous song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above thâAonian mount while it pursues 15
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.
And chiefly thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer
Before all temples the upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for thou knowâst; thou from the first
Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread 20
Dove-like satâst brooding on the vast abyss
And madâst 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, 25
And justify the ways of God to men.
Say first, for heaven hides nothing from thy view
Nor the deep tract of hell, say first what cause
Movâd our grand parents in that happy state,
Favourâd of heaven so highly, to fall off 30
From their creator, and transgress his will
For one restraint, lords of the world besides?
Who first seducâd them to that foul revolt?
Thâ infernal serpent; he it was whose guile
Stirrâd up with envy and revenge deceivâd 35
The mother of mankind, what time his pride
Had cast him out from heaven with all his host
Of rebel angels, by whose aid aspiring
To set himself in glory above his peers
He trusted to have equallâd the most high 40
If he opposâd, and with ambitious aim
Against the throne and monarchy of God
Raisâd impious war in heaven and battle proud
With vain attempt. Him the almighty power
Hurlâd headlong flaming from thâetherial sky 45
With hideous ruin and combustion down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
In adamantine chains and penal fire
Who durst defy thâomnipotent to arms.
Nine times the space that measures day and night 50
To mortal men he with his horrid crew
Lay vanquishâd, rolling in the fiery gulf,
Confounded though immortal; but his doom
Reservâd him to more wrath, for now the thought
Both of lost happiness and lasting pain 55
Torments him. Round he throws his baleful eyes
That witnessâd huge affliction and dismay
Mixâd with obdurate pride and steadfast hate....
Table of contents
- Cover Page
- Half Title Page
- Series Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- John Milton: Selected Longer Poems and Prose
- Paradise Lost
- The History of Britain
- Samson Agonistes
- Critical commentary
- Bibliography
- Notes