{"id":376,"date":"2008-05-25T23:35:25","date_gmt":"2008-05-26T03:35:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.drweevil.org\/?p=376"},"modified":"2008-05-25T23:36:57","modified_gmt":"2008-05-26T03:36:57","slug":"paradise-lost-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drweevil.org\/?p=376","title":{"rendered":"Paradise Lost<\/em> II"},"content":{"rendered":"

Notes from my reading of Book II:<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> Again the passage that most struck me was a classicizing bit, a simile describing Satan’s journey through Chaos (943-50):<\/p>\n

\n

As when a Gryfon through the Wilderness
\nWith winged course ore Hill or moarie Dale,
\nPersues the Arimaspian<\/em>, who by stelth
\nHad from his wakeful custody purloind
\nThe guarded Gold: So eagerly the Fiend
\nOre bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare,
\nWith head, hands, wings, or feet persues his way,
\nAnd swims or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flyes:<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This has some resemblance rhetorically to 7.501-3, though the latter is more neatly laid out in threes:<\/p>\n

\n

                    Earth in her rich attire
\nConsummat lovly smil’d; Aire, Water, Earth,
\nBy Fowl, Fish, Beast, was flown, was swum, was walkt
\nFrequent;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Milton does not mention that the Arimaspians were traditionally one-eyed: did he not think it important, or assume that his readers already knew? ‘Moarie’ is not in the Shorter O.E.D.<\/em> or www.dictionary.com<\/em>, and must be a form of ‘moory’, meaning ‘marshy, fenny’.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> The account of the origins of Sin and Death, featuring rape, incest, head-birth, and bestial transmogrification, manages to outdo Hesiod in gruesomeness.<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> It’s interesting that the music of the fallen angels (546-51) is epic or panegyric, sung “With notes Angelical to many a harp” about themselves and their deeds. The effect is rather Homeric.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Notes from my reading of Book II: 1. Again the passage that most struck me was a classicizing bit, a simile describing Satan’s journey through Chaos (943-50): As when a Gryfon through the Wilderness With winged course ore Hill or moarie Dale, Persues the Arimaspian, who by stelth Had from his wakeful custody purloind The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","category-what-ive-been-reading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drweevil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drweevil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drweevil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drweevil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drweevil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.drweevil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drweevil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drweevil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drweevil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}