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'Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained'

by John Milton

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Renu said: " I bought this book in class 9 in school, but let it languish on my bookshelf for more than a decade! Finally, I think I am able to make space for a sustained read.

The poem portrays the human predicament, vis-a-vis man and god and the question of fai I bought this book in class 9 in school, but let it languish on my bookshelf for more than a decade! Finally, I think I am able to make space for a sustained read.

The poem portrays the human predicament, vis-a-vis man and god and the question of faith in a medieval christian context.

The poem has been the subject of controversy amidst 19th and 20th century critics for its rather one-sided and chauvinistic depiction of Eve.

However, there's more to this book than mere controversy. It is a rewarding read for those interested in language and christian theology, a unique point-of-view in the form of poetry.

The introduction by itself is like a gospel, shedding light on various aspects of not just the epic poem but through the questions raised in various arguments on the Milton controversy vis-a-vis literature, language and aestheticism the 'truth' or the 'moral predicament' of literature.

Excerpts from the text of the introduction:
Milton's dedication to great poetry entailed a profound dedication of his own life: "And long it was not after, when I was confirmed in this opinion, that he who would not be frustrate of his hope to write well hereafter in laudable things, ought himself to be a true poem, that is, a composition and pattern of the best and honourablest things; not presuming to sing high praises of heroic men or famous cities unless he have in himself the experience and the practice of all that which is praiseworthy"
-- An Aplolgy for Smectymnuus, 1642

Of the needs to which Milton ministers, one of the greatest is our need to commit ourselves in passionate argument about literature. Not as part of the academic industry, but because literature is a supreme controversy concerning "the best that has been thought and said in the world" (to adopt the words which Matthew Arnold applied to culture). By the energy and sincerety of his poetry, Milton stands-as no other poet quite does-in heartening and necessary opposition to all aestheticisms, old and new.
Poetry, said Dr, Johnson in his life of Milton, "is the art of uniting pleasure with truth, by calling imagination to the help of reason." Truth must involve debate-William Empson has rightly protested against the aestheticism of some Milton critics: "The idea that there actually couldn't be a moral debate in a literary work amounts to a collapse of the Western mind."

Milton's principles, like his practice, make him the great enemy of any pretty or petty aestheticism. Art for art's sake? Art for God's sake. Archibald MacLeish gave aestheticism a witty shape: "Poems should not mean but be." W B Yeats gave aestheticism a tragic tone: "Words alone are certain good." But words alone are not enough for Milton, though his are certainly good. His moral and intellectual commitment to literature as (among other things) argument, his anti-aestheticism, comes the more powerfully from one whose poetry lacks none of the subtlety, suppleness, and formality of patterning which aestheticism rightly relishes. So that we can push our needs back a stage-Milton ministers superbly to our need to comprehend how variously magnificent and strange the English language is. Milton's mastery of language fortifies not merely our sense of what is beautiful, but our sense of what is human. ...more "

Jun 07, 2007 12:27AM · see review