Paradise Lost An Epic to Surpass All Epics Essay

An Epic to Surpass all Epics The epic poem Paradise Lost by John Milton was written during a time of religious revolution in England. The subject matter of this epic poem, in the words of Milton, is [o]f mans first disobedience (line 1). In this blank verse, Milton refers to the story in Genesis where Eve tempts Adam to eat the forbidden fruit. In the first five lines of the poem he describes the beginning of mortality, suffering, and mans restoration, as the fruit [o]f that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste [b]rought death into the world, and all our woe, [w]ith loss of Eden, till one greater Man [r]estore us, and regain the blissful seat (lines 1-5). [D]eath is human mortality, and all our woe is mans suffering†¦show more content†¦In Paradise Lost, John Milton begins his poem after the War in Heaven, and after the angels had fallen. [T]he poem hastes into the midst of things, presenting Satan with his angels now fallen into Hell, described here, not in the center (for Heaven and Earth may be s upposed as yet not made, certainly not yet accursed) but in a place of utter darkness, fitliest called Chaos (Norton Anthology 1817). By starting in medias res, Milton fulfills one of the elements expected as part of an epic. In line six of Paradise Lost, Milton makes a call of divine force, [s]ing Heavenly Muse (line 6). Clearly here in this line of the poem he makes a call to a Muse, therefore fulfilling another requirement of an epic poem. But this Muse is not like other Muses in recent epics. This Muse is the Holy Spirit. Milton goes on to describe the Heavenly Muse, that on the secret top [o]f Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire [t]hat shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed, [i]n the beginning how the heavns and earth [r]ose out of Chaos (lines 6-10). The shepherd referred to here is Moses. Clearly Miltons Muse is God, the Great Divine, because God talks to Moses on top of Mount Sinai. Further proof that the Muse in this poem is the Holy Spirit is when the reference is made of Sion Hill [d]elight thee more, and Siloas brook that flowed [f]ast by the oracle of God (lines 10-12). Mount Zion [was] the site of Solomons TempleShow MoreRelatedJohn Milton s Paradise Lost896 Words   |  4 Pagesvict im to unfortunate events. One of the world’s greatest unanswered questions is: why do bad things happen? Or is it really an unanswered question? The great poet Milton decided to answer this question in his poem Paradise Lost. Milton wanted to create an epic to rival Homer and Virgil’s epics and he decided that there was no better way to do this than to answer mankind’s greatest question. 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Greer Copyright  © 2001, 1995 by Prentice-Hall, Inc. A Pearson Education Company Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 Compilation Copyright  © 2003 by Pearson Custom Publishing All rights reserved. This copyright covers material written expressly for this volume by the editor/s as well as the compilation itself. It does not cover the individual selections herein that first appeared elsewhere. ii Permission to reprint these