PARADISE LOSTMilton's Paradise Lost is written in blank verse. It is the first English Epic written in the black verse. Milton is without the doubt the greatest English Poet. He stands all alone enjoying a reputation that has not fallen to the share of even Homer and Virgil. He is one of the few English poets who have won the admiration and homage of the whole world. Even his most adverse critics like Johnson finally come to praise and admire him as the author of Paradise Lost. "What other authors", asks Dr. Johnson, "even soared so high, or sustained his flight so long?" the common judgement of the last two centuries cannot be set aside.

Milton was the child of the Renaissance and Reformation. In essential Renaissance and Reformation are not opposed but complementary to each other. Reformation was, in fact, only one aspect of Renaissance. Their cooperation had been mainly responsible for the essential greatness of Elizabeth Literature in which a passionate love of beauty is combined with religious fervor and the strenuous moral idealism. In Milton's poetry we find a harmonious blending of these salient features. Milton the poet is the Puritan enlivened and liberalized by the Renaissance spirit. He though a Puritan thinker, was a Renaissance artist.

Vastness is the most characteristics quality of Milton's imagery. Milton's poetical faculties and power of imagination were of such great dimensions that ordinary subjects or ordinary images could not satisfy them. Johnson further says, "The subject of an epic poem is naturally an event of great importance. That in Milton is not the destruction of a city, the conduct of a colony, or the foundation of an empire. His subject is the fate of worlds, the revolutions of Heaven and of Earth: rebellion against the supreme King, raised by the highest order of created beings; the overthrow of their host, and the punishment their crime, the creation of a new race of reasonable creatures; their original happiness and innocence, their forfeiture of immortality, and their restoration to hope and peace" There is an unexampled grandeur in Milton's style. Matthew Arnold called it Grand style, Wordsworth compares it to the voice of the sea and Tennyson called Milton the God-gifted organ voice of England. There is a subtle lyrical beauty and felicity of phrase of which even Shelley and Keats could have been proud. Each word is like a harp in his hands ready to shake out the most glorious strains at his expert touch. Milton was a versatile scholar and the fruits of the scholarship are to be found scattered throughout the poem. He is the port of all the time, belonging to no one age or nationality. In the conflict between science and the religion, skepticism and faith, Milton stood out as the champion of faith in God and his moral order. Milton provided the solid rock for Christianity when it roots were shaken by the onslaught of Science. An Epic is a long narrative poem written in an elevated style with a serious theme at least of national level. As a procedure the poet starts the poem with invocation to the holy spirits to assist him in this divine task and then plunges into the middle of the story or theme. The high sounding, bombastic and ornate language, war like speeches, ancient and mythical references and the use of supernatural machinery are some of the main features or essential ingredients of the epic writing.

"Epic in England begins and ends with Paradise lost""Milton was of devil's party without knowing it" William Blake

"Nothing can exceed the energy and magnificence of the character of Satan as expressed in "Paradise lost" Shelley"He is not a popular personification of evil" Shelley

"The interest of the poem arises from the daring ambition and fierce passions of Satan" (Hazlitt)"Give me the spirit of my favorite hero, Milton's Satan" (Robert Burns)

BOOK 1"Of man's first disobedience and the fruit

Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal tasteBrought death into the world, and all our woe,

With loss of Eden, till one greater ManRestore us, and regain the blissful seat"

"Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme""And justify the way of God to men"

"...What causeMoved our grand parents, in that happy state,

Favoured of Heaven so highly to fall offFrom their creator, and trangress his will

...who first seduced them to that foul revolt"" his pride

Had cast him out from Heaven, with all his hostOf rebel Angels"

" Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms."" But his doom

Reserved him to more wrath; for now the thoughtBoth of lost happiness and lasting pain

Torments him""A dungeon horrible, on all sides round,

As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flamesNo light; but rather darkness visible

Served only to discover sights of woe,Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace

And rest can never dwell, hope never comesThat comes to all, but torture without end"

"so much the stronger provedHe with his thunder; and till then who knew

The force of those dire arms?""do I repent, or change,

Though changed in outward lustre, that fixed mind,And high disdain from sense of injured merit"

"What though the field be lost?All is not lost—the unconquerable will,And study of revenge, immortal hate,And courage never to submit or yield:And what is else not to be overcome?

That glory never shall his wrath or mightExtort from me."

"In arms not worse, in foresight much advanced,We may with more successful hope resolve

To wage by force or guile eternal war,Irreconcilable to our grand Foe"

"Whether upheld by strength, or chance, or fate""Though all our glory extinct, and happy state

Here swallowed up in endless misery""Fallen Cherub, to be weak is miserable,Doing or suffering": but of this be sure—To do aught good never will be our task,

But ever to do ill our sole delight,As being the contrary to his high will

Whom we resist.""eyes

That sparkling blazed; his other parts besidesProne on the flood, extended long and large,

Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as hugeAs whom the fables name of monstrous size,Titanian or Earth-born, that warred on Jove,

Briareos or Typhon, whom the denBy ancient Tarsus held, or that sea-beast

Leviathan""How all his malice served but to bring forthInfinite goodness, grace, and mercy, shewn

On Man by him seduced, but on himselfTreble confusion, wrath, and vengeance poured"

"Is this the region, this the soil, the clime,’...this the seat

That we must change for Heaven?—this mournful gloomFor that celestial light? Be it so, since he

Who now is sovereign can dispose and bidWhat shall be right"

"Farewell, happy fields,Where joy for ever dwells! Hail, horrors! hail,Infernal world! and thou, profoundest Hell,

Receive thy new possessor—one who brings""A mind not to be changed by place or time.

The mind is its own place, and in itselfCan make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven."

"What matter where, if I be still the same,And what I should be, all but less than he"

"To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell:Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven."

"Princes, Potentates,Warriors, the Flower of Heaven—once yours; now lost"

"Awake, arise, or be for ever fallen!"

"They heard, and were abashed, and up they sprungUpon the wing, as when men wont to watch

On duty, sleeping found by whom they dread"

BOOK 9"foul distrust, and breach

Disloyal on the part of Man, revolt,And disobedience: on the part of Heaven

Now alienated, distance and distaste""now improv’d

In meditated fraud and malice, bentOn Man’s destruction, maugre what might hap

Of heavier on himself, fearless returned""The Serpent subtlest beast of all the field"

"O Earth, how like to Heaven, if not preferredMore justly, seat worthier of God, as built

With second thoughts, reforming what was old!For what God, after better, worse would build?"

"As God in HeavenIs center, yet extends to all; so thou,

Centring, receivest from all those orbs: in thee,Not in themselves"

"With what delight could I have walked thee round,If I could joy in aught"

"and the more I seePleasures about me, so much more I feel

Torment within me, as from the hateful siegeOf contraries: all good to me becomes

Bane""To me shall be the glory sole among

The infernal Powers, in one day to have marredWhat he, Almighty styled, six nights and days

Continued making""this new favourite

Of Heaven, this man of clay, son of despite,Whom, us the more to spite, his Maker raised

From dust: Spite then with spite is best repaid.""Frail is our happiness, if this be so,

And Eden were no Eden, thus exposed""O much deceived, much failing, hapless Eve,

Of thy presumed return! event perverse!""His malice, and with rapine sweet bereavedHis fierceness of the fierce intent it brought:

"Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she eat!Earth felt the wound; and Nature from her seat,Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe,

That all was lost.""Greedily she ingorged without restraint,

And knew not eating death""Against his better knowledge; not deceived,

But fondly overcome with female charm.Earth trembled from her entrails, as againIn pangs; and Nature gave a second groan;

Sky loured; and, muttering thunder, some sad dropsWept at completing of the mortal sin"

"True relish, tasting; if such pleasure beIn things to us forbidden, it might be wished,

For this one tree had been forbidden ten.""…true in our fall,

False in our promised rising; since our eyesOpened we find indeed, and find we know

Both good and evil; good lost, and evil got"

LOVE AND DEVINE POEMS

JOHN DONNEThe variety and scope of Donne’s love lyrics is truly remarkable. He oscillates between physical love and holy love, between cynicism and faith in love and above all the sanctity and dignity of married life. His earlier love-poems are rather erotic and sensual and deal with the real escapades and intrigues of lovers. Moreover, he is quite original in presenting love-situations and moods. Partly they are based on common experiences of his contemporaries and partly on his own experiences. In the gay and fashionable life of London of his time, Donne had ample opportunities of establishing both casual and lasting love-relationships.Being highly sensitive and passionate in love, Donne was always either in an elated or a cynical mood. Whenever he was lucky, he defied all limits of reason and exaggeration in flattering his beloved. Whenever, he had setback, he become extremely cynical like a Patriarch lover. "Donne in his unhappy mood reminds us of Hamlet lashing out at the whole woman-kind". In his Holly Sonnets, he speaks to God, seeking His protection from the approaching death. Poet tries to seek release from his doubts and fears. John Donne, like hamlet, was constantly haunted by the idea of death. His poems reflect his obsession with death. All the time in his poems, although Donne seems to console his beloved, yet actually he is trying to get rid of his own anguish and fears. All his reasoning and conceits are actually attempt to get rid of the fears he was always beset with—fears of disloyalty and fear of death. Physical parting disturbed his concept of the union of souls in love. Donne, who regarded love as a fusion of two souls, the physical reality of love was always an enigma.

LOVE POEMS"For God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love,"

"When by thy scorn, o murderess,I am dead

And that thou think’st thee freeFrom all solicitations from me.

Then shall my ghost come to thy bed.""TWICE or thrice had I loved thee,Before I knew thy face or name;"

"If ever any beauty I did see,Which I desired, and got, 't was but a dream of thee."

"My face in thine shine, thine in mine appearsAnd true plain hearts do in the face rest"

"No whereLive a woman true and faire"

"Love al alike, no season knows nor clime,Nor hours, days, months, which are the rages of time"

"I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink""shine here to us, and thou art everywhere

This bed thy center is, these walls thy spheare""O how feeble is a man's power

That if good fortune fall,Cannot add another hour;Not a lost houre recall!"

"they who one another keepAlive, ne'er parted bee"

"twice and thrice had I loved theeBefore I knew thy face or name"

"Nor can you noe can you more judge women's thoughts by tearsThan by her shadow what she weares"

"Make me a mandrake, so I may grow hereOr a stone fountain weeping out my yeare"

"whoever sighs most is cruelest and hastes the other's death"

HOLLY SONNETS"I runne to death, and death meets me as fast"

"But our old subtile foe so tempeth meThat not one hour I can myself sustaine"

RAPE OF THE LOCK"Pope tries to lift a feather with the help of crane and kills a butterfly with a bulldozer." above mention remark not only proclaim the impressiveness of Alexander Pope but also gives us the glimpse of the epic salient features mould to mock epic suitability. he frequently writes in tongue and cheek manners. it is more than a comic epic that is perfectly clear from the fact that primarily the poem is designed to remove the air of bitterness by bringing the rapprochement between the two families and secondarily, it aims at moral reformation. the moral of the poem is to instruct the reader in general and Belinda in particular for the maintenance of good sense, good humour, good nature that enlists "The Rape of the Lock" with "Odyssey", "Aenied" and "The fairy Queen". thus though existing at different levels, the mock and heroic epics profess the same moral that is serious.

On the basis of the above analysis, it can be safely remarked that "The rape of the lock" is one of the finest piece of mockery and it is decidedly more than a mere parody of epic traditions. it establishes Pope's image as an artist and the moralist of a very high order. “ The mock epic is a poetic form, which uses the epic structure, but on a miniature scale and with a subject that is mean and trivial. Its purpose is satirical to make the subject look ridiculous by placing it in a frame work entirely inappropriate to it s importance”.

"A little learning is a dangerous thingDrink Deep or taste not the Pierian Spring"

"yes I am proud: I must be proud to seeMan not afraid of God, afraid of me"

"WHAT dire Offence from amorous Causes springs,What mighty Contests rise from trivial Things"

" Say what strange Motive, Goddess! cou'd compelA well-bred Lord t'assault a gentle Belle?"

"Oh say what stranger Cause, yet unexplor'd,Cou'd make a gentle Belle reject a Lord?""In tasks so bold, can little men engage,

And in soft bossoms dwell such mighty rage""Sol thro' white Curtains shot a tim'rous Ray,

And op'd those Eyes that must eclipse the Day""And sleepless Lovers, just at Twelve, awake"" Fairest of Mortals, thou distinguish'd Care

Of thousand bright Inhabitants of Air! ""Think not, when Woman's transient Breath is fled,

That all her Vanities at once are dead"Succeeding Vanities she still regards,

"With varying Vanities, from ev'ry Part,They shift the moving Toyshop of their Heart;

Where Wigs with Wigs, with Sword-knots Sword-knots strive,Beaus banish Beaus, and Coaches Coaches drive. "

"Favours to none, to all she Smiles extends,Oft she rejects, but never once offends"

"Whether the Nymph shall break Diana's Law,Or some frail China Jar receive a Flaw,

Or stain her Honour, or her new Brocade,Forget her Pray'rs, or miss a MasqueradeOr lose her Heart, or Necklace, at a Ball;

Or whether Heav'n has doom'd that Shock must fall""In various Talk th' instructive hours they past,

Who gave the Ball, or paid the Visit last:One speaks the Glory of the British Queen,

And one describes a charming Indian Screen"" The skilful Nymph reviews her Force with Care;

Let Spades be Trumps, she said, and Trumps they were"" Oh thoughtless Mortals! ever blind to Fate,

Too soon dejected, and too soon elate!Sudden these Honours shall be snatch'd away,

And curs'd for ever this Victorious Day""Coffee, (which makes the Politician wise,

And see thro' all things with his half shut Eyes)""The meeting Points that sacred Hair dissever

From the fair Head, for ever and for ever! "" Then flash'd the living Lightnings from her Eyes,And Screams of Horror rend th' affrighted Skies.

Not louder Shrieks to pitying Heav'n are cast,When Husbands or when Lap-dogs breath their last"

" For ever curs'd be this detested Day,Which snatch'd my best, my fav'rite Curl away!

Happy! ah ten times happy, had I been,If Hampton-Court these Eyes had never seen! "

"But since, alas! frail Beauty must decay,Curl'd or uncurl'd, since Locks will turn to grey,

Since paint'd, or not paint'd, all shall fade,And she who scorns a Man, must die a Maid""Beauties in vain their pretty Eyes may roll;

Charms strike the Sight, but Merit wins the Soul""Not fierce Othello in so loud a Strain

Roar'd for the Handkerchief that caus'd his Pain.""The Lock, obtain'd with Guilt, and kept with Pain,

In ev'ry place is sought, but sought in vain"" Some thought it mounted to the Lunar Sphere,Since all things lost on Earth, are treasur'd there"

"This Lock, the Muse shall consecrate to Fame,And mid'st the Stars inscribe Belinda's Name! "

“Sudden he viewed, in spite of all her art,An earthly lover lurking at her heart.

Amazed, confused, he found his power expired,Resigned to fate, and with a sigh retired.”