Paradise Lost

Texts:

• Book IV

• Book IX

Quotes:

Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe,
[...] Sing, Heav'nly Muse... [Book i. Lines 1-6]

***

[...] 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,
And justify the ways of God to men. [Book i, I.22-26]

***

Yet from those flames
No light, but rather darkness visible. [Book i. Line 62]

***

Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven. [Book i. Line 261]

***

Which way shall I fly
Infinite wrath and infinite despair?
Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell;
And in the lowest deep a lower deep,
Still threat’ning to devour me, opens wide,
To which the hell I suffer seems a heaven. [Book iv. Line 73]

***

So farewell hope, and with hope farewell fear,
Farewell remorse; all good to me is lost.
Evil, be thou my good. [Book iv. Line 108]

***

Earth felt the wound; and Nature from her seat,
Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe
That all was lost. [Book ix. Line 782]

Contexts:

• Arnie Sanders' summary of PL: Books I and II; Books IV, IX and XII

• SparkNotes on PL
• PL study guide by Cummings
• PL study guide at Bibliomania
  

• A good introduction to PL

• Norton Anthology overview of PL

• PL on Wikipedia
  

• John Milton on Luminarium

• Andrew Marvell's poem as a preface to PL
  

• Major events in the 17th century
• Historical background: age of Milton and Marvell (at Bibliomania)
  

Terms:

epic; epic hero; in medias res; ab ovo; epic (extended) simile; soliloquy; flash-forward (prolepsis); flashback (analepsis); focalization (point of view); blank verse;

hubris; prelapsarian; felix culpa;

Civil War; Commonwealth; Puritans; Roundheads; Cavaliers; Restoration, Great Fire of London.