PARADISE LOST BY JOHN MILTON

A dungeon horrible, on all sided round,
As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames
No light, but rather darkness visible
Served only to discover sights of woe.

A dungeon horrible, .......... sights of woe.

REFERENCE
(i) Poem: Paradise Lost
(ii) Poet: John Milton
CONTEXT
(i) Occurrence: Book I (Lines 61-64/798)
(ii) Content: Satan lies dazed in a lake of fire that is totally dark. Next to him is Beelzebub, Satan's second-in-command. Satan speaks to him and laments their current state. Satan suggests that they should leave the burning lake and find shelter on a distant shore. Beelzebub asks Satan to summon his armies. Satan takes up his armor and calls to his legions to join him on land. He addresses his legions and commits himself to continue his fight against God. With their supernatural powers, the devils construct a massive temple, Pandemonium, for meetings.
EXPLANATION
     In these lines the poet portrays the traditional topography of Hell. Satan and his cohorts, after their revolt against God, were cast down from Heaven to Hell. They lay unconscious in the fiery lake of Hell for nine day. When consciousness recovered, Satan observes that the region in which they are imprisoned is a horrible, round and fiery dungeon like a great furnace. This simile conjures up the image of the lake of Hell very clear. Satan notices that in Hell there is fire, but no light; it is utter darkness, darkness in extremity, without any remainder, or mixture, or hope of light. It is the blackness of darkness forever. The poet is here using the universal symbolism of light and dark to indicate good and evil. Satan, before his fall, as Lucifer was the brightest of all the angels; as he becomes progressively more evil after his fall, he gradually loses all of his brightness. Satan concludes that these fires would never go and the torture would never end. In short, the Hell described by the poet in these lines is a horrible, fiery and murky region of woe and suffering. 

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