English Literature

SHUAIB ASGHAR DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH GOVT. RAZVIA ISLAMIA COLLEGE HAROONABAD, PAKISTAN In the division and style, Milton's poem follows Homer's 'Iliad' and Virgil's 'Aeneid'. Taking 'Paradise Lost' as a whole, one can see that the rules of classical epic as discussed by Aristotle are followed, to a large extent, by Milton. (1) The action deals with a great subject, derived from the scriptures. It deals with the fall of man and to this all other episodes are related and subordinated. (2) The action is entire, having a beginning, middle and an end. (3) As all other epics, it has a hero, though there has been a controversy as to who it is. (4) The style of 'Paradise Lost' has all the grandeur which the epic poem demands. Milton is the mighty mounted inventor of harmonies. The meaning of the words, the syntax, and the division of sentences constantly reminds the scholarly reader of classical writers. The opening sentence, the first lines of Sata...

SHUAIB ASGHAR DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH GOVT. RAZVIA ISLAMIA COLLEGE HAROONABAD, PAKISTAN In his Oxford lecture 'On Translating Homer: Last Words', Mathew Arnold used this now famous phrase. 'Such a style , he maintained, arises when a noble nature, poetically gifted, treats with simplicity or with severity a serious subject' . Arnold refers to Homer, Pindar, Virgil, Dante, and Milton as exponents of grand style. It was a lofty or elevated style suitable for epic, a style Arnold himself attempted in, for instance in 'Sohrab and Rustum'.                     Now, we discuss the devices used in 'Paradise Lost' by Milton which have caused his style to be characterized as the Grand Style. Erudite Style, Full Of Allusion The language of 'Paradise Lost' is that of a scholar writing for scholars. A beautiful illustration of the poet's fondness for allusions is provided by his description of Satan's forces,...

SHUAIB ASGHAR DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH GOVT. RAZVIA ISLAMIA COLLEGE HAROONABAD, PAKISTAN Epic simile is an extended simile, in some cases running to fifteen or twenty lines, in which the comparisons made, are elaborated in considerable detail. It is a common feature of epic poetry, but is found in other kinds as well. In an epic poem similes are used for the purpose of illustration, but they serve also to decorate the epic theme or character. Epic similes are also given the name of Homeric similes because Homer elaborated his similes in such a way that a particular kind of dignity and beauty was created in his poetry and since then it became the tradition of epic poetry. Milton has brought in a number of such similes in the Book I of �Paradise Lost�. In the first simile he compares the huge form of Satan sprawling on the lake of fire to the fabled sea-beast called Leviathan. It was a kind of big whale of such great size that when it came to the surface, it occupied many miles and gave the...