earlier are also present. Certainly Milton begins by stating his theme: the
entire story of salvation is summarized in the opening twenty-six lines, and the
purpose of the epic, to "justify the ways of God to men," is stated in
line twenty-six. (All references to the poem itself are from Merritt Y. Hughes’
edition of the complete works.) Milton also opens his narrative "in medias
res"; he begins by asking how Adam and Eve could have fallen. Who could
have caused it? And then we meet an already fallen Satan; it is only in Book VI
that the War in Heaven is actually described. Milton also invokes a Muse (lines
1-26) to inspire and instruct him, as was traditional. E. R. Gregory, in his
article on the use of the muses in Paradise Lost, discusses the use of Clio as
muse and the pairing of Clio and Urania. He includes an examination of
associated iconography of the muses in the history of epic poetry. Other of the
conventions are likewise present. Milton carefully includes a catalogue of the
fallen angels (lines 376-505). He also provides extended formal speeches by the
main characters: see, for example, lines 84-124, 157-91, 242-70, and 622-62 for
major speeches by Satan in Book I. It is on the basis of the eloquence and power
of those speeches that much of the claim for Satan’s position as ‘hero’ is
based. Finally, Milton makes frequent use of the epic simile. Four major
examples are of interest in Book I; they include the simile of the sea monster
(lines 192+), the autumnal leaves (lines 300+), the son/sun (lines 594+), and
the swarming bees (lines 768+). Linda Gregerson points out that "the
Miltonic similes portray knowledge as problematic; they do not suggest we throw
away the tools we have and wait for grace as for rain" (137). She
continues, saying that the similes do a number of tasks: they "convey real
information about the tenor, or locate it in an experiential realm"; they
do this by "stimulating the sensual memory," perhaps inducing "in
the reader an experience which characterizes the subject, " she adds (138).
They also may, she notes, "be proleptic. . . . They often prefigure
subsequent events in the story. Thus Satan is compared to Leviathan . . ."
(139). The similes, she continues, "put is in training of a sort, give us
sometimes a running start and sometimes the edge of the cliff . . ." (140);
they "focus attention upon the act of perception itself and make us aware
that we are not looking alone . . ." (142), that "we read in the
company of those who have read before" (147). James Whaler, in an oft
referenced article regarding the use of animal similes in Paradise Lost, notes
that: From Homer on, certain images have been part of the epic poet’s
inheritance and equipment. Not only has he felt obliged to introduce them
somewhere into his work, but to distribute them in the very proportion observed
by his predecessors. Beasts, plants, any phenomena used in previous epic simile
belonged to him, too, if he could make them at home in a new context. Of course
he was free to originate novel images from contemporary events or his own
personal experience; but Homer’s high precedent, or Vergil’s, prescribed the old
images as well. Milton’s choice of imagery, however, is distinguished from that
of other important epic poets of Western Europe by an iron control over, a
virtual renunciation of, animal similes. (534) Whaler comments that Milton
"selects an animal image only when the perfect opportunity appears"
(545), that Milton "must have felt they had had their day" (538).
Whaler goes on to examine, after a lengthy discussion of other epic animal
similes, Milton’s rare use of such similes, specifically that of the swarming
bees: First, Milton’s bees direct our mind’s eye to winged creatures of the very
size that the spirits . . . are to become. Secondly, they make us contemplate in
advance diminutive creatures which, despite their tininess, we have always liked
to imagine do expatiate and confer their state-affairs, — exactly what the
infernal assembly is going to do. (551) As Gregerson had noted, the simile
"prefigures" and/or is a reflection of other events that are to come
later in the story. Clearly, then, and in spite of some alterations and
modifications, Milton did indeed use classical epic conventions. As Blessington
so artfully writes, "Milton built his epic out of those of Homer and
Virgil, like a cathedral erected our of the ruins of pagan temples whose remains
can still be seen" (xiii).
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Routledge, 1979. Gregerson, Linda. "The Limbs of Truth: Milton’s Use of
Simile in Paradise Lost." Milton Studies 14 (1980): 135-52. Gregory, E. R.
"Three Muses and a Poet: A Perspective on Milton’s Epic Thought."
Milton Studies 10 (1977): 35-64. Lewalski, Barbara Kiefer. Paradise Lost and the
Rhetoric of Literary Forms. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1985. Lewis, C. S. A
Preface to Paradise Lost. New York: Oxford UP, 1942 . Milton, John. Paradise
Lost. In John Milton: Complete Poems and Major Prose. Ed. Merritt Y. Hughes.
Indianapolis: Odyssey, 1957. 173-469. Ricks, Christopher. Milton’s Grand Style.
Oxford: Clarendon, 1963. Steadman, John M. Epic and Tragic Structure in Paradise
Lost. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1976. —. Milton’s Epic Characters: Image and
Idol. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1968. Stein, Arnold. The Art of
Presence: The Poet and Paradise Lost. Berkeley: U of California P, 1977. Thrall,
William Flint, and Addison Hibbard. A Handbook to Literature. Rev. by C. Hugh
Holman. New York: Odyssey, 1960. Tillyard, E. M. W. Studies in Milton. New York:
Barnes and Noble, 1951. Whaler, James. "Animal Simile in Paradise
Lost." PMLA 47 (1931): 534-53.