3 ms·
Paradise Lost is a beautiful and intricate poem. I would highly recommend reading it with an accompanying text that drills into the context and all the intricat
by mabub24 9y ago
Paradise Lost is a beautiful and intricate poem. I would highly recommend reading it with an accompanying text that drills into the context and all the intricate literary and historical references. I read it in a British Literature class (one of the best university courses I ever took, shout-outs to Prof. Siobahn Caulkin, a brilliant teacher) and Milton's creativity and his ability to work with form and tradition still sticks with me today.
On the side: I'd highly recommend taking notes on fictional books you read like Keats has done in his margins. It helps to see how novels are all tied together like complex machines of tone, theme, foreshadowing, and payoff. It also helps to solidify just what the heck you're reading into words.
- briga 9y agoBeautiful and intricate, but also hard to love. Milton is a spectacular poet, but there's something about the poem that kept me from appreciating it beyond its aesthetics. It's similar to Dante's epic in that sense, lovely and complex, but also so lofty and serious that it felt like it wasn't written for mere mortals like me. That said, I still think it deserves its place in world literature as one of the testaments to human creativity.
- emodendroket 9y agoI found parts of it tough going the first time but I should revisit it sometime.
- coldtea 9y ago>but also so lofty and serious that it felt like it wasn't written for mere mortals like me. Well, it was written with the well-educated, versed in classics and latin and (then) contemporary social/political references, "Italian" audience of its time in mind...
- emodendroket 9y agoNot exactly a prerequisite, but you'll appreciate it more if you've read the Bible, the Aeneid, the Iliad, and the Odyssey.
- simplegeek 9y agoInteresting. What accompanying text/reference do you recommend to use with Paradise Lost?
- mabub24 9y agoIf you know your Bible, Aeneid, Illiad, and Odyssey, you are off to a good start. I had a professor whose approach welded historical narratives into the works we were reading. In the absence of a good Medieval or English Literature Professor, I'd recommend something like The Connell Guide [1] or the Oxford guide [2]. If you're looking for an all in one with very good marginalia and footnotes, I found the latest Norton Anthology series to be very good (and usually considered the academic definitive). You'd need to find the volume that has Paradise Lost in it, however. [1]: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Connell-Guide-Miltons-Paradise-Advanced/dp/1907776109 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Connell-Guide-Miltons-Paradise-Adva... [2]: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Oxford-Student-Texts-Milton-Paradise/dp/0198326009/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=CNBX8ER9F97RESTACZ2J https://www.amazon.co.uk/Oxford-Student-Texts-Milton-Paradis...