Is it the End of Days? Or is he already here? Been here always Armageddon, Jihad, Ragnarok, it's all the same to me Same story, different culture, that is History So what is coming? What is going to happen?
To Ye and Me? Is he out in the open? Or does he hide? Maybe it is both, hidden in plain sight The only few that know, illuminated by the false light! It is Madness Yet parents call them thus Am I unnecessarily causing a fuss? Wake up and see, what words we use Words that are there, only to confuse Satan is androgynous!
A world where anything goes, a world of debauchery and sin. View all 11 comments. Apr 08, J. Keely rated it it was amazing Shelves: uk-and-ireland , reviewed , epic. Milton wrote this while blind, and claimed it was the result of divine inspiration which visited him nightly. There are few texts that could reasonably be added into the Bible, and this is certainly one of them the Divine Comedy is another.
Paradise Lost outlines portions of the Bible which, thanks to its haphazard combination of mythic stories, are never fully explored. In fact, most of Paradise Lost has become tacitly accepted into the Christian mythos, even if most Christians do not recogni Milton wrote this while blind, and claimed it was the result of divine inspiration which visited him nightly.
In fact, most of Paradise Lost has become tacitly accepted into the Christian mythos, even if most Christians do not recognize it as a source. It also updated not only the epic, but the heroic form, and its questioning of the devil is a great philosophical exploration, even if it may ultimately prove a failure, as I shall try to explain.
The question remains: even if the Vatican did not explicitly include it, why are there not smaller sects which so often spring up around such and inspiring and daring work? The answer is that one need not explicitly include something that has been included implicitly. Many readers accept Milton's view of events as accurate and that it was wholly derived from the Bible, when in fact, it is largely an original work. Under Constantine, Hell and the Devil were re-conceptualized.
The representation of Hell in the Bible is often metaphorical, and does not include 'fire and brimstone'. Hell is defined as 'absence from God' and nothing more. This is supposed to be a painful and unfulfilling experience, but not literal physical torture. Much of the modern conceptualization of Hell is based upon Hellenic mythological influences and verses from Revelation taken out of context.
The place of 'fire and brimstone' is where the Devil and the Antichrist are put after the apocalypse, and is never stated as being related to human afterlife. Likewise, the Devil is most commonly depicted as a greedy idiot chasing after farts. The only tempting he ever does Biblically is during Job, where he must first ask God if he is permitted to interfere.
The concept of the Devil as a charming, rebellious trickster and genius is entirely Milton. He portrays him this way to align Satan with the heroic figures of Epic Poetry. This is not because he thinks of the Devil as a hero, but rather so he can show that our heroes should not be rebellious murderers as they were in ancient stories, but humble, pious, simple men. He gives the Devil philosophical and political motivations for rebelling, but has him fail to notice that God cannot be questioned or defeated.
However, this requires that one absolutely believe this assertion without ever testing it. Anyone who accepts it unquestioningly such as C. Lewis is bound to believe that the Devil is foolish to question the natural order.
However, Milton himself states that the Devil had no choice but to doubt, and due to our own rational minds, man cannot help doubting either. In this case, we might fall in with Blake, and suggest that Milton was the Devil's man, not because he wanted to be, but because he carried biblical rhetoric to its rational conclusion.
This is illustrated in a rather shocking way in the creation of Eve: finding herself, utterly new to the world, she sees her own reflection in a puddle and, finding it beautiful, leans down naively and tries to kiss it. This amusing retelling of the myth of Narcissus indicates that God made women naturally autoerotic and bisexual. Sadly, this never made it into modern Christianity, for some reason, but it does show the strength of Paradise Lost: Milton provides rhetorical support for every idea he explores, even those he did not side with.
It is a great book of questions, and a book which demands the reader think and try to understand. We are supposed to sympathize with the Devil because he is heroic and dangerous, but we also know he is the Devil. We know that to sympathize with him is wrong, and that he is supposed to be wrong. Milton here invented the concept of the Devil we cannot help but sympathize with, and who we must fight daily to overcome.
He defined sin as doubt, but without realizing that doubt will always deconstruct an old answer and suggest a new one. The fact remains that metaphysically, doubt can only injure us in a realm we cannot know exists.
As the enemy of any tyranny--of men, of ideas--doubt is the helpmeet of all who struggle. The Devil is the father of doubt, and the final outcome of doubt is always accepting that we are fundamentally ignorant: either in our believing, or in our not believing. He also uses the English language in an entirely idiomatic and masterful way, his is one of the few unique voices of English. Reading him sometimes proves a challenge for those without a background in Latin, since his sentence structure and particularly his verb use are stripped-down and multipurpose, taking the form of metaphysical poets to its logical conclusion.
He is also one of the most knowledgeable and allusive of writers, especially when it comes to the longer form. His encyclopedic exploration of myths, reinvention of scenes, and adoption of ideas make this work one of the most wide-reaching and interconnected in English. This can make his work somewhat daunting for readers, who are often unwilling to read the books he references in preparation for tackling him, which I find rather ironic, since no one complains about having to read ten-thousand pages of Harry Potter before tackling the last book.
Shelves: recommendations , religion , philosophy , poetry , favorites , fantasy , uk-and-related , readings. In the 17th century, there firmly drew a century after the Reformation' eruption, the lines of demarcation between Catholics and Protestants. After the theologians began to emerge a secular Protestant literature, these austere Puritans fiercely rejected the frivolity of Catholic courts, and even more, the theatre considering a place of debauchery and impiety.
It is, therefore, in the Bible that they draw their inspiration. The result was this long prose poem telling the story of the world's creation, from the fall of rebellious angels to the fall of man.
Then, of course, there are inspirations from the Iliad and Dante and new forms and new ideas. Like this way of starting in flashback, for example. The book opens with Satan and his defeated faithful, thrown to the bottom of Gehenna, discovering their desolate exile kingdom.
But very quickly, they pull themselves together. It seems that somewhere, God would have created a new world inhabited by a new creature. The man.
The form of the text is that of the seventeenth century, and nowadays would pass for quite heavy and prolonged, but the descriptions are magnificent. The parade of demons, like towers and covered in blood, could be the founding act of the heroic fantasy!
Milton adds to the list of all the gods of Egypt and Olympus. The war of angels and demons also narrates with the magnificence force and again did not have much to the comic's envy as 'Black Moon Chronicles'. It was difficult for me to review this book. Severe and magnificent, it marks one of the turning points in European civilisation. One can wonder if, taken by his fire, he was of faithful respect towards the original work.
But this critical edition is so magnificent that it is a work in itself! View all 8 comments. Oct 21, Piyangie rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorite-classic , brittish-lit , my-library , poetry. Paradise Lost was a literary product that was born from the need for an English epic poem. English literature was in want of such a work; and John Milton, from his early Cambridge days, was working on meeting this void.
He was at first of the mind to write an epic, centering the story on their legendary King, Ar Paradise Lost was a literary product that was born from the need for an English epic poem. He was at first of the mind to write an epic, centering the story on their legendary King, Arthur. Milton saw this as an excellent subject to model his poem on the likes of The Iliad and The Aeneid.
But such a poem never came to light, and by the time he was truly ready to write it, he has gone through many political, social, religious, and personal upheavals, so as to change his center theme from King Arthur to the biblical subjects. The result was the production of this epic poem, which is perhaps the only I'm not certain as to this and certainly the best epic poem of English literature. Paradise Lost tells the biblical story of the creation of the world, from the time of rebellion and fall of Satan and his companion angels to the ultimate fall of man.
However, throughout the poem, much was focused on the fall of man. The reason for this is that Milton's first and foremost purpose is to justify God's action towards man. God created Adam and Eve with free will. There was only one prohibition, and that was not to taste the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.
They failed to adhere to this one subjection to which they were put. The act of tasting the apple was a blatant violation of their covenant with their divine maker. It was also an act of disobedience. And this disobedience is what made them fall from Divine grace and led to their ultimate banishment from Paradise.
Disobedience of God was seen by Milton as an act of cowardice. True heroism, according to him, was obedience to God as against the exercise of free will, and submission to life, whatever its condition may be, without losing faith.
Obedience also leads to the question of superiority. There is a hierarchy in Heaven, Earth, and Hell with God being in the higher most position.
Man was superior to women, superior to beasts, so they top the hierarchy on earth. This hierarchical structure, however, questions the right of man to rule man. The kings of England always had an aura of divinity to their subjects. But Milton was of the view that kings, being men, cannot exercise divine power as they are in a lower position in the hierarchy and can govern their fellow men only if they are superior to their subjects.
This explains why Milton supported the execution of King Charles I, whom he thought to be inferior and had no business in ruling men. When one understands the themes of Paradise Lost , one can see that Milton was driving at moral actions rather than on military actions as the basis for the creation of nations. In this sense, his work resembles Dante's Divine Comedy.
But that hadn't precluded Milton from drawing features from Homer's The Iliad. The battle scenes between Satan's army and Michael and Gabriel led heavenly forces resemble the battle between Greeks against the Trojans.
Milton's knowledge of Greek and Italian had helped him to borrow the right characteristics from these great epics to add strength and beauty to his own poem. Reading this epic poem wasn't daunting as I expected. Rather, from Book I, I was drawn in.
The story and the setting fascinated me. Mastering the limitations of the English language, Milton has painted a beautiful picture through his words. They bring Heaven, Eden, Hell, and the biblical characters so vividly that one could almost visualize them. The story, though known, had a fresh and new appeal when reading it from Milton's words.
Paradise Lost had always been a must-read in my reading repertoire. Being finally able to read and finish it is like satisfying a long-awaited need. I truly enjoyed this masterpiece and can quite honestly say that it is the best epic poem that I've read after Dante's The Divine Comedy.
View all 10 comments. Apr 28, Rakhi Dalal rated it it was amazing Shelves: classics. Or is it an actual place somewhere in heaven which is the ultimate goal that humans wish to achieve? As a child, I had a profound belief in the idea of God and heaven too.
Yes, and perhaps the reason I wished to believe in him was the fact that world seemed a beautiful place, a place where everything was just as it should have been; Loving parents and siblings, affectionate neighbors, and an innocent belief, one which leads a child to trust even an unknown smiling stranger on the road. But that was a long time ago. Times have changed faster since then. Faster than I could get a chance to put everything together and analyze the reason why it changed. It changed almost everyday since I grew big enough to understand that not every stranger could be trusted.
The affectionate neighbors or relatives were not that amiable so as to forgive an innocent childhood indulgence, that parents were not the super humans, perfect and devoid of all faults, and that, nobody was perfect, not even me. And then the whole world started to seem to be at disharmony. There were people belonging to different strata of society, people rich, and poor and in between, people belonging to different castes, creeds and countries, people fighting with each other over smaller issues like standing in a row to bigger issues like fighting for a territory in a country; Countries going at war, hatred and more hatred.
Slowly the faith started to crumble and ultimately it shattered. My Paradise was lost forever. At times it makes me shiver to consider that even my son, or for that matter any child, can go through the same experience.
It is also a loss in the idea of necessity of human existence and of life itself. For me, the title also signifies the loss of the world as seen from the eyes of a child. This is the reason why the work fascinated me and I picked it up. The book is a beautiful exploration into the biblical characters of Satan, Adam and Eve, their thoughts and conversations and their FALL.
Satan falls when he tries to become equal to GOD and Adam and Eve fall when they eat the prohibited fruit. Even if planted, was it necessary to warn them of the consequences of eating it?
View all 45 comments. Nov 20, Manny rated it it was amazing Shelves: too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts , why-not-call-it-poetry , parody-homage , story-review , blame-jordan-if-you-like , mentions-twilight.
Show me what you've got. We see the Garden of Eden. Nothing much is happening. Illumin, what is low raise and support; That to the highth of this great Argument I may assert Eternal Providence, And justifie the wayes of God to men. Didn't she say you were like Hitler? BAY: Megan and I understand each other. Well, this oughta pack in the Twilight fans.
But are you sure we should be showing his Wait, is he sparkling? BAY: It's just the lights. We can fix that in post-editing. No one'll understand a word of it. BAY: Come on, Jerry. Think Passion of the Christ. Think Apocalypto.
Think Inglourious Basterds Okay, we'll talk about that later. Show me some of the action sequences. CGI effects. Full soon Among them he arriv'd; in his right hand Grasping ten thousand Thunders, which he sent Before him, such as in thir Soules infix'd Plagues; they astonisht all resistance lost BAY: Who else? We haven't decided yet if we're going to keep it. I'd say go with it.
So I guess you have Dan Craig as Satan? BAY: Budget said we couldn't afford him. Let me show you what we came up with. I know thee not, nor ever saw till now Sight more detestable then him and thee.
I haven't read this since high school. BAY: It's Sin. His ex. Becam'st enamour'd, and such joy thou took'st With me in secret, that my womb conceiv'd A growing burden BAY: Research is working on that. We're thinking she could maybe boil Eve's bunny.
I'll show you another bit. Here we may reign secure; and in my choice To reign is worth ambition, though in hell: Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven. Too talky. BAY: Yup, that's what we thought too. It's out. I remember it had a crap ending. Total downer too. Raised voices. They tend to be really long hundreds of pages or more!
So, for example, Homer's Iliad takes as its subject some of the most famous events of the Trojan War a famous mythical war fought between the ancient Greeks and Trojans while Virgil's Aeneid deals with the mythical foundation of Rome. The other thing about epic poetry that you should know is that it always begins in medias res , or in the middle of things.
This means that the poem begins, and then usually gives you a back-story before returning you to where you began, and then moving forward. For example, Paradise Lost begins with Satan already in Hell, but all the events leading up to it are narrated in Books 5 and 6.
Similarly, the creation of the world, of Adam, and of Eve takes place sometime between Satan's fall and the solidification of his plans for revenge Books , but the creation is described in Books 7 and 8. In other words, the poem begins somewhere in the middle of the story, but then goes back and fills in the details. The first time I read the poem, I did so in a single sitting, overnight — like Jacob wrestling with the Angel until morning. This story is a part of BBC Britain — a series focused on exploring this extraordinary island, one story at a time.
Readers outside of the UK can see every BBC Britain story by heading to the Britain homepage ; you also can see our latest stories by following us on Facebook and Twitter. If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.
And if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc. Why you should re-read Paradise Lost. Share using Email. By Benjamin Ramm 19th April Read an overview of the entire poem or a line by line Summary and Analysis. Here's where you'll find analysis of the poem as a whole, from themes and symbols to key facts.
Find the quotes you need to support your essay, or refresh your memory of the poem by reading these key quotes. Test your knowledge of Paradise Lost with quizzes about every section, major characters, themes, symbols, and more.
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