John Milton's Epic Invocations: Converting the MuseA crisis over the function and identity of the Muse occurred in seventeenth-century religious poetry: How could Christian writers use a pagan device? Using rhetorical analysis, Phillips examines epic invocations in order to show how this crisis was eventually reconciled in the works of John Milton. While predecessors such as Abraham Cowley and Guillaume du Bartas either rejected the pagan Muses outright or attempted to Christianize them, Milton invoked the inspirational power of the Muses throughout his poetic career. In Paradise Lost, Milton confronts the tension between his Muse's «name» and «meaning». While never fully rejecting the Muse's pagan past, Milton's four proems (PL I, III, VII, and IX) increasingly emphasize the muse's Christian «meaning» over her pagan «name». Ultimately, Milton's syncretic blending of pagan and Christian conventions restores vitality and resonance to the literary trope of the muse. |
From inside the book
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Page 65
... Virtue's " true Servants , " who , like Diodati , live in the company of the saints and eternal ideas , must be few , since the path to Virtue is so difficult . Having planted the idea that Virtue's rewards are ultimately available to ...
... Virtue's " true Servants , " who , like Diodati , live in the company of the saints and eternal ideas , must be few , since the path to Virtue is so difficult . Having planted the idea that Virtue's rewards are ultimately available to ...
Page 69
... Virtue feeble were , Heav'n itself would stoop to her . ( 11. 1018-1023 ) In these final lines of the Spirit's epilogue , Virtue is praised for having given freedom to her follower , the Lady , and is appropriately favored by heaven ...
... Virtue feeble were , Heav'n itself would stoop to her . ( 11. 1018-1023 ) In these final lines of the Spirit's epilogue , Virtue is praised for having given freedom to her follower , the Lady , and is appropriately favored by heaven ...
Page 70
... virtue is greater when tested . Virtue as Muse gives the Lady - and , by extension , gives Milton - a hand in resisting temptation ; however , she does not assist the poet in the actual task of writing the mask . Here it is very much ...
... virtue is greater when tested . Virtue as Muse gives the Lady - and , by extension , gives Milton - a hand in resisting temptation ; however , she does not assist the poet in the actual task of writing the mask . Here it is very much ...
Common terms and phrases
Abraham Cowley Aeneas Aeneid Arethuse argues assert Bartas Bartas's beginning biblical Book Brutus calls Cambridge Christ Christian Muse classical Clio Comus conventions Crashaw David Davideis death Diodati divine inspiration English epic invocations epic poet epic poetry Epitaphium Damonis Erato genre God's goddess grief Heav'nly Muse heaven heavenly heroic Hesiod History of Britain Homer hymn Ibid Il Penseroso Iliad invocations in Paradise invokes the Muse John Milton King L'Allegro lament Late Civil literary Lucan Lycidas Lycidas and Epitaphium Melancholy Milton Milton's early Milton's Epic Milton's invocation Milton's Muse Mirth Muse's narrative Nativity Ode Nuttall origins Oxford pagan pagan gods pagan Muse Paradise Lost pastoral elegy Penseroso Pindar poem poet's poetic inspiration praise prayer present proem Psalms rejection relationship religious Renaissance reveals rhetorical Sabrina seventeenth-century sing song source of inspiration suggests thee theme Theocritus thou tradition Translation by Hughes University Press Urania vates Vergil verse vocation voice write