MOST IMPORTANT REFERENCE TO THE CONTEXT
POETRY PART 1
Rape of the Lock
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Prologue to the Canterbury Tales
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PAGE 1
   Paradise Lost  |
1.) Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
That comes to all.
Regions of sorrow, ......... that comes to all.
REFERENCE
(i) Poem: Paradise Lost
(ii) Poet: John Milton
CONTEXT
(i) Occurrence: Book I (Lines 65-67/798)
(ii) Content:
Satan lies dazed in a lake of fire that is totally dark. Next to him is Beelzebub, Satan's second-in-command. Satan speaks to him and laments their current state. Satan suggests that they should leave the burning lake and find shelter on a distant shore. Beelzebub asks Satan to summon his armies. Satan takes up his armor and calls to his legions to join him on land. He addresses his legions and commits himself to continue his fight against God. With their supernatural powers, the devils construct a massive temple, Pandemonium, for meetings.
EXPLANATION
In these lines, the poet describes the utter despondency of Satan in Hell. Satan and his cohorts, after their revolt against God, were cast down from Heaven to Hell. They lay unconscious in the fiery lake of Hell for nine days. When consciousness is recovered, Satan observes that the region in which they are imprisoned is a horrible, round, and fiery dungeon like a great furnace. It is a region of permanent sorrow, misery, and suffering. Not a single ray of the sun reaches down here; it has "doleful shades", i.e. its utter darkness evokes only sadness. Moreover, there is never a chance of peace and rest here. Above all, hope which comes to all beings is totally absent. It is because hope comes from God, hope is in God and they have revolted against God. Thus there is never a possibility of release for them from Hell. "Hope never comes" is a deliberate echo of Dante's Inferno 3.9: "All hope abandon, ye who enter in!" In short, the Hell described by the poet in these lines is full of endless sorrow, darkness, restlessness, and hopelessness.
2.) A dungeon horrible, on all sided round,
As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames
No light, but rather darkness visible
Served only to discover sights of woe.
A dungeon horrible, .......... sights of woe.
REFERENCE
(i) Poem: Paradise Lost
(ii) Poet: John Milton
CONTEXT
(i) Occurrence: Book I (Lines 61-64/798)
(ii) Content:
Satan lies dazed in a lake of fire that is totally dark. Next to him is Beelzebub, Satan's second-in-command. Satan speaks to him and laments their current state. Satan suggests that they should leave the burning lake and find shelter on a distant shore. Beelzebub asks Satan to summon his armies. Satan takes up his armor and calls to his legions to join him on land. He addresses his legions and commits himself to continue his fight against God. With their supernatural powers, the devils construct a massive temple, Pandemonium, for meetings.
EXPLANATION
In these lines, the poet portrays the traditional topography of Hell. Satan and his cohorts, after their revolt against God, were cast down from Heaven to Hell. They lay unconscious in the fiery lake of Hell for nine-day. When consciousness is recovered, Satan observes that the region in which they are imprisoned is a horrible, round, and fiery dungeon like a great furnace. This simile conjures up the image of the lake of Hell very clear. Satan notices that in Hell there is fire, but no light; it is utter darkness, darkness in extremity, without any remainder, or mixture, or hope of light. It is the blackness of darkness forever. The poet is here using the universal symbolism of light and dark to indicate good and evil. Satan, before his fall, as Lucifer was the brightest of all the angels; as he becomes progressively more evil after his fall, he gradually loses all of his brightness. Satan concludes that these fires would never go and the torture would never end. In short, the Hell described by the poet in these lines is a horrible, fiery and murky region of woe and suffering.
3.) Nine times the space that measures day and night
To mortal men, he with his horrid crew
Lay vanquished, rolling in the fiery gulf,
Confounded though immortal.
Nine times space .......... though immortal.
REFERENCE
(i) Poem: Paradise Lost
(ii) Poet: John Milton
CONTEXT
(i) Occurrence: Book I (Lines 50-53/798)
(ii) Content:
Satan lies dazed in a lake of fire that is totally dark. Next to him is Beelzebub, Satan's second-in-command. Satan speaks to him and laments their current state. Satan suggests that they should leave the burning lake and find shelter on a distant shore. Beelzebub asks Satan to summon his armies. Satan takes up his armor and calls to his legions to join him on land. He addresses his legions and commits himself to continue his fight against God. With their supernatural powers, the devils construct a massive temple, Pandemonium, for meetings.
EXPLANATION
In these lines, the poet portrays the scene of the fiery lake of Hell where Satan and his cohorts lay unconscious for nine days. Satan and other rebel angels, after their revolt against God, were thrown from Heaven to Hell. In Hesiod's Theogony, the Titans take a similar fall at the hands of Zeus. Interestingly, though Milton alludes to the fall of the Titans here, he likens their nine-day fall, not to the fall of the rebel angels, but to the time they spend in the flaming lake of Hell after their fall. "Horrid crew" means the dreadful and hideous followers of Satan. The word "horrid" permeates the whole poem; "horrid Vale", "horrid silence", "horrid Kings", "horrid crew" and so forth. Satan and his "horrid crew" lay defeated thoroughly in the flaming waves of the lake of Hell. They lay unconscious, rolling like dismasted hulks. However, they were dammed "immortal". They did not die and remained alive. In short, God Almighty put Satan and other rebel angels into a state of dormancy in the flaming lake of Hell for nine days.
4.) Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us.
Of Man's first disobedience, .......... restore us.
REFERENCE
(i) Poem: Paradise Lost
(ii) Poet: John Milton
CONTEXT
(i) Occurrence: Book I (Lines 1-5/798)
(ii) Content:
Satan lies dazed in a lake of fire that is totally dark. Next to him is Beelzebub, Satan's second-in-command. Satan speaks to him and laments their current state. Satan suggests that they should leave the burning lake and find shelter on a distant shore. Beelzebub asks Satan to summon his armies. Satan takes up his armor and calls to his legions to join him on land. He addresses his legions and commits himself to continue his fight against God. With their supernatural powers, the devils construct a massive temple, Pandemonium, for meetings.
EXPLANATION
In these lines, the poet describes Man's first disobedience, his exile from Eden, and his eventual redemption through Jesus Christ. The word "of" is a generative case. It echoes how the events described in the work brought forth the rest of mankind as we know it today. The words "Man's first disobedience" foretell the theme of the poem. In Western traditions, the very first line or even words of the poem are often used as a sort of a frame; the essence of the work, the main theme, and pivot. Thus the Iliad begins with "Anger (menis) of Achilles", the Odyssey with "The ingenious (polu-Tropos) man" and Dante's Divine Comedy with "Midway on the road of our life". "Forbidden Tree" is a reference, obviously, to Adam and Eve being tempted by the serpent in the Garden of Eden to eat the forbidden fruit. When they relished the "mortal taste" of this fruit; sin, mortality, and we entered the world, and they were cast out of Paradise. Fortunately, "One greater Man", which is an implicit reference to Jesus, came and saved humanity. Trust more than love. In short, it is very important to trust someone before loving them.
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