Grand Style of "Paradise Lost" Book-I

Introduction "The name of Milton", says Raleigh, "is become the mark, not of a biography nor of a theme, but of a style - the most distinguished in our poetry." In all that he has written he has impressed his indomitable personality and irrepressible originality. John Milton is not only in e ery line of Paradise Lost but in e ery line of poetry that he has written. !s Macaulay has said" "There is not a s#uare inch of his poetry from first to last of which one could not confidently say." "This is Milton and no one else." $is accent and speech alike in Ode to Nativity and in Paradise Lost are his own and in marked contrast to any other %nglish poet. Essentials of Miltonic Style &ince style is the e'pression of personality, we ha e to find the peculiar #uality of Milton(s style in his personality and character. In the first place, Milton(s mind was "nourished upon the best thoughts and finest words of all ages", and that is the language, says )attison, of one "who li es in the companionship of the great and the wise of the past." &econdly, Milton was a man of lofty character, whose "soul was like a star that dwelt apart, and who in all that is known about him, his life, his character, and his power of poetry, shows something for which the only fit words is Sublime." Thirdly, Milton was a supreme artist. ")oetry", says *ailey, "has been by far our greatest artistic achie ement, and he +Milton, is by far our greatest poetic artist. Tennyson truly called him "-od gifted organ- oice of %ngland." "To li e with Milton," says *ailey, "is necessarily to learn that the art of poetry is no tri iality, no mere amusement, but a high and gra e thing, a thing of the choicest discipline of phrase, the finest craftsmanship of structure, the most nobly ordered music of sound. &o, in Milton(s poetic style we ine itably find the imprint of a cultured mind, a lofty soul and an artistic conscience. "In the sure and flawless perfection of his rhythm and diction, he +Milton, is as admirable as .irgil or /ante, and in this respect, he is uni#ue amongst us. 0o one else in %nglish literature possess the like distinction.... &hakespeare is di inely strong, rich and attracti e1 but sureness, of perfect style &hakespeare himself does not possess. Milton from one end of Paradise Lost to the other is in his diction and rhythm constantly a great artist in the great style." +Mathew !rnold,. "The study of his erse is one that ne er e'hausts itself, so that the appreciation of it has been called the last reward of consummate scholarship." !bo e all, there is a certain loftiness about the style of Milton, which is found alike in his Ode to Nativity and in Paradise Lost, and so *ailey says that it is precisely (ma2esty( which is the uni#ue and essential Miltonic #uality." Milton achie es this loftiness as much by words as by the sonority, dignity and weight of the words themsel es. Artistic Perfection In reply to the obser ation that &hakespeare ne er blotted a line, *en Jonson said, (would he had blotted a thousand(" 0o one has e er uttered such a wish with regard to Milton(s poetry. Milton as a poetic artist is ne er careless or slipshod. There is hardly a line in his poetic work which is unpoetical - hardly a word which is superfluous. !ll the words used by him are deliberately chosen for fulfilling

these functions" the e'act e'pression of thought, their power for suggestion, and the musical effects for the erse. !nd this artistic perfection characterises his poetry from his first important poem Ode to Nativity to his last one, Samson Agonistes. Milton has written all types of poetry - lyric, epic and dramatic - and his style in each reaches the high water-mark of poetic art. !ccording to /r. )earce, Milton(s grand style originates from the formalities of classical prose. ")rosaic irtues of clarity, order, strict definition, working from line to line, ad2usting clause to clause, word to word, are the real source of that classic "finish" a clear hardness of te'ture which e erywhere distinguishes the Miltonic line from any other.3 Grand style of "Paradise Lost" The greatest work of Milton is Paradise Lost, and when we speak of the style of Milton, we usually think of the ma2estic style of this great epic. 4hen 4ordsworth wrote" "Thou hadst a oice whose sound was like the sea, "he had in his mind the grand style of Paradise Lost. 4hen Tennyson spoke of Milton as being the "-od-gifted organ- oice of %ngland," he was no doubt referring to the ma2estic blank erse of Paradise Lost. Miltonic style of "Paradise Lost" The style of the epic is always great. 5n the whole, it is greatest in the whole range of %nglish poetry. 6ullness of sound, weight of march, compactness of finish, fitness of words to things, fitness of pauses to thought, a strong grasp of the main idea while other ideas play around it, e#uality of power o er ast spaces of imagination, sustained splendour when he soars. 4ith plume so strong, so e#ual and so soft, ma2esty in the conduct of thought, and a music in the ma2esty which fills it with solemn beauty belong one and all to the style1 and it gains its highest influence on us, and fulfills the ultimate need of a grand style in being the easy and necessary e'pression of the ery character and nature of man. It re eals Milton, as much, sometimes more than his thought." +&topford !. *rooke,. Milton(s style Paradise Lost is rich and full of splendour1 it is replete with numerous deliberate de ices that heighten dignity and go ern imaginati e and emotional response. Milton(s style is not totally artificial. Inspite of the numerous passages that are thickly inlaid with allusions and references, inspite of the ele ated and heightened character of its style, the basic structure has an element of plainness. ")lain familiar words, in their natural order, form the bedrock of his style." Style in Conformity with Theme The theme of Paradise Lost is stupendous, "The hori7on of Paradise Lost is not narrower than all space1 its chronology not shorter than eternity1 the globe of our earth becomes a mere spot in the physical uni erse, and that uni erse itself a drop suspended in the infinite empyrean" +)attison,. Its characters are -od and $is creatures, and it concerns itself with the fortunes of the whole human race. &uch a great theme re#uired a great style for ade#uate presentation. The style of Paradise Lost fully sees to the height of the theme. It is the solitary instance of sustained grandeur in %nglish poetry +though )rofessor &aintsbury has instances of grand style in &hakespeare,. It rises to a lofty place by irtue of the poet(s imaginati e power, passionate emotion and moral

earnestness. % erything in Paradise Lost is concei ed in a mighty way. 4hen the poet describes &atan, he calls up the picture of the huge 8e iathan, whom, "the pilot of some night-foundered skiff" deemed "some island". The shield of &atan is 8ike the moon, whose orb, Through optic glass the Tuscan artist iews !t e ening from the top 6esole The fallen angels floating on the lake of $ell 8ay entranced Thick as autumnal lea es that strow the brooks" In .allombrosa 4hen they spring upon the wing, they look like a cloud of locusts" !s when the potent rod 5f !mram(s son, in %gypt(s e il day 4a ed round the coast, up-called a pitchy cloud 5f locusts, warping on the eastern wind. 999999999999 &o numberless were those bad angels seen $o ering on wing under the cope of $ell. The solemn and sonorous #uality of the erse-music brings out in an abundant measure the grandeur of the style in Paradise Lost. There is a cunning ariety in the rhythm of his erses, secured by a skilful ariation of his pauses, a freedom of mo ement and an apt use of allusion with the right type of long and short syllables. The Poets Imagination The poet(s imagination does not submit to any limitation of space and time1 the whole history of the human race and the geography of the entire globe are brought within its compass. 4hen the poet seeks to con ey the idea of the astness of the multitude of the fallen angels his imagination goes back to the past, and passes o er the entire continent of %urope" ! multitude like which the populous 0orth )oured ne er from her fro7en loins to pass Rhene or the /anaw when her barbarous sons :ame like a deluge on the &outh and spread *eneath -ibraltor the 8ybian sands. &atan(s throne in )andemonium calls up the ision of the whole of "gorgeous %ast." $igh on a throne of royal state, which far 5utshone the wealth of 5nnus and of Ind, 5r where the gorgeous %ast with richest hand &howers on her kings barbatic pearl and gold &atan e'alted sat. "0o one," says Raleigh, "has known so well how to portray in a few strokes effects of multitude and astness." The warrior host of $ell is thus described" $e spoke1 and to confirm his words, outflow Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs 5f mighty :herubim1 the sudden bla7e 6ar round illumined $ell.

The ruin and prostration of the rebel angels is made i id in two lines" :herub and &eraph rolling in the flood with scattered arms and ensigns. In his descriptions, Milton studies "large decorum and ma2esty." $e is ne er tempted into detail, and ne er loses the whole in the part. This is the description of chaos, and as the king of -lory, from the erge of his hea enly domain beholds it" 5n $ea enly ground they stood, and from the shore They iewed the ast immeasurable !byss, 5utrageous as a sea, dark wasteful wild ;p from the bottom turned by furious winds !nd surging wa es, as mountains to assault $ea en(s height, and with the centre mi' the pole. There is no minute detail to interfere with the iew of the whole. Milton often uses abstract terms for concrete realities, and by so doing he achie es a wonderful ma2esty. $e "describes the concrete, the specific, the indi idual, using general and abstract terms for the sake of the dignity and scope that they lend." The wind instrument blown by the heralds in $ell is called "the sounding alchemy." /eath is called "the grisly terror." Milton(s a oidance of familiar realistic details was necessitated by his lofty theme, which precluded e erything ha ing a mean or ulgar association. $e deliberately creates an effect of agueness where concrete details would be out of place. This agueness is created by such phrases as "the ast abrupt", "the palpable obscure", "the oid immense", the "wasteful deep", "where by the use of an ad2ecti e in place of a noun, the danger of a definite and inade#uate conception is a oided." +This practice of Milton, necessary in his great epic, was abused by the poets in the eighteenth century, and led to artificial poetic diction,. ! minor de ice which Milton again uses effecti ely is to add the second ad2ecti e to an already modified noun. $e speaks of the "upright heart and pure", "a sad task and hard," $ere Milton is following the common usage in the Italian poetry of /ante and )etrarch. Suggestive and Compact "5f all %nglish styles," says Raleigh, "Milton(s is best entitled to the name of classic." In Milton(s style we ha e the compactness, force and reser e and the unity of emotional impression, which are the distincti e characteristics of the true classical style. Milton was a conscientious artist1 he weighed e ery word he used for its meaning, weight and sound. "$e ta'es e ery line to its fullest capacity, and wring the last drop of alue from each word. " "$is poetry," says Macaulay, "acts like an incantation". Its merit lies less in its ob ious meaning than in its occult power. There would seem at first sight to be no more in his words than in other words. *ut they are words of enchantment. 0o sooner are they pronounced than the past is present and the distant near. :hange the structure of the sentence, substitute a synonym for another and the whole effect is destroyed. "Milton is often not satisfied with one meaning from a word, but will make it do double duty. 4ords deri ed from 8atin ser ed this double purpose. To the ordinary reader they con ey one meaning and to the scholar they suggest another. This gi es a suggesti e power to Milton(s language. "The most striking

characteristic of the poetry of Milton is the e'treme remoteness of the associations by which it acts on the reader. It effect is produced, not so much by what it e'presses, as by what it suggests, not so much by the ideas which it directly con eys by other ideas which are connected with them. $e electrifies the mind through conductors... The works of Milton cannot be comprehend or en2oyed unless the mind of the reader cooperates with that of the writer. $e does not paint a finished picture, or play for a mere passi e listener. $e sketches and lea es other to fill up the outline. $e strikes the key-note and e'pects his hearers to make out the melody." +Macaulay,. Allusiveness !n essential #uality of Milton(s poetic style is its allusi eness. $e, no doubt pressed to the ser ice of his poetry all that he obser ed in life and nature1 but his ision was often coloured by his knowledge. The whole treasury of poetry, ancient and modern, and the whole storehouse of learning were at his command1 and he seemed to assume that they were also at the command of his readers and so he loaded e ery rift of his erse with myth and legend, historical, literary, and scientific fact. :lassical and *iblical allusions are most abundant, and are wo en into the ery te'ture of his language. $ence )attison remarks" "The appreciation of Milton is the last reward of consummate scholarship. "$is scholarly habit of mind is illustrated in the comparison of the army of &atan to arious military assemblage mentioned, in legend and history at the close of *ook I of Paradise Lost 999...for ne er since created man Met such embodied force, as named with these Epic Similes ! striking feature of Milton(s style in Paradise Lost is his use of epic similes. These go far beyond the limits of comparison, and are e'panded to draw complete pictures. &atan(s huge bulk is compared to the huge 8e iathan, who may be mistaken for an island" $im, haply slumbering on the 0orway foam The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff. Milton uses these e'panded similes to ennoble his narrati e rather than merely to illustrate it. *y all these de ices and many more, "he attained to a finished style of perhaps a more consistent and unflagging elevation than is to be found elsewhere in literature... 0o poet, since Milton(s day has recaptured the solemnity and beauty of the large utterance of -abriel or *elial or &atan" +Raleigh,. In the epic similes the use of alliteration produces strange musical effects. id Milton !Corrupt our "anguage!# /r. Johnson called attention to the peculiarity of Miltonic diction saying that it is so far remo ed from common use that an unlearned reader when he first opens the book, finds himself surprised by a new language "5ur language". !ddison had said before, "sunk under him." Milton(s is a personal style, which T.&. %liot points out, is "not based upon common speech or common prose, or direct communication of meaning. It iolates the accepted rules of %nglish grammar and synta', so much so that /r. Johnson said that he "wrote no language". Milton had a preference for the unusual and recondite in ocabulary

and construction, which led him to archaism, on the one hand, and to the substitution of foreign idiom particularly 8atin, for %nglish idiom, on the other. 4e ha e fre#uent uses of ablati e absolute with preposition, irregular pronouns, ellipses, constructions changed by changes of thought, interchange of parts of speech, transposition and in entions and unusual compound epithets similar to those in $omer. 4e also find sentences with gnarled and in ol ed structure, in ersions of the natural order of words and phrases and grammatical superfluities. These de ices impart a classical tone of Milton(s style but at the same time they are out-landish and inconsistent with the normal use of %nglish language. In general, Milton(s style may be described as almost uni#uely literary and intellectual. *ut, fraught as it is with learning and bookish phrase, and elaborate as it is in construction and alien in ocabulary, it achie es uniform effect of dignity and becomes a means for e'pressing the ele ated and intensely passionate personality of its author. Modern literary critics like %7ra )ound, $erbert Read, Middleton Murry, 6.R. 8ea is and abo e all T.&. %liot ha e condemned Milton(s style for the following reasons" +i, !part from its intrinsic difficulties, it is harmful in its e'trinsic effects. +ii, Modern critics point out the artificiality of the inflated and 8atinised diction, idiom and syntactical structure of Milton(s style. +iii, The fabrication of hea y, infle'ible and unnantural speech rhythms. +i , The reliance on pompous and meaningless sound. + , The baneful influence of his erse, strangled the metaphysical style. $owe er, there are many critics who defend Milton against these charges. :.&. 8ewis maintains that the essential re#uirement of an epic style is continuity. Milton produces this stylistic continuity and in order to do this the idiom and rhythm of normal speech ha e to be altered. !lso that a ritualistic and incantatory effect is ine itable in the best of epic erse. Moreo er, Milton chose blank erse as the medium of his e'pression, one hitherto unused in the epic field. !ccording to )rof. *ush, Milton(s style is ideally suited to the sustained narrati e of the epic action. !n epic style is narrati e, didactic, rhetorical and continuously ele ated and directly e'emplary. It cannot become collo#uial, witty or intimate without ceasing to be epic. It cannot ha e fle'ible rhythms nor can it modulate the tones without causing disharmony. !ll the characteristics of Milton(s style may be found in %nglish literature before Milton, but in Milton they become habitual features of style. &penser, for instance, uses archaisms much more persistently than Milton. The use of the 8atinisms was common enough in %nglish prose in the se enteenth century. *ut no other poet before Milton has resorted to 8atinised diction as a means of remo ing his speech from the sphere of daily life, and he, therefore, employed style, corresponding to the dignity of his sub2ect. !nd this style, which has been called (grand style(, was something personal to Milton, with his classical training and ast intellectual e#uipment. This style was #uite suitable for Milton, dealing with a sub2ect (unattempted in prose and rhyme(, but when the pseudo-classical poets of the eighteenth century employed the de ices of Miltonic style, the result

was the artificial poetic diction, which was ehemently condemned by 4ordsworth. Mathew !rnold remarked" "Milton, of all our %nglish race, is by his diction and rhythm the one artist of the highest rank in the great style whom we ha e1 this I take as re#uiring no discussion this I take as certain."