Paradise Lost: Book 9 (The Start of it...) - Quotations for Milton's purpose for PL (with explanation)

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  • Paradise Lost: Book 9 (The Start of it...) - Quotations for Milton's purpose for PL (with explanation)
    • "I now must change Those Notes to Tragic"
      • This is a different type of story telling that modern audiences will be use to, due to the influence of pop culture. Milton is in essence telling the reader the plot, as he expects them to know what its going to be about
      • It is a domestic and conventional tragedy, as Adam, Eve, Satan etc are very well known characters.
      • There is no ambiguity in this, it gets rid of the element of guessing, surprise and anticipation
        • Our attention is not going towards whats going to happen, but how it is going to happen and how Milton is going to tell it.
    • "Pleas'd me long choosing, and beginning late;"
      • Milton is old at this point, when he chooses to write 'Paradise Lost'. Some may probably say it would have been maybe wiser to start earlier in life.
        • Additionally, he may enjoy the irony of 'beginning late' on a poem that is based off of an event that happened 'in the beginning'. (earlier in his life he had been fighting in the English Civil War, and he also wrote 'Areopagitica"
    • "Celestial Patroness"
      • This could be a reference to his blindness. A muse visited him during the night, in order to inspire him. And during the day, he would get a scribe to write down his words.
    • "Not that which justly gives Heroic name"
      • As all epics are usually based off of war's which  are fake, they do not deserve to be called 'heroic"
    • "Mee of these Nor skilld nor studious"
      • Very aware of his own ability
      • He is not skilled in this type of writing.
    • "unless an age too late, or cold Climate, or Years, damp my intended wing Deprest [...] not Hers who brings it nightly to my Ear."
      • Reference to his mental state during the writing of Paradise Lost. It also high lights the importance of the muse.

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