Paradise Lost - War And Conflict

Question 1

He opposed, …

Answer 1

And, with ambitious aim / against the throne and monarchy of God,/ raised impious war in Heaven and battle proud

Question 2

Innumerable force of Spirits armed,/

Answer 2

That first dislike his reign, and, me preferring,/His utmost power with adverse power opposed / in dubious battle on the plains of Heaven, / and shook his throne

Question 3

His spear -

Answer 3

To equal which the tallest pine / hewn on the Norwegian hills, to be the mast / of some great Admiral, were but a wand / he walked with, to support uneasy steps

Question 4

Princes, potentates, /

Answer 4

Warriors […] awake, arise, or be forever fallen!

Question 5

From the glittering staff unfurled /

Answer 5

The imperial ensign; which full high advanced,/ shin like a meteor streaming to the wind,/ with gems and golden lustre rich imblazed,/ seraphic arms and trophies

Question 6

His form had yet not lost /

Answer 6

All her original brightness, nor appeared / less than archangel ruined, and the excess/ of glory obscured […] in dim eclipse

Glory obscured - “darkness visible”

1666 solar eclipse was viewed as the end of the world

Question 7

Ten thousand…

Answer 7

Banners rise into the air,/ With orient colours waving: with them rose/a forest use of spears […] they move/ in perfect phalanx to the Dorian mood/ of flutes and soft recorders - such as raised/ to highth of noblest temper heroes old/ arming to battle, and instead of rage/ deliberate valour breathed

Question 8

Thus far these beyond/

Answer 8

Compare of mortal prowess

Question 9

Millions of…

Answer 9

Flaming swords, drawn from the thighs/of mighty Cherubim; the sudden blaze/far around illumined Hell. Highly they raged/against the Highest and fierce with graspèd arms/clashed on their sounding shields the din of war,/hurling defiance towards the vault of Heaven

Question 10

With hideous…

Answer 10

Ruin and combustion, down/to bottomless perdition, there to dwell/in adamantine chains and penal fire

Question 11

Hurled…

Answer 11

Headlong flaming

“Rowling in the fiery gulf”

“Weltering beside him”

“Oh how changed”

Question 12

The thunder,/

Answer 12

Winged with red lightning and impetuous rage, / perhaps hath spent his shafts and cease now

Question 13

His legions -

Answer 13

Angel Forms, lay entranced/ thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks in Vallombrosa

Virgil compares the dead to fallen leaves
Vallombrosa = valley of the shadows

Question 14

Abject and lost, …

Answer 14

Lay these , covering the flood,/under amazement of the hideous change

Question 15

First Moloch, …

Answer 15

Horrid King besmeared with blood/of human sacrifice, and parents’ tears

Question 16

Impious war

Answer 16

Vain attempt

Question 17

Such place…

Answer 17

Eternal Justice had prepared / for those rebellious

Question 18

Prone on the flood […]

Answer 18

chained on the burning lake; nor ever thence / had risen, or heaved his head, but that the will / and high permission of all-ruling Heaven

Question 19

High words,…

Answer 19

That bore / the semblance of worth, not substance

Question 20

Heaven’s fugitives […]

Answer 20

Accept this dark opprobrious den of shame, / the prison of his tyranny who reigns

Question 21

Art thou he,/

Answer 21

Who first broke peace in Heaven and faith, till then/ unbroken, and in proud rebellious arms/ drew after him the third part of Heaven’s sons […] and they, outcast from God, are here condemned/ to waste eternal days in woe and pain?

Revelation (12 (3-4)): “the third part of the stars of Heaven” fell

Question 22

Back to thy punishment,/

Answer 22

False fugitive; and to thy speed add wings,/ lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue/ thy lingering

Question 23

Incensed with indignation, Satan stood/

Answer 23

I terrified, and like a comet burned,/ that fires the length of Ophiucus huge/ in th’arctic sky, and from his horrid hair/ shakes pestilence and war

If Satan travels the length of Ophiucus, he parallels the trajectory of death’s whip - they’re equally matched

Question 24

Each at the head/

Answer 24

Levelled his deadly aim; their fatal hands/ no second stroke intend; and such a frown/ each cast at th’other as when two black clouds,/ with heaven’s artillery fraught, came rattling on / over the Caspian

Question 25

Of Man’s first disobedience […]

Answer 25

Brought death into the World and all our woe

Question 26

Transgress his will […]

Answer 26

Who first seduced them to that foul revolt?

Revolt, not a noble rebellion

Question 27

[Men live] in hatred, enmity, and strife […]

Answer 27

As if/ man had not hellish foes enow besides,/ that day and night for his destruction wait!”

Putney Debates page 25

Question 28

With dangerous expedition…

Answer 28

To invade/ heaven, whose high walls fear no assault or siege, / or ambush from the deep

Question 29

Our final hope/

Answer 29

is flat despair: we must exasperate/ th’Almighty Victor to spend all his rage; And that must end us; that must be our cure

Belial’s argument is slothful, self-deprecating and cowardly - he’s hiding, not repenting

Question 30

His red right hand…

Answer 30

To plague us?

Isaiah: “fear not […] I will uphold you with my righteous right hand”

Question 31

The Fallen Angels assemble…

Answer 31

Into what appears to be the greatest army ever summoned up by epic poetry - David Quint

Question 32

Satan and his determination

Answer 32

“Unconquerable will”
“Courage never to submit or yield”
“In bulk as huge/ as those whom the fables name of monstrous size, […] that sea-beast /Leviathan, which God of all his works/ Created hugest”

Question 33

How, might we ask Satan, can you…

Answer 33

Expect a more successful outcome to the war when at the same time you insist it will be eternal? Neil Forsyth

Question 34

If we are to admire Milton’s…

Answer 34

Refusal to idolise the name of king… it is difficult not to admire much of what Satan says to the same purpose - William Flesch