Paradise Lost - War And Conflict Flashcards
He opposed, …
And, with ambitious aim / against the throne and monarchy of God,/ raised impious war in Heaven and battle proud
Innumerable force of Spirits armed,/
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
His spear -
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
Princes, potentates, /
Warriors […] awake, arise, or be forever fallen!
From the glittering staff unfurled /
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
His form had yet not lost /
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
Ten thousand…
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
Thus far these beyond/
Compare of mortal prowess
Millions of…
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
With hideous…
Ruin and combustion, down/to bottomless perdition, there to dwell/in adamantine chains and penal fire
Hurled…
Headlong flaming
“Rowling in the fiery gulf”
“Weltering beside him”
“Oh how changed”
The thunder,/
Winged with red lightning and impetuous rage, / perhaps hath spent his shafts and cease now
His legions -
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
Abject and lost, …
Lay these , covering the flood,/under amazement of the hideous change
First Moloch, …
Horrid King besmeared with blood/of human sacrifice, and parents’ tears
Impious war
Vain attempt
Such place…
Eternal Justice had prepared / for those rebellious
Prone on the flood […]
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
High words,…
That bore / the semblance of worth, not substance
Heaven’s fugitives […]
Accept this dark opprobrious den of shame, / the prison of his tyranny who reigns
Art thou he,/
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
Back to thy punishment,/
False fugitive; and to thy speed add wings,/ lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue/ thy lingering
Incensed with indignation, Satan stood/
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
Each at the head/
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
Of Man’s first disobedience […]
Brought death into the World and all our woe
Transgress his will […]
Who first seduced them to that foul revolt?
Revolt, not a noble rebellion
[Men live] in hatred, enmity, and strife […]
As if/ man had not hellish foes enow besides,/ that day and night for his destruction wait!”
Putney Debates page 25
With dangerous expedition…
To invade/ heaven, whose high walls fear no assault or siege, / or ambush from the deep
Our final hope/
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
His red right hand…
To plague us?
Isaiah: “fear not […] I will uphold you with my righteous right hand”
The Fallen Angels assemble…
Into what appears to be the greatest army ever summoned up by epic poetry - David Quint
Satan and his determination
“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”
How, might we ask Satan, can you…
Expect a more successful outcome to the war when at the same time you insist it will be eternal? Neil Forsyth
If we are to admire Milton’s…
Refusal to idolise the name of king… it is difficult not to admire much of what Satan says to the same purpose - William Flesch
