Today as I took my walk, I began listening to an audio version of John Milton's "Paradise Lost". I have a new Mp3 player, and this is my first time to try it out. it made for a very enjoyable journey on this sunny, warm February morning!Listening to the audio version while walking has the disadvantage of keeping me from running to my reference books to mine the treasure trove of Milton's allusions. I am pretty good at identifying the biblical allusions, but the myriad of classical ones leave me feeling pretty ignorant. The advantage to this is being forced to enjoy the language and the "big picture" of the themes orally. And while I don't think (after just Book 1) that I will be turning to Milton for theology, what language! I need to read more Milton, just for his beautiful and masterful use of language.
On of the quotes that really struck me for its clever wording and it's truth was this:
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n. (lines 254-255)
Isn't that the truth? I can manage quite completely to make a hell of this very blessed time or place in my life, despite the blessing. Or, I can take a miserable time and lift it to the Lord and sense his care even in the midst of struggling. What truth packed in two small lines!
And I like Gustav Dore's illustrations, btw.
9 comments:
Chris,
I am loving the audio. Loving it! I have tried several times to read Paradise Lost and poetry lover that I am I just couldn't stay focused. It is funny that you singled out that quote because the minute I heard it I decided if I ever return to blogging I will name my blog The Mind is a Place.
My audio player is just an old Apple Shuffle so I end up listening to the same parts over and over again. This has ended up being a blessing.
Good to "see" you here, Cindy!
One of my favorite blog names is the one belonging to a pastor friend of mine, "Somber and Dull" (http://somberanddull.blogspot.com/) He takes it from a quote in Alan Patton's _Cry the Beloved Country_, "...he was a parson, somber and rather dull no doubt, and his hair was turning white...." :-P
I downloaded this from Christian Audio! I can't wait to get to it.
That quote reminds me of the bit in _The Last Battle_, when the Dwarves insisted on being in some stable instead of the New Narnia. :-( Do you suppose Lewis was thinking of that quote when he wrote it?
Carolyn-
I have thought many times of Lewis as I'm listening. As a Medievalist he must have been very familiar with Milton. And I wonder if Milton did not provide Lewis with a spark of inspiration for Screwtape, especially as Milton describes the plottings of Satan.
:-)
I also wonder, because Lewis wrote that famous introduction to PL, in which he argued that Satan was NOT the hero. So we knew he was familiar with it.
What little I have heard about PL critically, I am thinking that Milton takes a bum rap there. So far, (and I am only in Book 3) he has been careful to couch his description of Satan as a usurper and twister, and God as good and ultimately in control. Unless that changes, I don't think I will see Satan as a hero here...but rather as the archetypal enemy- the arch nemesis of good, parading as an angel of light as he leads rebellion.
I've got to say, I really strongly disliked Milton. I don't think meant Satan to be the hero, but I do see where Shelley and the others are coming from.
I think Milton's salvation is open to serious doubt; from what I've read by him, he was a better hater than lover, and I think that came out in his poem. It's not that he _wanted_ Satan to be the hero, but he understood him better--and he came out more lifelike.
Well, Carolyn, you know more about about Milton than I, but I love his use of language. I use his poems "Il Penseroso" and "L'Allegro" in my second year composition class, and they are amazing poems. I know, from looking at his "treatise on Divorce" that he played fast and loose with the Scriptures. But so far, I am rather surprisingly impressed with PL. I think you can enjoy the giftedness God has bestowed on pagans or immature Christians, even without blessing the theology of the artist, don't you? I'm glad I can enjoy Liszt and Wagner without having to embrace them as people!
And what fun to have this conversation :-)
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