A beautiful and compelling poem. I had not realized the repetition of the meter in lines four and ten; brilliant, and of course emphasizing the most important moments in the whole. I have no idea how many times I've taught the poem and missed that . . . . It's one of the things I enjoy about the commentary here, learning new things about old favorites.
Here's a fun fact: In 1638, Milton visited Galileo in Italy. Galileo was then imprisoned under house arrest, and had become blind. Milton still had sight and was at liberty, but he too would become blind in the future and also be imprisoned for a while. Wouldn't you love to have been a fly on the wall at that meeting?
To my ear, in line 10, there’s a natural stress on “man’s”, producing what I call a ‘catch’: a trochee-spondee combi. This line could also convincingly be read as having a succeeding catch “(…OR his OWN GIFTS…”) or pump (“…or his OWN GIFTS…”. The first beat is pumped forward).
Line 11, too, to my mind, most convincingly reads with an opening catch (“BEAR his MILD YOKE…”).
While on a technical level there is no consistency in scanning a dactyl within iambic meter, meter is not rhythm - it is the framework within which rhythm occurs; and, yes, there is a slight phrasal juncture after the 3rd syllable of the 4th line opening swing (which is what I call the swinging movement produced by the trochee-iamb combi), producing a falling opening rhythm - before being brought up short to a tight, emphatic rising rhythm:
LODGED with me || USEless, || THOUGH || my SOUL || MORE BENT
A beautiful and compelling poem. I had not realized the repetition of the meter in lines four and ten; brilliant, and of course emphasizing the most important moments in the whole. I have no idea how many times I've taught the poem and missed that . . . . It's one of the things I enjoy about the commentary here, learning new things about old favorites.
Here's a fun fact: In 1638, Milton visited Galileo in Italy. Galileo was then imprisoned under house arrest, and had become blind. Milton still had sight and was at liberty, but he too would become blind in the future and also be imprisoned for a while. Wouldn't you love to have been a fly on the wall at that meeting?
A couple of years back finally read Paradise Lost, Wonderful work.
Great interpretation of Satan, and thoroughly enjoyed how he tempted Eve. All new thoughts to me.
Milton deserves credit for giving Satan his due and a fair hearing as well.
To my ear, in line 10, there’s a natural stress on “man’s”, producing what I call a ‘catch’: a trochee-spondee combi. This line could also convincingly be read as having a succeeding catch “(…OR his OWN GIFTS…”) or pump (“…or his OWN GIFTS…”. The first beat is pumped forward).
Line 11, too, to my mind, most convincingly reads with an opening catch (“BEAR his MILD YOKE…”).
(I know these two patterns are controversial, and some formalists deny their existence, but there’s an observable history to their development and adoption in the 16th Century. In my experience, these variations greatly contribute to the flexibility and expressiveness of traditional formal verse! I delve deeper into beat displacement here: https://williamshakespeare.quora.com/Shakespeare-s-Rhythm-True-ease-in-writing-comes-from-art-not-chance-As-those-move-easiest-who-have-learn-d-to-da?ch=17&oid=6206614&share=3a3ae916&srid=LqSx&target_type=post ).
While on a technical level there is no consistency in scanning a dactyl within iambic meter, meter is not rhythm - it is the framework within which rhythm occurs; and, yes, there is a slight phrasal juncture after the 3rd syllable of the 4th line opening swing (which is what I call the swinging movement produced by the trochee-iamb combi), producing a falling opening rhythm - before being brought up short to a tight, emphatic rising rhythm:
LODGED with me || USEless, || THOUGH || my SOUL || MORE BENT
(end-line spondee, beat on the 2nd syllable)
This illustrates the importance of not confusing rising and falling rhythms with foot divisions, which is a point I delve deeper into in the second half of this post: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-differences-between-iambic-and-trochaic-meters/answer/Keir-Fabian?ch=17&oid=65780102&share=600720c4&srid=LqSx&target_type=answer
Side note: one of my favorite games now is to open my inbox and guess who wrote the commentary based on the title of the email and poem chosen.
The new drinking game . . .
😂🍺🍻