Chapter - 9

"Paradise Lost Book-1"

- John Milton

Question- Describe Milton's imagery and his use of similes.

Or
Comment on Milton's use of Homeric Simile.
Or
Define the Homeric Simile and give an example of it from Book I of " Paradise Lost".

Answer -

Milton's Imagery and His use of Similes : Milton's imagination embraces the whole universe. Having the axis of his faith rested on God and the soul of man, he accepts, without misgiving, the universe as his scene and his imagination triumphantly expands to fill it. No other English poet has such a God-like vision of the world, a vision revealed in the great pictures of boundless chaos and warring elements and in the constant suggestion of vast distances. He is at his best in imagery suggestive of vast size, limitless space, abysmal depth, and light and darkness. No theme and no setting other than that which he chose in Paradise Lost could have given him such scope for the kind of imagery in which he excelled.

In Paradise Lost Milton had undertaken to present not the world of human experience, but a supernatural world, peopled by supernatural beings, God and his son, angels and archangels, devils, a world in which Sin and Death may be personified without palpable absurdity. Even his human pair - Adam and Eve-are exceptional beings from whom we are prepared not to demand confirmity to the laws of life which now prevail in our world. Had he presented all these spiritual personages in definite form to the eye, the result would have been degrading. We should have the ridiculous instead of the sublime. The world of Paradise Lost is an ideal world, quite as much as the world of the Arabian Nights or the world of the chivalrous romance. In his pictures of such a world, Milton did not aim at that finish of minute parts in which each bit fits into every other. For it was only by such disregard of the minute that the theme could be handled at all, the impression of vastness, the sense that everything "runs into infinity" would have been destroyed if he had said emphasis on the detail of his figures. Milton is not, like Dante, always seeing, he is mostly thinking in a dream, or as Coleridge best expressed it, "he is not a picturesque,but a musical poet." For example, in describing Satan Milton has never thought of taking the measure of Satan. He merely gives a vague idea of his vast bulk. When he addresses himself to battle against the guardian angels, he stands like Atlas, his stature reaches the sky. Moreover, in stead of describing Paradise of his own imagination, Milton actually arouses the imagination of the readers so that they can find in their depth the paradisal light of which all explicit images are only the momentary reflection. C. S. Lewis referring to this characteristic of Milton's imagery and its effects on the reader's imagination remarks. "We are his organs; when he appears be describing paradise, he is in fact drawing out paradisal stop in us."

The images of Milton are vague, but highly suggestive. For example, in the opening lines of Paradise Lost all images that can suggest a great thing beginning have been brought together. Here he gives the image of creation of the world itself (Dove like sat'st brooding) and then the image of Heaven and Earth which "rose out of chaos" etc. But we cannot expect any kind of vividness or definiteness in these pictures, because that would be unsuitable referring to the dimness of Milton's imagery. T. S. Eliot remarks. "We must not, then, in rding Paradise Lost, not expect to see clearly; our sense of sight must be blurred, so that our hearing may become acute the emphasis is on the sound, not the vision, upon the world, not the idea." In the use of similes Milton is more elaborate than any other English poet. Generally he uses epic similes in order to maintain dignity and distance by choosing comparisons from history and mythology or from great and strange things in nature-the sun, the moon, the, sea, planets in opposition, a shooting star, an evening mist, a willo' the wisp a vulture descending from the Himalayas, the madness of Alcides, the rape of Proserpine, and a hundred more reminiscences of the accident world. He does not confine himself within the limits of strict comparison; his great excellence is vastness and he expands the casual image beyond the dimension which the occasion required. For example, comparing the shield of Satan to the orb of the moon, he crowds the imagination with the discovery of the telescope, and all the wonders which the telescope discovers.

Milton's huge epic similes reach both backward and forward, embracing in their span all history and space. When Eve is compared to Proserpine, we know that she will be victimised by Satan as Proserpine was gathered by Dis. When she is compared to Gerse, the implication is that she will reduce Adam from God's image to "the inglorious likeness of a beast." Again when she is compared to Pandora, we are compelled to think of Pandora's triviality and all the suffering which her trivial action lets loose. This anticipatory usage is characteristic of Paradise Lost, and of this type of epic similes Milton is considered by some critics as their inventor. Such similes have the quality of superhuman permanence about them.

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