1. John Milton Paradise Lost and the Art of the Epic Poem First Year English Matthew Martin

2. “The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels & God, and at liberty when of Devils & Hell, is because he was a true Poet and of the Devil's party without knowing it."

3. The Art of the Epic Poem... the opening lines. Announcing your theme or argument....

4. OF Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast Brought Death into the World, and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater Man Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat, Sing Heav'nly Muse, Sing, Goddess, the anger of Peleus’ son Achilles and its devastation, Which put pains thousandfold upon the Acheans, hurled in their Multitudes to the house of Hades strong souls of heroes. Homer, Iliad, approx. 700 BC Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story Of that man skilled in all ways of contending, The wanderer, harried for years on end, After he plundered the stronghold on the Proud height of Troy. Homer, Odyssey, approx. 700 BC I sing of warfare and a man at war... Oh Muse! Virgil, Aeneid, approx. 19BC

5. The Art of the Epic Poem... the opening lines. First Year English Matthew Martin Explaining the origin of something...

6. Sing Heav'nly Muse, that on the secret top Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed, In the Beginning how the Heav'ns and Earth Rose out of Chaos... The first power to come into being was Chaos. The arose Gaia, Broad-bosomed earth, which serves as the ever-immovable base for All the immortals who dwell on the peaks of snowy Olympos; And then shadowy Tartaros deep in the wide-wayed earth; And then Eros surpassing every immortal in beauty, Who, a loosener of limbs, brings all immortals and mortals Under his power and makes them unable to think as they should. And out of Chaos black Night and Erebos came into being, And out of Night then came the brightness of Aither and Day, Whom she conceived by lying in love and mingling with Erebos. Hesiod, Theogony, approx. 700 BC 1: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2: And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3: And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4: And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5: And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. 6: And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 7: And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. 8: And God called the firmament Heaven. Genesis, King James Version Long labors, both by sea and land, he bore, And in the doubtful war, before he won The Latian realm, and built the destin'd town; His banish'd gods restor'd to rites divine, And settled sure succession in his line, From whence the race of Alban fathers come, And the long glories of majestic Rome. The Aeneid

7. HesiodHomer Virgil Dante Spenser Milton

8. In preparation for our class discussion, please think about the following: 1.How do lines 1-26 mirror the openings of ancient epic poems? List key quotations to support your view. 2.What does lines 50, 63, 69 and 74 tell us about Milton’s presentation of space and the environments in which this poem takes place? 3.To whom does Satan speak in line 84? And how does this character appear to Satan? Why is that?