John Milton's Paradise Lost: Excerpts from Book 1 and Analysis, Quizzes of English Language

Download John Milton's Paradise Lost: Excerpts from Book 1 and Analysis and more Quizzes English Language in PDF only on Docsity! TERM 1 Is this the region, this the soil, the clime, Said then the lost Archangel, this the seat That we must change for Heavn, this mournful gloom For that celestial light? Be it so, since he Who now is sovran can dispose and bid What shall be right: farthest from him is best Whom reason hath equaled, force hath made supreme Above his equals. Farewell happy fields Where joy for ever dwells: Hail horrors, hail Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell Receive thy new possessor: one who brings A mind not to be changed by place or time. The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a Heavn of Hell, a Hell of Heavn. What matter where, if I be still the same, And what I should be, all but less than he Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least We shall be free; th Almighty hath not built Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: Here we may reign secure, and in my choice To reign is worth ambition though in Hell: Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heavn. (Book 1, lines 242- 64) DEFINITION 1 Paradise Lost- John Milton Book1 TERM 2 O myriads of immortal Spirits, O Powers Matchless, but with th Almighty, and that strife Was not inglorious, though th event was dire, As this place testifies, and this dire change Hateful to utter: but what power of mind Foreseeing or presaging, from the depth Of knowledge past or present, could have feared, How such united force of gods, how such As stood like these, could ever know repulse? For who can yet believe, though after loss, That all these puissant legions, whose exile Hath emptied Heavn, shall fail to reascend Self-raised, and repossess their native seat? For me, but witness all the host of Heavn, If counsels different, or danger shunned By me, have lost our hopes. But he who reigns Monarch in Heavn, till then as one secure Sat on his throne, upheld by old repute, Consent or custom, and his regal state Put forth at full, but still his strength concealed, Which tempted our attempt, and wrought our fall. Henceforth his might we know, and know our own So as not either to provoke, or dread New war, provoked; our better part remains To work in close design, by fraud or guile What force effected not: that he no less At length from us may find, who overcomes By force, hath overcome but half his foe. Space may produce new worlds; whereof so rife There went a fame in Heavn that he ere long Intended to create, and therein plant A generation, whom his choice regard Should favor equal to the sons of Heaven: Thither, if but to pry, shall perhaps Our first eruption, thither or elsewhere: For this infernal pit shall never hold Celestial Spirits in bondage, not th abyss Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts Full counsel must mature: peace is despaired, For who can think of submission? War then, war Open or understood must be resolved. (I, ll. 622-62 DEFINITION 2 Paradise Lost Book 1 TERM 3 No more of talk where God or angel guest With man, as with his friend, familiar used To sit indulgent, and with him partake Rural repast, permitting him the while Venial discourse unblamed: I now must change Those notes to tragic; foul distrust, and breach Disloyal on the part of man, revolt, And disobedience: on the part of Heavn Now alienated, distance and distaste, Anger and just rebuke, and judgment givn, That brought into this world a world of woe, Sin and her shadow Death, and misery Deaths harbinger: sad task, yet argument Not less but more heroic than the wrath Of stern Achilles on his foe pursued Thrice fugitive about Troy wall; or rage Of Turnus for Lavinia disespoused, Or Neptunes ire or Junos, that for so long Perplexed the Greek and Cythereas son; If answerable style I can obtain Of my celestial patroness, who deigns Her nightly visitation unimplored, And dictates to me slumbring, or inspires Easy my unpremeditated verse; Since first this subject for heroic song Pleased me long choosing, and beginning late; Not sedulous by nature to indite Wars, hitherto the only argument Heroic deemed, chief mastery to dissect With long and tedious havoc fabled knights In battles feigned; the better fortitude Of patience and heroic martyrdom Unsung; or to describe races and games, Or tilting furniture, emblazoned shields, Impresses quaint, caparisons and steeds; Bases and tinsel trappings, gorgeous knights At joust and tournament; then DEFINITION 3 Paradise Lost, John Milton - Book 9 TERM 4 W uld th u hadst hearkened t my words, and stayed/With me, as I besought thee, when that strange Desire of wandring this unhappy morn,/I know not whence possessed th e; we had then Remained still happy, not as n w, despoiled/Of all our good, shamed, naked, miserable. Let no e henceforth seek needless cause to approve/The faith they owe; when earnestly they seek Such proof, conclude, then then begin t fail. To whom soon moved with touch f blame thus Eve: What words have passed thy lips, Adam severe,/Imputst t ou that to my d fault, or will Of wandring, as thou callst it, which who knows/But might as ill have happened thou being by Or to thyself rhaps: hadst thou been there,/Or here th attempt, thou couldst not have discerned Fraud in the serpent, speaking as he spake;/No ground of enmity between us known, Why he should mean me ill, or seek to harm./Was I to have never parted from thy side? As good have grown DEFINITION 4 Paradise Lost- John Milton, Book 9 TERM 5 He ended, and they both descend the hill;/Descended, Adam to the bowr where Ev /La sleeping ran before, but found her w ked; And thus with words not sad she him received: Whe ce thou returnst, and whither w ntst, I know;/For God is also in sleep, and dreams advise,/Which he hath sent propitious, some great good/Presaging, since with sorrow and hearts distress/Wearied I fell asl ep: but now lead on;/In me is no delay; with thee to go,/Is to stay her ; without thee DEFINITION 5 Paradise Lost- John Milton, Book 9 TERM 6 As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place where was a Den, and I laid me down in that place to sleep; and, as I slept, I dreamed a dream. I dreamed, and behold I saw a man clothes with rags, standing in a certain place, with his face from his own house, a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back . . . I looked and saw him open the book and read therein; and, as he read, he wept, and trembled; and not being able longer to contain, he brake out with a lamentable cry, saying, What shall I do? In this plight, therefore, he went home and refrained himself as long as he could, that his wife and children should not perceive his distress; but he could not be silent long, because that his trouble increased. (Christian Sets Out for the Celestial City) DEFINITION 6 John Bunyan- A Pilgrim's Progress TERM 7 Wherefore at length he brake his mind to his wife and children; and thus he began to talk to them. O my dear wife, said he, and you the children of my bowels, I your dear friend am in myself undone by reason of a burden that lieth hard upon me; moreover, I am for certain informed that this our city will be burned with fire from heaven, in which fearful overthrow both myself, with thee, my wife, and you, my sweet babes, shall miserably come to ruin, except (the which yet I see not) some way to escape can be found, whereby we may be delivered. At this the relations were sore amazed; not for that they believed that what he had said to them was true, but because they thought that some frenzy distemper had got into his head; therefore, it drawing towards night, and they hoping that sleep might settle his brains, with all haste they got him to bed; but the night was as troublesome to him as the day; wherefore, instead of sleeping, he spent it in sighs and tears. So when the morning was come, they would know how he did. He told them. Worse and worse; he also set to talking to them again, but they began to be hardened. They also thought to drive away his distemper by harsh and surly carriages to him; sometimes they would deride, sometimes they would chide, and sometimes they would quite neglect him. (Christian Sets out for the Celestial City) DEFINITION 7 John Bunyan- A Pilgrim's Progress TERM 8 Now I saw, upon a time, when he was walking in the fields, that he was (as he was wont) reading in this book, and great distressed in hims mind; and as he read, he burst out, as he had done before, crying, What shall I do to be saved? * * * * Then said the Evangelist, pointing with his finger over a very wide field, Do you see yonder wicketgate? The man said, No. Then said the other, Do you see yonder shining light? He said, I think I do. Then said Evangelist, Keep that light in your eye, and go up directly thereto; so shalt thou see the gate; at which when thou knockest it shall be told thee what thou shalt do. So I saw in my dream that the man began to run. Now, he had not run far from his own door, but his wife and children perceiving it, began to cry after him to return; but the man put his fingers in his ears, and ran on, crying, Life! Life! eternal life! So he looked not behind him, but fled towards the middle of the plain. (Christian Sets out for the Celestial City) DEFINITION 8 John Bunyan- A Pilgrim's Progress TERM 9 N w I saw in my dream, that just as they e ed this talk they drew near to a very miry slough, that was in the midst of the plain; and they, being hee less, did both fall suddenl into the bog. The name of the slough was Despond. Here, therefore, they wallowed for a time, being grievously bedaubed with dirt; and Christian, because of the burden that was on his back, began to sink in the mire. * * * Wherefore Christian was left to tumble in the Slough of Despond alone: but still he endeavored to struggle to that side of the slough that was further from his own house, and next to the wicket-gate; the which he did, but could not get out, because of the burden that was upon his back: but I beheld in my dream, that a man came to him, whose name was Help, and asked him what he did there? * * * Then I stepped to him that plucked him out, and said, Sir, wherefore, since over this place is the way from the City of Destruction to yonder gate, is it that this plat is not DEFINITION 9 John Bunyan- A Pilgrim's Progress TERM 10 Then I saw in my dream, that when they were got out of the wilderness, they presently saw a town before them, and the name of that town is Vanity; and at the town there is a fair kept, called Vanity Fair; it is kept all the year long; it beareth the name of Vanity Fair because the town where it is kept is lighter than vanity; and also because all that is there sold, or that cometh thither, is vanity. As is the saying of the wise, All that cometh is vanity . . . The fair is no new-erected DEFINITION 10 John Bunyan- A Pilgrim's Progress