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The poems of william wordsworth A study
John milton paradise lost analysis
Analysis of Paradise lost by milton
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Published in 1667, Paradise Lost by John Milton is considered by many scholars to be the only epic written in the English language. For such a bold claim to exist, one must understand the literary elements that make up epic poetry. When compared to other canonical epics such as Homer’s Odyssey or Virgil’s Aeneid, one notices similarities in regards to structure, flow, methodologies, etc. These elements include a declaration to the muses, a story starting mid-battle, and characters that represent the essence of a particular society.
Taking into account the significance of John Milton’s epic on England’s society, future poets greatly respected his contributions and paid homage to the man. One such poet, William Wordsworth, pontificated his longing for Milton’s return in the sonnet, “London, 1802,” and further modeled the structure of his poem in a similar and vivid fashion as Milton did with his epic; thus allowing readers to see the current state of England’s society portrayed in the style of one of the country’s greatest poets.
Written in 1802, but not published until 1807, “London, 1802” is a Shakespearian sonnet consisting of 14 lines. Initially, readers see no break in flow aside from comma and colon placement. Stylistically, Wordsworth relies heavily on simple words that convey powerful emotion and celestial imagery. Furthermore, no word in the poem exceeds three syllables and lends itself to easy reading when compared to other poems written during the time period. When compared to passages from Paradise Lost, Milton utilizes the blank verse poetic structure to progress his narrative, just like Wordsworth.
Blank verse is a stylistic feature seen in approximately two-thirds of all English poetry, starting in the early ...
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...of political uprising.
With Wordsworth and Milton both being elements of England’s literary past, the work both authors contributed to England’s society helped define English poetry. Not only examples of literary mastery, both authors’ works represent particular issues in their society. Even to this day, issues in European government have created tension between social classes. Both texts are as relevant today as they were during the time they were written.
Works Cited
Work Citied
"London 1800-1913." The Proceedings of the Old Bailey. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb 2012. .
Milton, John. Paradise Lost. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2004. 10. Print.
Wordsworth, William . "London 1802." Poetry-Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb 2012.
Everett, Nicholas From The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-century Poetry in English. Ed. Ian Hamiltong. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. Copyright 1994 by Oxford University Press.
... for the historical figure by simply declaring it in his poem. The speaker in Douglass concludes his poem with expressing his own need for Douglass “To give us comfort through the lonely dark”(Line 14). Wordsworth however uses many comparisons in his London, 1802 to stress the need for Milton in England. In doing this, Wordsworth ultimately not only displays his direct need for a man like Milton to be present in his society, but instead the idea that England as a whole, through Wordsworth’s writing, expresses the need for the presence of Milton. The two poems were extremely similar in the fact that they both call for the presence of a historical figure in hopes to bring about change for the better. However, there are several differences in structure and mainly how each idea is expressed to the reader, leading to a difference in ideas between the two poems.
Wordsworth shows the possibility of finding freedom within his poem by choosing to write within the Italian sonnet’s rules. What makes an Italian sonnet unique is the division and pattern of its rhyme scheme. It is usually structured in an ABBA, ABBA, CDE, CDE pattern, and broken into two main parts, the octave (the first eight lines) and the sestet (the final six). The meter of “Nuns” can be labeled as iambic pentameter, yet along with the meter, the poem differs from the norm in two more ways. The first difference is in the rhyme scheme. In a typical Italian sonnet, the sestet follows a CDE, CDE pattern, in “Nuns” however, it follows the pattern CDD, CCD. It’s minute, but adds emphases to the 13th line, which contains the poem’s second anomaly. All the poem’s lines have an ...
Ben Jonson’s poem, “To Penshurst”, reflects a genre of poetry known as country house poetry. This poetry was written primarily in order to please the owner of the country house. Jonson’s poem was written specifically to praise the Kent estate of Sir Robert Sidney. What makes Jonson’s country house poem different from the other poems of this time period is the content that Jonson wrote about. Johson’s “To Penshurst” appeals to all classes of people whether it be a peasant or a king due to its sheer acceptance and simplicity in nature. This poem could almost be considered a literal gift to Penshurst, much like it is a gift to all social classes. In this poem, Jonson writes in the hopes of praising the Sidney’s estate, Penshurst. The estate resides in the town of Kent, and the scenery is described as being humble much like the manor. What makes this poem intriguing is how it deviates from the country house poetry of the time. During this time in history, the likelihood of peasants intimately interacting with royalty was very unlikely. What Penshurst offers through this work is lower and middle class equality among all classes. Outside of Penshurst, though, the same concept does not apply. This is because Penshurst, in a sense, could be considered a type of utopia. This is primarily because of the welcoming interaction between peasant and royal life. As mentioned earlier, all classes are not equal outside Penshurst. Penshurst is almost like a paradise for those looking for an escape from the harsh social standards of the society of the time. Though, unlike Thomas More’s “Utopia”, there are no negative connotations that the reader can decip...
In “Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey,” we find the purest expression of Wordsworth’s fascination with friendship.
"Tintern Abbey"'s opening lines prepare the reader for a reunion, notable in tone not only for the sense of anticipation with which the poet apprehends this moment, but equally so for the poignancy which immediately inflects the poem's proceedings. My reading of "Tintern Abbey" takes as its most prominent concern the sense in which Wordsworth's "Revisiting the Banks of the Wye" represents a haven-seeking of sorts. Since his visit to the Wye in 1793, much has happened to Wordsworth: he has found, and relinquished, his first romantic love in Annette Vallon. As a young would-be radical, sympathetic to the ideals of the French Revolution, he finds himself at odds with London's entrenched conservatism. In 1795, after well over a decade of only intermittent contact with his sister, Wordsworth and his beloved Dorothy are reunited at Racedown, at about the same time that they make the acquaintance of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Within two years of this happy occasion, the two Wordsworths will move to Alfoxden to be near Coleridge. The ensuing years of intense friendship and creative discourse will yield, by 1798, the collaborative Lyrical Ballads, to which "Tintern Abbey" belongs. As we consider the tumult and activity that have characterized this period of his life, we might well speculate upon the nature of the thoughts going through Wordsworth's mind as he surveys the Abbey from his vantage on the riverbank; my own temptation is to equate the quietly reflective tone of the poem with the Taoist notion of hsü.
... with Us. Lastly, Wordsworth’s poem London, 1802 also shows his fear of premature mortality of the imagination. All of these works contain his fear of losing imagination and how man should return to nature.
First to consider is that the poem used in The Norton Anthology of English Literature is an edited version from The Complete Poetry and Major Prose of Milton, edited by Merritt Y. Hughes. The poem that will be considered here is the 1673 text printed in The Riverside Milton, edited by Roy Flannagan. The decision of Riverside was not to intervene into the text, but to leave as it was written. Hughes’ changes insert punctuation, capitalization and spelling to update it to a modern audience. By modernizing the poem Hughes has effectively changed the meaning to what he as the editor had in mind. Milton wanted good readers, readers that read deeper than surface meanings and by changing the text the art of Milton’s words are compromised for the poem was designed to confuse the reader. Milton as a wordsmith is preparing the reader for a spiritual confusion that leads one to a question. Hughes’ editing reinforces the binary aspects of the poem that sets up one speaker in the octave and one speaker in the sestet, the problem in the octave then the solution in the sestet, if one likes. If one leaves out the editorial changes, the octave speaker and the sestet speaker become erased...
John Milton's great epic poem, Paradise Lost, was written between the 1640's and 1665 in England, at a time of rapid change in the western world. Milton, a Puritan, clung to traditional Christian beliefs throughout his epic, but he also combined signs of the changing modern era with ancient epic style to craft a masterpiece. He chose as the subject of his great work the fall of man, from Genesis, which was a very popular story to discuss and retell at the time. His whole life had led up to the completion of this greatest work; he put over twenty years of time and almost as many years of study and travel to build a timeless classic. The success of his poem lies in the fact that he skillfully combined classic epic tradition with strongly held Puritan Christian beliefs.
Milton returned to England about 1641 when the political and religious affairs were very disturbing to many. He started to apply his work in practice for that one great work like Paradise Lost when penning the Sonnets. Not every sonnet is identical but they can be difficult in interpretation, styles, word use, and so forth. The purpose of this paper is to analyze Milton’s Sonnet 8 (ca 1642), “Captain or Colonel.” This will be done by explaining the type of theme and then separating the sonnet into three sections: lines 1-4, 5-8, and 9-14 for a better understanding of how Milton used the development of ongoing events to present problems with a mystical resolution.
"The Poetry of William Wordsworth." SIRS Renaissance 20 May 2004: n.p. SIRS Renaissance. Web. 06 February 2010.
Paradise Lost, John Milton’s epic poem about the fall of man and the loss of Eden, is a subtly politically charged writing that reflects his own personal struggles and political viewpoints during 17th century England. There are many similarities between his epic poem and the despair and disappointment experienced during the reign of Charles I and the English Civil War. Through this poem, and with attention paid to the historical context with which it was written, Milton not only produces a great work of English literature, but also the seed for a discussion on civil disobedience and civil war.
Guibbory, Achsah. "Milton and English Poetry." A Companion to Milton. Thomas N. Corns, ed. Blackwell Publishing, 2003.
Durrant, Geoffrey. Wordsworth and the Great System, A Study of Wordsworth’s Poetic Universe. Cambridge: University Printing House, 1970.
In William Wordsworth’s poems, the role of nature plays a more reassuring and pivotal r ole within them. To Wordsworth’s poetry, interacting with nature represents the forces of the natural world. Throughout the three poems, Resolution and Independence, Tintern Abbey, and Michael, which will be discussed in this essay, nature is seen prominently as an everlasting- individual figure, which gives his audience as well as Wordsworth, himself, a sense of console. In all three poems, Wordsworth views nature and human beings as complementary elements of a sum of a whole, recognizing that humans are a sum of nature. Therefore, looking at the world as a soothing being of which he is a part of, Wordsworth looks at nature and sees the benevolence of the divinity aspects behind them. For Wordsworth, the world itself, in all its glory, can be a place of suffering, which surely occurs within the world; Wordsworth is still comforted with the belief that all things happen by the hands of the divinity and the just and divine order of nature, itself.