The Poetic Style In John Milton's Paradise Lost

This paper aims at exploring John Milton’s poetic style in his epic poem Paradise Lost, and the internal and external influences that shaped it. The ingredients of the grand style generally are: the greatness of the conception which inspires the poem; the exercise of a rich imagination; the employment of dignified words arranged in an impressive and harmonious order; and the use of certain technical devices which add to the interest and the dignity of the language employed. The grand style produces an impression of bigness, or enormity, or vastness, or loftiness in the reader’s mind. And all these characteristics can be applied to Milton’s style in the writing of Paradise Lost. The researcher adopts the analytical approach by examining the first two book of the poem: Books I and II. The researcher

INTRODUCTION

John Milton’s style in Paradise Lost (1667) has justly been described as the grand style. The word “sublimity” best describes the mature style of Milton. It was a quality he attained only after years of stern experience. The merits of Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained do not depend upon the reader’s taste in theology, but upon the stark grandeur of many descriptive passages, and the passionate love of Nature which glows throughout the poet’s work. Broadbent holds the view that “Milton is among the few English writers whose style can be called scholarly, his images unique and his words elevated” (6).

The ingredients of the grand style generally are: the greatness of the conception which inspires the poem; the exercise of a rich imagination; the employment of dignified words arranged in an impressive and harmonious order; and the use of certain technical devices which add to the interest and the dignity of the language employed. The grand style produces an impression of “bigness, or enormity, or vastness, or loftiness in the reader’s mind” (Nicolson 12). And this is the impression produced upon our minds while reading Milton’s Paradise