[Milton-L] dictating PL

[Jason Kerr]

Johnson quotes Philips as saying that the poem progressed "in parcels of
ten, twenty, or thirty verses at a time."
As for having the whole thing in his head, I can see the appeal in believing
that, given our tendency as scholars to note patterns of repetition across
the poem (e.g. the motif of hands), Milton had the whole web of words in his
head at once, consciously making the connections on which we build our
careers. But while I see the appeal of this idea, it doesn't seem terribly
plausible, even though I'm willing to give Milton the benefit of the doubt
as far as having capacities of intellect and memory far beyond my own. But
taking the commonplace book sketches into mind suggests that he may have had
a grand vision for the thing and worked out the details as he went.

Back to grading...

Jason A. Kerr

On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 2:55 PM, <jfleming at sfu.ca> wrote:

> May I ask (a perhaps leading or obvious or even annoying question): why
> would one want to think that M had large parts of the poem "in his head"
> before speaking it? JD Fleming
>
> On Wed, 12 Mar 2008 14:01:07 -0400 milton-l at lists.richmond.edu wrote:
> > I too would like to know that number.  Was it "20" or so? dictated
> > each morning?
> >
> >      My own sense is that Milton _composed_ PL rather completely
> > before he began dictating it. It has been suggested [A. Fowler (and
> > perhaps others???)], based on internal evidence, that M may in fact
> > have had  both the 10 book AND the 12 book versions clearly in mind
> > from the 'get go.'
> >
> >      (I attempted, about 6 years ago in a post to Milton-l, to offer
> > an observation that could support the above view, but it was an
> > impossibly, yea unconscionably long & poorly written post which, I
> > believe --happily-- almost nobody read. )
> >
> >      If indeed Milton dictated roughly the same number of lines each
> > day, couldn't that be seen as supporting evidence for the view that
> > the poem was already finished and memorized in his mind? Else that
> > daily sum could vary greatly depending on any number of issues such as
> > the nature of the text at hand [a 10 line paragraph? a 55 line
> > invocation?, a 26 line invocation? a 78 line speech?] or, I suppose,
> > depending on Milton's mood on a given morning, his physical health,
> > the intensity of inspiration...
> >
> > "Still as I pulled, it came; and so I penned It down..." J. B.
> >
> > cheers,
> > Carl
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> >   From: Margaret Thickstun
> >   To: John Milton Discussion List
> >   Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 2:13 PM
> >   Subject: [Milton-L] dictating PL
> >
> >
> >   I'm sure I could find this information if I were to look in the
> > biographies, but this path seems easier.  My students asked, "about
> > how many lines of Paradise Lost did Milton compose on a given night?"
> > Does anyone on the list have a ballpark answer?
> >
> >   Thanks.--Margie
> >
> >   Margaret Thickstun
> >   Elizabeth J. McCormack Professor of English
> >   Hamilton College
> >   198 College Hill Road
> >   Clinton, NY 13323
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> --
> >
> >
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>
> James Dougal Fleming
> Department of English
> Simon Fraser University
> (778)-782-4713
> cell: 778-865-0926
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-- 
The purpose of poetry is to remind us
how difficult it is to remain just one person,
for our house is open, there are no keys in the doors,
and invisible guests come in and out at will.

—Czeslaw Milosz, from "Ars Poetica?"
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