[Milton-L] Milton and Verse Composition

[Carol Barton]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Derek Wood" <dwood at stfx.ca>
To: "John Milton Discussion List" <milton-l at lists.richmond.edu>
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2008 5:02 PM
Subject: [Milton-L] Milton and Verse Composition


As Dr. Creaser notes, Richardson says he would compose "many perhaps forty 
lines, as it were in a breath, and then reduce them to half the number." He 
got out of bed ar 4.00 a.m. in summer and his amanuensis arrived at 7.00. If 
the scribe was late, M complained he "wanted to be milked," according to the 
anonymous biographer.
There we might leave it but for this: the numerologists make a strong case 
for a structure patterned symmetrically around the centre. In Ed.I, the 
central line of the entire epic is PL vi.761-2 where the Son ascends into 
his triumphal chariot. Satan enters the universe in Bk III and leaves three 
books from the end; Bk. IV has the first temptation and the second is four 
books from the end &c. There is much more, of course: see Fowler's intro. on 
numerology for a start. So, as in the ceiling of the Sistine chapel, there 
is a very strict formal, symmetrical framework containing and restraining 
vast cosmic  movements, tension and energy.  Did he know in Bk VI how many 
lines the finished poem would contain? And how to explain the effect on the 
structure of the polishing process Richardson describes?
dw.




Derek N. C. Wood,
Senior Research Professor and Shastri Fellow,,
St. Francis Xavier University,
ANTIGONISH,    NS,
Canada,    B2G 2W5

e-mail: dwood at stfx.ca
phone: 902-867-2328 (w)
           902-863-5433 (h)
fax:      902-867-5400
web:     http://www.stfx.ca/people/dwood 
<http://www.stfx.ca/people/dwood/Welcome.html> /Welcome.html

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