[Milton-L] Milton and Gardens: queries on JM's aesthetics

Tue Jun 23 22:07:34 EDT 2009

Eve's farewell to Paradise much later in the poem does suggest that she was
fully engaged with the lovelines of the garden.  Her work is a form of art,
and as Giamatti and others argue, the Garden is a blend of nature and
art. The phrase "mindless the while/Herself" perhaps implies not only
"unawareness of danger and her own frailty" but also a lack of
self-consciousness (a hallmark of innocence).  Her work before the Fall is
art not for her sake, but for nature itself.

Sara van den Berg

On Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 7:58 PM, Carl Bellinger <bcarlb at comcast.net> wrote:

> I don't see that this passage represents Eve's work experience either as
> pointedly pleasant or creative.
>
> The "cloud of fragrance" is no doubt pleasant, and the glowing of the
> flower colors, but  Eve is "mindless the while/Herself." Of course this
> phrase refers, in the first case, not to her attentiveness to her work, but
> to her unawareness of danger and her own frailty. That withstanding, I find
> nothing in the narrative itself here that seems at odds with "mindless the
> while..." And as "delicious" as this garden may be we are not presented with
> an Eve standing there drinking it all in. Eve has not got, in this scene,
> what Flannery O'Connor phrases "a pleasure-taking eye." That keenness
> belongs, here, to Satan.
>
> [[  Mindless the while Herself.   Wonderful how the two strong
> sense-stresses of this idiomatic construction, on "mindless" & "Herself,"
> are floating/suspended across the faintly-stressed "the while," across the
> line-end, in a kind of cadential atmospheric mindlessness. So it seems to
> me. No English poet comes anywhere near Milton in the myriad perfections of
> expression he is able to pencil across that glimmering, mysterious
> trajectory "from one verse into another!"  Please pardon the digression.
> Though come to think of it, it's not entirely off point. ]]
>
> And how creative and fulfilling can it be, really, to be supporting
> drooping flowers with Myrtle bands? Sorry to be so crabby, but if Eve here
> were taking real pleasure inventing new horticultural procedures, Milton
> would be saying so I think.
>
> In another passage --where A&E first breathe the morning air, then pray,
> then turn to their appointed tasks-- I recall getting the sense that,
> compared to breathing and singing, the work thing is a lesser thing, a
> merely and frankly workmanlike pastime. It's sooo nice when lunch comes
> around!
>
> -Carl
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Gillum" <mgillum at unca.edu>
> To: "milton-l" <milton-l at lists.richmond.edu>
> Sent: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 11:19 AM
> Subject: Re: [Milton-L] Milton and Gardens: queries on JM's aesthetics
>
>
> If the Genesis account does in fact derive from earlier myths where humans
>> are put to labor for the benefit of the gods, that tells us nothing about
>> the nature of labor in Milton's  Paradise. A&E tend the garden for their
>> own
>> benefit, to keep the paths open (9.244-46) so they may gather food, enjoy
>> beauty, and be amused by the animals, and to enhance the production of
>> fruits and flowers. The labor is not onerous, but contributes pleasant
>> variety to their days. Perhaps the most detailed description of labor
>> actually in progress is here:
>>
>> . . .Eve separate he spies,
>> Veiled in a cloud of fragrance, where she stood,           9. 425
>> Half-spied, so thick the roses bushing round
>> About her glowed, oft stooping to support
>> Each flower of tender stalk, whose head, though gay
>> Carnation, purple, azure, or specked with gold,
>> Hung drooping unsustained. Them she upstays            430
>> Gently with myrtle band, mindless the while
>> Herself, though fairest unsupported flower,
>>
>>> From her best prop so far, and storm so nigh.
>>>
>> Nearer he drew, and many a walk traversed
>> Of stateliest covert, cedar, pine, or palm;            435
>> Then voluble and bold, now hid, now seen
>> Among thick-woven arborets, and flowers
>> Imbordered on each bank, the hand of Eve:
>> Spot more delicious than those gardens feigned
>> Or of revived Adonis, or renowned                    440
>> Alcinoüs, host of old Laertesš son,
>> Or that, not mystic, where the sapient king
>> Held dalliance with his fair Egyptian spouse.
>>
>> Obviously, as Jeff Theis says, the text presents this work as easy,
>> pleasant, and creative-- Eve can already enjoy the results of her work in
>> the "flowers / Imbordered on each bank, the hand of Eve."
>>
>> Michael G.
>>
>>
>>
>> On 6/23/09 10:26 AM, "Jeffrey Theis" <jtheis at salemstate.edu> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>> As for horticultural labor being an onerous task and your sarcastic
>>> dismissal of my argument that such labor can focus one's mind in a way
>>> that leads to knowledge (and pleasure), I think that you are
>>> fundamentally overlooking Milton's goal of stating that labor was not a
>>> punishment for sin. Labor was present before human sin, and it was good.
>>> Members of the list who are interested in a larger discussion of the
>>> merits of gardening labor might wish to read the first several chapters
>>> of Robert Pogue Harrison's *Gardens: An Essay on the Human Condition*
>>> (Chicago UP, 2008).
>>>
>>> Michael, you may believe that Milton fails in this attempt to render
>>> labor as a positive act, or you may not like his argument but those are
>>> different things. My sense is that you have a better argument against
>>> labor if you just focus on Raphael's account of his being sent to guard
>>> Hell in Book 8 (229-40). That is a good place to apply a Marxist
>>> critique of labor.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>> Jeff
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
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>
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