[Milton-L] Milton's Heaven in 25 words or less

Mon May 18 14:29:27 EDT 2009

Here is another excursion into forced rhyme, serious but I hope not humorless:

We dance and sing, in tune and harmony,

The blessed band, in peace, hand in hand;

We love, all in white, our innocent bodies fanned

By cooling breezes, moving on the strand.

God leads the music that he wrote,

Soft, dulcet, easeful, rhythmic, deep;

An orchestra symphonic, sweeping, sweet;

And we dance in unison, by unforced rote.

These are my loved ones, made perfect now,

Like virgins clean, washed, pure for His cheer

Whose mind, translucent, transcendent, clear,

Guides all of us to almighty Pow-

er, now that we are here, with loved ones, home,

And we can dance and sing around the Almighty's throne.

Roy Flannagan (with apologies)

________________________________

From: milton-l-bounces at lists.richmond.edu on behalf of Dr. Larry Gorman
Sent: Mon 5/18/2009 2:31 PM
To: John Milton Discussion List
Subject: RE: [Milton-L] Milton's Heaven in 25 words or less

You think he means to be?

________________________________

From: milton-l-bounces at lists.richmond.edu [mailto:milton-l-bounces at lists.richmond.edu] On Behalf Of Michael Bryson
Sent: Monday, May 18, 2009 1:20 PM
To: John Milton Discussion List
Subject: RE: [Milton-L] Milton's Heaven in 25 words or less

The reference to Mel Brooks was deliberate...can't help myself...the 1968 "Springtime for Hitler" remains the single funniest thing I have ever seen.

And of course, the cringing is Satan and Gabriel accusing each other of toadying ("You were!" "No, you were!") at the end of book 4. That has always struck me as a comic moment...thus, back to Mel Brooks...and what I often see as a faintly (to be grossly anachronistic) Busby Berkeley quality to some of the heaven scenes in PL and PR. Milton is sometimes very funny...

Michael

---- Original message ----

Date: Mon, 18 May 2009 14:11:30 -0400
From: "FLANNAGAN, ROY" <ROY at uscb.edu>
Subject: RE: [Milton-L] Milton's Heaven in 25 words or less
To: "John Milton Discussion List" <milton-l at lists.richmond.edu>
>Michael: Wonderful to try the sonnet, but the image of dancing to the beat might be too close to Mel Brooks ("Springtime for Hitler" in The Producers, or "Puttin' on the Ritz" in Young Frankenstein) or Woody Allen (Mighty Aphrodite, choral scenes). I wonder what kind of dance Milton might have liked to dance in Heaven. The musical arrangement rings true: God must be a good composer, with musical children.
> 
>I assume that it is the almost-bad angels who are doing the cringing?
> 
>This could set off a wave of sonnets. Should we emend to "fourteen lines, unless you have a tail"?
> 
>Roy Flannagan
>
>________________________________
>
>From: milton-l-bounces at lists.richmond.edu on behalf of Michael Bryson
>Sent: Mon 5/18/2009 1:53 PM
>To: John Milton Discussion List
>Subject: Re: [Milton-L] Milton's Heaven in 25 words or less
>
>
>"Milton's Heaven"? Where? In Paradise Lost? In DDC? In a constructed (by the critic) version of the one that presumably resided in Milton's imagination?
>
>Here's a version of the one this critic sees (and therefore, in some sense constructs) in Paradise Lost, though in sonnet form (thus, of necessity, more than 25 words). The borrowings from Milton should be all too obvious, but otherwise the quality (or lack thereof) should be entirely blamed on me:
>
>Milton's Heaven
>We dance and sing, in ecstasy before
>The throne, with distances to cringe, not fight,
>Or fawn and cringe and servilely adore
>Our Heaven's awful king. What but His might
>
>Arranges every harmony and note,
>With choreography controlling motion
>Of angels' dances, learning steps by rote,
>Turn, turn, kick, turn, in chorus lines' devotion
>
>To mastery of the dance the Master calls?
>What though free will may yet illusion prove,
>Or no, but solid show as Heaven's walls?
>What matters is the dance in which we move.
>
>A tyranny or liberty in show,
>The image is ourselves, and all we'll know.
>
>
>Michael Bryson
>
>---- Original message ----
>
>
> Date: Mon, 18 May 2009 13:17:54 -0400
> From: Gregory Machacek <Gregory.Machacek at marist.edu>
> Subject: [Milton-L] Milton's Heaven in 25 words or less
> To: John Milton Discussion List <milton-l at lists.richmond.edu>
> >The bliss of gratefully resigning one's will to that of a Creator who
> >lovingly wills better things than you could imagine to will for yourself.
> >
> >Greg Machacek
> >Professor of English
> >Marist College
> >
> >It's the 25 word limit that makes the exercise fun (and challenging for
> >academics!)
> >
> >_______________________________________________
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> 
>
>
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