Thursday, April 1, 2010

Was Milton an Agrarian?

I've been reading Milton's Paradise Lost (written in 1667), and came across an interesting comparison.

Satan has escaped from hell and is spying out Eden to find opportunity to deceive Eve. Beginning at Book IX Line 444:

"Much he the place admir'd, the person more.
As one who long in populous city pent,
Where houses thick and sewers annoy the air.
Forth issuing on a summer's morn, to breathe
Among the pleasant villages and farms
Adjoin'd, from each thing met conceives delight;
The smell of grain, or tedded grass, or kine,
Or dairy, each rural sight, each rural sound; "

Almost as if to compare cities to hell and rural country to eden. I'm not saying that's correct, I'm just saying. :-)

Blessings,

Jonathan Potter

2 comments:

Unknown said...

That's interesting... I guess he didn't really like cities too much! I would say your "Just Saying" is right!
Andrew B.

Jonathan said...

Many years ago my family borrowed "Paradise Lost" from the library, but at the time I was only 10 or 11 years old and felt more "lost" than anything when we attempted to read the book. I'll have to think about borrowing the book again.

Jonathan Bartlett (commenting from several hundred miles closer to you than usual, in Duluth, MN)