Divided Empire: Milton's Political ImageryIn Divided Empire, Robert T. Fallon examines the influence of John Milton's political experience on his great poems: Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes. This study is a natural sequel to Fallon's previous book, Milton in Government, which examined Milton's decade of service as Secretary for Foreign Languages to the English Republic. Milton's works are crowded with political figures—kings, counselors, senators, soldiers, and envoys—all engaged in a comparable variety of public acts—debate, decree, diplomacy, and warfare—in a manner similar to those who exercised power on the world stage during his time in public office. Traditionally, scholars have cited this imagery for two purposes: first, to support studies of the poet's political allegiances as reflected in his prose and his life; and, second, to demonstrate that his works are sympathetic to certain ideological positions popular in present times. Fallon argues that Paradise Lost is not a political testament, however, and to read its lines as a critique of allegiances and ideologies outside the work is limit the range and scope of critical inquiry and to miss the larger purpose of the political imagery within the poem. That imagery, the author proposes, like that of all Milton's later works, serves to illuminate the spiritual message, a vision of the human soul caught up in the struggle between vast metaphysical forces of good and evil. Fallon seeks to enlarge the range of critical inquiry by assessing the influence of personal and historical events upon art, asking, as he puts it, "not what the poetry says about the events, but what the events say about the poetry." Divided Empire probes, not Milton's judgment on his sources, but the use he made of them. |
From inside the book
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... realms of his great poems . France and the Kingdoms of the Imagination From the evidence of Paradise Lost , it would appear that of these many political structures , the one that left the strongest impression on his imagina- tion was ...
... realms of Paradise Lost , in which the political imagery follows , at least outwardly , a like pattern of power - sharing . In brief , all four of the poem's realms , Heaven , Hell , Chaos , and Earth , are similarly governed . Milton ...
... realm with two kings as well . There are also co - rulers in Chaos , " where eldest Night / And Chaos , Ancestors of ... realms which modify the political imagery of the poem , bringing it closer to his readers ' experience . The word ...
... realms of Paradise Lost , the image of co - rulers is similarly modified by a family relationship ( in Chaos alone none is stated or implied ) . In Heaven and Hell the two are father and son , on Earth husband and wife . Of course ...
... realms of Paradise Lost modifies the image of co - rulers and further identifies them with the French monarchy : each of the governments of Milton's imagination includes a third figure , constituting them essentially as triumvirates ...
Contents
1 | |
25 | |
To Reign in Hell | 55 |
Heaven and Hell | 83 |
The Lords of the Earth | 97 |
Divided Empire | 119 |
The Final Things | 143 |
Embattled Humanity | 161 |
Works Cited | 180 |
Index | 186 |