Well, I have been reading some epic stuff to spend my time!
Imagine what I read! Paradise Lost[1]
and the corollary to the main book, Paradise
Regained![2]
John Milton a great poet of the seventeenth century wrote it when he had gone
completely blind! That was in 1652 and this book was published in 1667; in
1671, he wrote Paradise Regained and
his death was in 1674. Paradise Lost
has 12 books (chapters) and it is written in blank verse, without rhythmic
endings. Let’s see more details.
John Milton was born in 1667 and showed tremendous potential
as a poet. When young he wanted to write an epic poem on King Arthur and his
heroic deeds, on line with the ancient epic poems like Iliad by Homer in Greek
and Aeneid by Virgil in Latin. While Iliad narrated the Trojan War, the Greek
coalition of forces under the King Agamemnon, attacking Troy and winning,
Aeneid is about the Trojan hero Aeneas, who escaped the burning city of Troy
and later became the ancestor of Rome and Roman Empire. However, Milton as he
grew older considered an unorthodox subject based on the Bible, God’s creation,
the first human pair Adam and Eve, their first disobedience against God,
Satan’s role in it, and how Adam and Eve got thrown out of the paradise, with sin
and death entering human life. This, in my opinion, was a great subject worth
an epic, in English, bringing glory to God and England, Milton’s country.
The first book narrates the fall of Satan and his angels,
driven out of heaven, after he raised his banner of revolt against the Almighty
God. They are now fallen into Hell, in a place of utter darkness called chaos, onto a burning lake. Though the
prime cause of man’s fall, earth and heavens or humans have not yet been
formed. Satan calls for a full council of all his fallen angels at a place
called pandaemonium to review the
situation, comfort those who fought along with him and had shared this ignoble
fate, and to assess what chance was there to regain their position in Heaven
and to discuss the rumor that was going on in the Heaven, which the prophets
have foretold that God is planning to create a new world and a new kind of
creature.
In the next book, Satan debates whether they should engage in
another battle to regain the lost Heaven. Some of his dark angels argue for it
and against it. One section recommends that they should explore the truth of
the prophecy that God is about to create a new world and a new creature to
inhabit that world. Satan undertakes to take up this search and dismisses the
council. He comes to the gates of Hell which are closed shut, but he persuades
the guard to open it for him to go in search of this truth. Once opened the
Hell stood wide open, for the gatekeeper is not empowered to close it, for she
was not even authorized to open it!
In the third book, Milton shows God seated in His throne who sees
Satan fly towards the world He had newly created. Conferring with His Son
seated at His right, God foretells the success of Satan in perverting the new
creation, the mankind. But why doesn’t He do something about it, to prevent it
from happening? In His justice and wisdom, God who has created man free and with
ability to withstand such assaults, will not interfere with the decision of
Adam. But God proclaims His grace towards man, in that he did not fall out of his
own malice but by Satan who seduced him. But grace cannot be extended without
satisfaction of divine justice. Son voluntarily offers himself as a ransom for
man, to redeem him from his sin. Father accepts this offer, orders his
incarnation and exaltation of His Son above all earth and heaven and that
angles should worship him. By now Satan finds the new earth and alights near
angel Uriel, the regent of the orb of the world, taking the form of a lesser
angel and declaring his desire to see the new world that God has created, the
Paradise.
In the next book, Satan is already in the vicinity of Eden, attempting
to enter in. He sits on the Tree of Life in the shape of a bird, cormorant and
watches in envy the first pair, Adam and Eve, happily chatting with each other.
Satan gathers from their conversation that God has forbidden them to eat the
fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Meanwhile after letting
him go, Uriel recognizes the deceitfulness of Satan and warns Gabriel, who is
in charge of the gate of Paradise that some evil spirit has escaped Hell and
passed down to the Paradise in the guise of a good angel. Gabriel assures him
to find out the spirit before morning. Adam and Eve, as the evening approaches,
prepare for their night’s rest, after their evening worship. Gabriel employs
his night watch to go around the Paradise and catch the evil spirit. They find
the spirit in the form of a toad, tempting Eve, by whispering false dreams into
her ear. He was caught and brought before Gabriel, but he manages to fly out of
Paradise.
In book 5, Eve tells her husband Adam the troublesome dreams
she had in the night and He comforts her and they start their morning labor of
tending the garden after their morning worship. God sends the angel Raphael to
Adam to warn him of the dangers involved in the freedom of choice that he has,
and about the enemy, who and why he is his enemy. Raphael warns Adam starting
from the rebellion of Satan and how he is around to spoil the happiness and
bliss of human beings, God’s new creation. Eve also joins them.
In the next book, Raphael explains the battle in the Heaven
against Satan and his angels, with Michael and Gabriel leading God’s army.
However when they were slightly discomforted by Satan and his angels, God sent
on the third day His Son Messiah, who defeated Satan and his cohorts, driving
them towards the wall of Heaven. The relinquished army of Satan had to leap
down from Heaven and they all landed in Hell, the place of punishment prepared
for them in the deep. Messiah having accomplished his Father’s directions
returned to Him.
In the book seven, Raphael continues to narrate matters of
importance to Adam, explaining why this new world was created. After expelling
Satan and his angels from Heaven, God desired to create a new world and people
to inhabit it. So He sent His Son to create another world and the creatures to
be in it in six days, which the Son complied with. It was a world created with
sons of men in the image of God, who will dwell therein, worship Him, be holy
and just, and rule over all His works, the creatures in the sea, air and on
earth.
Adam, in the next book, relates to Raphael what he remembered
of his own creation, he being placed in Paradise, his talk with God about his
loneliness and God creating Eve and his first meeting with Even and his
marriage to her. Eve chose not to be a part of most of the conversation and it
looks as if only Adam got all the instructions and warnings. When Adam wanted
to know about celestial movements Raphael instructs him to desire to know only
those that will bring honor and glory to God and he departs.
Satan returns to Paradise in the next book, under the guise
of a mist by the night and enters into a seeping serpent. As Adam and Eve
prepare to go about their morning duties, Eve proposed that they divide areas
among themselves and go separately to work, so that more work could be
accomplished. Adam was not happy and forewarns her not to be separated from
him, her husband, lest some evil befalls her. Eve insists she goes alone, even
if it is just to test her strength. Adam relents at last and they go to
different parts of the garden to tend the plants. Serpent finds Eve alone and
starts to seduce her, first by flattery of her looks and then by creating in her
a wonder how a serpent could speak. Serpent cunningly tells her that he
obtained the power of speech and reason by eating the fruit of the tree in the
garden and when her curiosity is evoked, guides her to the Tree of Knowledge,
which she immediately identifies as the tree, whose fruits God had forbidden
them to eat.
Serpent with many arguments wins her confidence and she
plucks a fruit and eats and deliberates whether she should give it to her
husband or not. She reasons out that in case he does not eat, God would create
another Eve for him and he can live happily ever after with her, whereas she
herself will be condemned and lost. Not able to bear that thought she brings the
fruit to Adam and he realizing that she is lost, wonders whether to eat it or
not. Finally he decides to cast his fate with her due to his deep love for her
to share whatever her fate would be and eats the fruit. Having eaten the fruit
both find themselves naked and start to blame each other, having lost their
innocence and ignorance. Satan, having accomplished his work, slips away in
silence.
Book ten opens with man’s transgression reported by the
angles to God, acknowledging that they could not prevent Satan’s entrance to
Paradise. God declares that the entrance of Satan could not have been prevented
by them and send His Son to judge the transgression and to give suitable
sentence to the offenders, which he does. Sin and Death, who were sitting till
then at the gates of Hell, now enter the new world. To make the travel of man
to the Hell easier they build a bridge, a broad highway over Chaos. Satan
arrives at Pandaemonium and was
applauded for his success in his mission by his angels. But by the punishment
awarded to them by the Son, all Satan’s angels had been transformed to hissing
serpents. God foretells that final victory would be that of His Son and directs
His angels to make some alterations in the Paradise. Adam and Eve lament their
fate, blame each other, but finally reconcile to their fate and take solace in
the promise of God that her seed will crush the serpent. They realize the only
way open to them is to repent and seek forgiveness of their transgression and
live in hope.
In the next book, the eleventh, Son of God intercedes for the
fallen pair, bringing up their repentance and prayers to God, who accepts them,
but declares that they cannot live in Paradise anymore. God sends Michael and
Cherubim to dispossess Adam and Eve of Paradise and send them away after
revealing to Adam the nature of the future things to happen until the Flood,
which Michael does. Here again Eve is not shown the future, but only Adam!
In the last book, the twelfth, Michael shows Adam the visions
of the future, regarding Abraham and how through him will come the Seed of the
woman who will crush Satan and redeem mankind by paying the ransom. He explains
the incarnation of the Seed of woman, the Messiah, his death and resurrection
and ascension, and the state of the church till his Second Coming. Adam greatly
comforted and satisfied of the future of his generations, descends the hill, wakes
up Eve who was sleeping through all these, but joins him with a submissive heart.
Michael holds them in each of his hands and leads them out of Paradise. Cherubim
and the fiery sword take their positions to guard the Paradise that was the dwelling
of man.
Milton closely adheres to the biblical narratives in most places,
but lets his own imagination fly in other places, which is how it should be, being
a work of art. But his treatment of women, I am not happy at all, but may be that
in 17th century that was the accepted norm and who am I to judge him, living in 21st century? All in all it was an interesting reading,
but without the editor’s notes and biblical understanding I would have been totally
lost in many places!
All praise to God for such a beautiful poem written for His glory
and honor.
[1][1]
John Milton, Paradise Lost, ed. with notes
by John Leonard, Penguin Books, New Delhi, 2000
[2][2]
John Milton, Paradise Regained, Bibliotech
Press, New Delhi, 2018
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