Just listened to John Rogers' absolutely excellent lecture on the famously wonky similes in Book One of Paradise Lost. He moves through two of the most acclaimed recent readings of them, but then adds his own take (tying together the renowned spear simile with the "Autumnal Leaves" simile below, via--and I doubt you were expecting this!--Galileo), which really makes me want to finally get around to reading his book on science, poetry and politics in the age of Milton (I've heard great things about it and have wanted to pick it up for some time). Mostly, though, it's just wonderful to have such a lengthy walk-through of the unbelievable complications in the language of passages like the description of the number of Satan's fallen brethren:
Nathless he so endur'd, till on the Beach
Of that inflamed Sea, he stood and call'd
His Legions, Angel Forms, who lay intrans't
Thick as Autumnal Leaves that strow the Brooks
In Vallombrosa, where th' Etrurian shades
High overarch't imbowr; or scatterd sedge
Afloat, when with fierce Winds Orion arm'd
Hath vext the Red-Sea Coast, whose waves orethrew
Busiris and his Memphian Chivalry,
While with perfidious hatred they pursu'd
The Sojourners of Goshen, who beheld
From the safe shore thir floating Carkases
And broken Chariot Wheels, so thick bestrown
Abject and lost lay these, covering the Flood,
Under amazement of thir hideous change (299-313).
I've been teaching figurative language lately, so I appreciate Rogers' dwelling with it--something not uncommon in other lectures throughout this very focused and thorough one-author course (which I first mentioned in the last post). This lecture especially, though, is a real treat. Go check it out.
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