I am having a bit of an issue

I am having a bit of an issue.

I've been trying to read Paradise Lost and try as I might I'm incapable of finding anything about the language poetically interesting. It barely reads like poetry to me at all.

I know Milton is hugely respected as a poet, so what is going on here. What am I missing, or is this a common response to him

it's lost on you

You must be a women

If you were living in the 17th century, then yes it would be a common response. Have you tried reading other non-rhyming poetry?

this makes sense

I'm bought Paradise Lost with the ilustrations by Gustavo Doré, i can't wait for it to arrive!

For example:

O Myriads of immortal Spirits, O Powers
Matchless, but with th' Almighty, and that strife
Was not inglorious, though th' event was dire,
As this place testifies, and this dire change [ 625 ]
Hateful to utter: but what power of mind
Foreseeing or presaging, from the Depth
Of knowledge past or present, could have fear'd,
How such united force of Gods, how such
As stood like these, could ever know repulse? [ 630 ]

How is this even poetry? Why not just write this in normal sentences

I've read poetry of all kinds before, and while I'm extremely selective about what I like, I can always recognize that the medium makes sense for what the writer is doing.

With Milton that factor that I instinctively identify as being poetic just isn't there at all.

Metre you dickhead. if you have the penguin edition there is a foreword by Marvell lamenting the fact he is writing in rhyme and a foreword by Milton denigrating rhyming. Also, subvocalise.

I read the foreword, and I'm well aware of what metre is, this has nothing to do with rhyming. Again I'm not trying to say Milton is worthless, or that I know better, I am genuinely surprised by my reaction to his writing, and was wondering if other people had had a similar one.

Haven't read it yet but I know Clive James agrees with you

clive james is also an awful poet

just look his divine comedy. absolute drivel.

So nobody else has had this reaction? I'm a bit perplexed, I don't see eye to eye with everyone about the established classics but this goes way beyond matters of taste.

It makes me feel that i'm just missing something, if people can read this and feel the way they do when they read other poets.

Damn fucking plebeians. Blank verse! Iambic pentameter! I know these words mean nothing to you, but know that It takes an art to read it correctly. If it's not in you, go read some bible first. Especially the psalms. Read it out loud. Then read Homer. Loud. Then read Virgil. Loud. Then read Dante. Loud. Then read Shakespeare's. By then you should be able to appreciate the glory of blank verse.

If you had read the thread you would see that none of the concerns you raise are relevant. It has nothing to do with blank verse.

Poetry involves the associations between words put in a particular order and structure creating a multitude of effects beyond what is normally appreciable by analysis of content, chronological development, or sophistication of grammar. Nothing in Milton gives me the impression that he's accomplishing this, or even trying to.

Again, I am simply asking if others have had this experience, I even searched online and couldn't find much that was related.

I am not quick to discount styles I'm not accustomed to, I just see nothing in Milton's writing that seems like poetry.

I feel like I'm reading an essay more than anything else

Interesting reception to Milton, OP. I didn't have that experience myself at all, despite having read very few poems, let alone the Bible or epics, before Paradise Lost. I think you're not likely to find any kind of meaningful answers here, since some things you just won't like, even if it is a seminal work in the canon, and that's natural. My only recommendation would be to look up a video or audiobook of it being narrated by someone you think does a good job, and then maybe you'll come to like the poetry in it more.

How is it not poetry? There is a lot of shit going on in that passage alone.

Milton was a boss, honestly. For example, the enjambment of "Powers / Matchless" is used to convey the inability of Man to understand these unearthly matters. It escapes the line like it escapes human imagination.

Metre is also incredibly important to all poetry, however I'll admit I'd have to do a lot of studying to understand all of it in Milton, and it's not easily recognisable upon first reading. I think for metre you do need a degree of training to really appreciate how lines can 'flow' in poetry.

I'd recommend giving it another shot though, Books I and II especially are awesome.

Blank verse in english is a failed attempt to meme the greek and latin poetry that flowed thats to long vowels. Unrhymed english poetry is a fucking joke, though your passage clearly has some slant one (strife-testifies, Depth-Gods, dire-mind)

>since some things you just won't like, even if it is a seminal work in the canon, and that's natura
I actually quite like the text, it just doesn't register as poetry. There are a lot of things I like a good deal less that are obviously poetry to me.
>My only recommendation would be to look up a video or audiobook of it being narrated by someone you think does a good job, and then maybe you'll come to like the poetry in it more.
Thanks, I'll try this. I have a hard time listening to things rather than reading them but I have never been this much at odds with popular consensus before so it seems worth the effort.

>Milton was a boss, honestly. For example, the enjambment of "Powers / Matchless" is used to convey the inability of Man to understand these unearthly matters. It escapes the line like it escapes human imagination
Could you elaborate on this? After you mentioned it the turn from end of line to beginning of the new seemed more potent

>the enjambment of "Powers / Matchless" is used to convey the inability of Man to understand these unearthly matters. It escapes the line like it escapes human imagination.
Ahahahaha holiest of keks
>poetryfags

try listening to a recording of it. Probably find one on youtube

>Again I'm not trying to say Milton is worthless, or that I know better, I am genuinely surprised by my reaction to his writing
I see this mentality all the fucking time. Its so dishonest and evasive it makes me want to tear my hair out.

If you're being 100% sincere, then how the fuck can anyone help you with this other than yourself? No one here knows you.
And if you're being insincere, then fuck off.

I think Eliot agrees with you.

I am being completely sincere. i am not asking to be 'helped', I just asked if anyone had had the same experience.

Poetry matters a lot to me so I want to know what i am missing.

I was hoping somebody who had the same initial reaction i did might help me see what wasn't obvious

Slug through it. After the first couple books you should pick up the rhythm. READ IT OUT LOUD.

do you not read the parallelisms? hear the use of m's in the firs bit? the assonance in "FOreseeing Or presaging"?
also the powers/ matchless enjambment
that mentioned

mind/foreseeing as well

read more, seriously, read more
yeah he went a bit far trying to prove the lines worth, but whateve

heh

For one thing, look at Milton's semantic field in that passage:
>Myriad
>immortal
>Powers
>Matchless
>Almighty
>(in)glorious
>Power
>force
and also
>Strife
>Dire
>Dire (again)
>Hateful
>Depth
>fear'd
>repulse

Count the number of open vowels in the first line alone, the letter O appears five times and on its own twice.

I think the trouble you might be having is that Paradise Lost is just about the most enjambed poem in the English language, something like 2/3rds of its lines run on. Look at the short bit "and this dire change [enjamb] hateful to utter" [caesura] "but what power of mind foreseeing [enjamb] or presaging" [caesura] "from the depth [enjamb] of knowledge past or present" [caseura] "could have feared [end stop]". Milton is allowing the verse to flow, but also look at why Milton ends it with the words and phrases he does. Look at "from the Depth/of knowledge past or present". You read "from the Depth" and the line ends. "the Depth" of what? The mind automatically jumps to Hell, most obviously, or at least some really dark place underground. But the semantic unit doesn't end at the end of the line and rushes onwards, and in the next line your first image of "the Depth" being that of "Hell" is upset by Milton revealing it is "the Depth/of KNOWLEDGE" instead. Milton writing in verse here, fluid, flowing lines where the syntactical unit is always breaking out of the line, allows Milton to achieve a subtle effect linking knowledge to the underworld. Which, if one knows the theme of Paradise Lost, is quite important.