The Metaphysical Period

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The Metaphysical Period

• 17th century

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• Metaphysical concerns are the common subject of
  their poetry, which investigates the world by
  rational discussion of its phenomena rather than
  by intuition or mysticism.

http//www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/metaintro.htm
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• Reacting against the deliberately smooth and
  sweet tones of much 16th-century verse, the
  metaphysical poets adopted a style that is
  energetic, uneven, and rigorous. (Johnson decried
  its roughness and violation of decorum, the
  deliberate mixture of different styles.) It has
  also been labelled the 'poetry of strong lines'.

http//www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/metaintro.htm
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AP termsDefine and categorizeWord, Style, Form,
or Technique

• Irony
• Pun
• Couplet
• Novel
• Epigram
• Feminist
• Metaphor
• Dialect
• Alliteration
• Repetition

Epic poem Lyric poem Conceit Denotation Diction Pr
overb Sonnet Mood Paradox Simile
Personification Tone Flashback Satire Rhyme Antith
esis Colloquial Controlling image Anecdote Rhyme
scheme
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John Milton

• John Milton was born in London. His mother Sarah
  Jeffrey, a very religious person, was the
  daughter of a merchant sailor. His father, also
  named John, had risen to prosperity as a
  scrivener or law writer - he also composed music.

http//www.kirjasto.sci.fi/jmilton.htm
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• At the age of twelve Milton was admitted to St
  Paul's School near his home and five years later
  he entered Christ's College, Cambridge. During
  this period, while considering himself destined
  for the ministry, he began to write poetry in
  Latin, Italian, and English.

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• In 1651 Milton became blind, but like Jorge Luis
  Borges centuries later, blindness helped him to
  stimulate his verbal richness. "He sacrificed his
  sight, and then he remembered his first desire,
  that of being a poet," Borges wrote in one of his
  lectures. One of his assistants was the poet and
  satirist Andrew Marvell (1621-78), who spoke for
  him in Parliament, when his political opinions
  arouse much controversy.

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• After the Restoration of Charles II in 1660,
  Milton was arrested as a noted defender of the
  Commonwealth, but was soon released. Milton paid
  a massive fine for his opposition. Besides public
  burning of EIKONKLASTES (1649) and the first
  DEFENSIO (1651) in Paris and Toulouse, Milton
  escaped from more punishment after Restoration,
  but he became a relatively poor man. The
  manuscript of Paradise Lost he sold for 5 to
  Samuel Simmons, and was promised another 5 if
  the first edition of 1,300 copies sold out.

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• The poem tells a biblical story of Adam and Eve,
  with God, and Lucifer (Satan), who is thrown out
  of Heaven to corrupt humankind. Satan, the most
  beautiful of the angels, is at his most
  impressive he wakes up, on a burning lake in
  Hell, to find himself surrounded by his stunned
  followers. He has been defeated in the War of
  Heaven.

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• The theme of Fall and expulsion from Eden in
  Paradise Lost had been in Milton's mind from
  1640s. His ambition was to compose an epic poem
  to rival the works of ancient writers, such as
  Homer and Virgil, whose grand vision in Aeneid
  left traced in his poem.

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Paradise Lost

• Milton created a powerful and sympathetic
  portrait of Lucifer. His character bears
  similarities with Shakespeare's hero-villains
  Iago and Macbeth, whose intellectual nihilism is
  transformed into metaphysical drama.
• Some critics have a problem with Lucifer being
  connected with heroes.

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Paradise Lost

• Milton's view influenced deeply Romantic poets
  William Blake and Percy Bysshe Shelley, who saw
  Satan as the real hero of the poem and a rebel
  against the tyranny of Heaven.

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Paradise Lost

• Many other works of art have been inspired by
  Paradise Lost, among them Joseph Haydn's oratorio
  The Creation, Alexander Pope's The Rape of the
  Lock and The Dunciad, John Keat's poem Endymion,
  Lord Byron's The Vision of Judgment, satanic
  Sauron in J.R.R. Tolkien's saga The Lord of the
  Rings.

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Structure

• Epic
• begins with an invocation
• The story continues in medias res (in the middle
  of the story)
• -just like Beowulf
• high, lofty language
• -just like Beowulf

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Purpose of PL

• Milton wrote Paradise Lost not long after the
  civil war in England.
• Could have been written to explain the suffering
  or to give meaning to the suffering after the war.

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• http//www.dartmouth.edu/milton/reading_room/pl/b
  ook_1/index.shtml

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Invocation (lines 1 26)

• On whom does Milton call to help him tell
• the story?

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What does Milton say he wants to explain first?

• What caused Adam and Eve to fall from grace and
  break Gods command.

Satan
How is Satan described?
Direct or indirect characterization?
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• Summarize the story of Adam and Eve as
• Milton tells it.

How is the fall of Adam and Eve connected to the
fall of Satan and his league of demons?
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Hell (lines 60 77)

• How is it described?

Who is Beelzebub?
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• What does Beelzebub say to Satan? (line 84 - )

What is Satans reaction to his fall into Hell?
(lines 94-99)
What do they plan to do?
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Evil

• Stubborn
• Vengeful
• Spiteful
• How is this portrayed in lines 125 155?

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Anti-/Heroic qualities of Satan
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Physical description of Satan
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Symbolism of chains

• Gods hold on Satan?
• Hatred?
• Lack of ambition?

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Word, style, form, and technique

• Word
• syntax ..but rather darkness visible
• diction descriptions of Hell, Satan, etc.
• Style
• sentence structure
• long supporting clauses
• shorter main clauses

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• Form
• epic
• high language
• invocation
• in medias res
• Technique
• indirect characterization
• allusion
• comparing Satan to creatures from other
  literary works

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Sonnets of Milton

• Analyze using list of AP terms

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Satire so far

• Gullivers Travels
• Political satire
• Tories and Whigs
• Protestants and Catholics
• Warfare Science and Technology
• Societal satire
• Human nature

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Satire so far

• Animal Farm
• Political satire
• Stalin
• Trotsky
• Communism
• Karl Marx Modernization/Industrialization

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Satire so far

• Paradise Lost
• Religious/societal satire
• Sufferings of war
• Fall of man
• Defeat of the establishment
• Righteousness of a higher power

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Is satire always funny?

• Remember the definition of satire
• writing that exposes or finds fault
• Sometime funny sometimes not

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• Imagine that you would always have someone in
  your life at your beck and call. In a journal
  entry or informal essay, describe all the things
  that you would expect this person to do for you.

http//cwx.prenhall.com/bookbind/pubbooks/miller5/
chapter8/custom3/deluxe-content.html
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I Want a Wife

• Prentice Hall
• White - 395

As you read.
Brady uses a sarcastic, or even bitter, tone to
highlight how unfair she thinks the roles of
wives are. Discuss what you think might have led
her to this sarcasm or bitterness. Be
imaginative, and use clues from the essay to help
you shape your story.
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As you read.

• Brady uses a sarcastic, or even bitter, tone to
  highlight how unfair she thinks the roles of
  wives are. Discuss what you think might have led
  her to this sarcasm or bitterness. Be
  imaginative, and use clues from the essay to help
  you shape your story.

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Subject and Purpose

• Is Brady being fair? Justify.
• Why did she write this?

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(No Transcript)
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Whats In Your Toothpaste?
Prentice Hall White - 183
As you read.

• Did you know some or all of the ingredients?
  Were you surprised or shocked by what ingredients
  are actually in toothpaste? Are you now going to
  try to find a more "natural" toothpaste?

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• Bodanis' description is intentionally
  shocking--linking the ingredients to substances
  that we would never consider putting in our
  mouths.
• Divide into three groups.
• Group A Chalk, and titanium dioxideGroup B
  Glycerine glycol, seaweedGroup C Detergent,
  formaldehyde
• To what does the author link these items? Why?

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(No Transcript)
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Homework

• Write a satire in the vein of I Want a Wife or
  Whats In Your Toothpaste
• One page