Course: Milton with John Rogers Dnatube
share this page with the world.
Lec 1 - Introduction: Milton, Power, and ...
"Lec 1 - Introduction: Milton, Power, and the Power of Milton" Milton (ENGL 220) An introduction to John Milton: man, poet, and legend. Milton's place at the center of the English literary canon is asserted, articulated, and examined through a discussion of Milton's long, complicated association with literary power. The conception of Miltonic power and its calculated use in political...
Lec 2 - The Infant Cry of God
"Lec 2 - The Infant Cry of God" Milton (ENGL 220) Milton's early ode, "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity" (1629) is presented and discussed. The author's preoccupation with his standing as a novice poet and his early ambitions, as carefully outlined in the letter to Charles Diodati, are examined. The ode's subject matter, other poets' treatment of the Nativity, and Milton's peculiar...
Lec 3 - Credible Employment
"Lec 3 - Credible Employment" Milton (ENGL 220) This lecture examines the role and meanings of the word vocation in Milton's life-long meditation on (and concern for) what it means to be chosen by God. Milton's profound anxiety in the years following his graduation from Cambridge regarding his poetic career and, more specifically, his status as a Christian poet selected by God for greatness...
Lec 4 - Poetry and Virginity
"Lec 4 - Poetry and Virginity" Milton (ENGL 220) Milton's first publication, A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle, is examined. Milton's vision of a poet's heaven in "Ad Patrem," paired with the letter to Charles Diodati, with its particular emphasis on the need for chastity in poets, is used as a springboard to a discussion of the depiction of sexual ideals in the masque. Revelation 14, 1...
Lec 5 - Poetry and Marriage
"Lec 5 - Poetry and Marriage" Milton (ENGL 220) This second lecture on Milton's masque probes its complex depictions of virginity and chastity. The version of the masque performed in 1634 is compared with the published version of 1637, with particular emphasis on a monologue on the vanquishing powers of virginity that is created for the latter. The poet's commonplace book, specifically his...
Lec 6 - Lycidas
"Lec 6 - Lycidas" Milton (ENGL 220) Milton's poem "Lycidas" is discussed as an example of pastoral elegy and one of Milton's first forays into theodicy. The poetic speaker's preoccupation with questions of immortality and reward, especially for poets and virgins, is probed. The Christian elements of the poem's dilemma are addressed, while the solution to the speaker's crisis is characterized...
Lec 7 - Lycidas (cont.)
"Lec 7 - Lycidas (cont.)" Milton (ENGL 220) In this second lecture on "Lycidas," moments of intrusion and revelation are closely examined. Saint Peter's protracted sermon is connected with the wider context of Puritan practices and controversies. The poem's tendency to suggest pairs and substitutions is duly noted. Finally, its conclusion is read as a triumphant moment in the young Milton's...
Lec 8 - Areopagitica
"Lec 8 - Areopagitica" Milton (ENGL 220) Milton's political tract Areopagitica is discussed at length. The author's complicated take on state censorship and licensing, both practiced by the English government with respect to printed materials at the time, is examined. His eclectic use of pagan mythology, Christian scripture, and the metaphors of eating and digestion in defense of his...
Lec 9 - Paradise Lost, Book I
"Lec 9 - Paradise Lost, Book I" Milton (ENGL 220) The invocation to Paradise Lost is read and analyzed. Milton's tenure as Latin Secretary under the Puritan government, his subsequent imprisonment upon the restoration of the monarchy, and his blindness are all briefly discussed. The poet's subsequent choice of a religious subject, rather than a nationalist one, for his epic is considered in...
Lec 10 - God and Mammon: The Wealth of L ...
"Lec 10 - God and Mammon: The Wealth of Literary Memory" Milton (ENGL 220) This second lecture on Paradise Lost looks at hell and its inhabitants, as depicted in Books I and II. Milton's struggle both to match and outdo his literary predecessors is examined by way of allusions to the works of Homer and Edmund Spenser, particularly the cave of Mammon episode in Book Two of The Faerie Queene....
Lec 11 - The Miltonic Smile
"Lec 11 - The Miltonic Smile" Milton (ENGL 220) Milton's characteristic use of simile is explored in Books One and Two of Paradise Lost. Particular attention is paid to how Milton's similes work to support, undermine, and complicate both the depiction of Satan and the broader thematic concerns of the poem, such as the ideas of free will and divine providence. The critical perspectives of...
Lec 12 - The Blind Prophet
"Lec 12 - The Blind Prophet" Milton (ENGL 220) This lecture focuses on the invocation to light at the beginning of Book Three of Paradise Lost. Milton's factual and figurative understanding of his blindness is traced through his letters, Sonnet XXII, and the later epic Samson Agonistes. Particular emphasis is placed on the transformation of blindness in the corpus from a spiritual punishment...
Lec 13 - Paradise Lost, Book III
"Lec 13 - Paradise Lost, Book III" Milton (ENGL 220) In this second lecture on Book Three of Paradise Lost, the dialogue between God and the Son in heaven is explored with particular attention paid to Milton's modification of the Calvinist theory of predestination. The terms and implications of Milton's attempt to justify the ways of God to man are considered. Milton's misgivings regarding...
Lec 14 Paradise Lost, Book IV
"Lec 14 Paradise Lost, Book IV" Milton (ENGL 220) This lecture examines Book Four's depiction of Adam and Eve and the sexual politics of life in Eden. Seventeenth-century political theory, particularly the work of Thomas Hobbes, is considered with a focus on then-contemporary theories of the structure and government of the first human societies. Critical perspectives on what have variously...
Lec 15 - Paradise Lost, Books V-VI
"Lec 15 - Paradise Lost, Books V-VI" Milton (ENGL 220) The description of human sexual hierarchy in Book Four of Paradise Lost is contrasted with the depiction of angelic hierarchy in Book Five. Both the Archangel Raphael's and Satan's accounts and theories of creation are examined. The poem's complex and vacillating endorsement of arbitrary decree, on the one hand, and egalitarian...
Lec 16 - Paradise Lost, Books VII-VIII
"Lec 16 - Paradise Lost, Books VII-VIII" Milton (ENGL 220) This lecture on Books Seven and Eight of Paradise Lost focuses on Milton's account of the Creation. The poet's persistent interest in the imagery of digestion is explored with help from the proto-scientific theories of the seventeenth-century philosopher Paracelsus. The moment at which Milton names and assigns a gender to his muse is...
Lec 17 - Paradise Lost, Book IX
"Lec 17 - Paradise Lost, Book IX" Milton (ENGL 220) Book Nine and the depiction of the Fall are presented. Adam and Eve's dialogue -- especially their perspectives on labor, temptation, and the nature of the garden -- is examined. Satan's strategic temptation of Eve is closely analyzed. At the lecture's conclusion, Adam and Eve's new fallen sight is discussed, with particular emphasis placed...
Lec 18 - Paradise Lost, Books IX-X
"Lec 18 - Paradise Lost, Books IX-X" Milton (ENGL 220) This second lecture on the Fall traces Milton's use of the word wander, in all of its forms, across the poem. The transformation of wander from its pre-fallen sense to its more nefarious incarnation following the transgression is examined closely. The wider literary context of the concept of wandering, with particular emphasis placed on...
Lec 19 - Paradise Lost, Books XI-XII
"Lec 19 - Paradise Lost, Books XI-XII" Milton (ENGL 220) Books Eleven and Twelve of Paradise Lost and their radical departure from the poem's previous style are discussed. The transformation of Milton's famously sonorous verse into a more didactic mode is closely documented, and the poem's increasing emphasis on visual instruction is underscored in a study of the Archangel Michael's lesson...
Lec 20 - Paradise Lost, Books XI-XII (cont.)
"Lec 20 - Paradise Lost, Books XI-XII (cont.)" Milton (ENGL 220) In this final lecture on Paradise Lost, Book Twelve's justification for the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden is examined alongside the Genesis account. The nature of Milton's God, whether literal or liberal, is examined at length. The poem's closing lines are closely read, with substantial attention paid to Milton's...
Lec 21 - Paradise Regained, Books I-II
"Lec 21 - Paradise Regained, Books I-II" Milton (ENGL 220) This lecture treats the first two books of the sequel to Paradise Lost, Paradise Reqained. The difference in style and subject matter is described. The poem's depiction of the Son of God and Satan, specifically the characters' seeming inability to recollect any of the events of Paradise Lost or the Bible, is closely analyzed. At the...
Lec 22- Paradise Regained, Books III-IV
"Lec 22- Paradise Regained, Books III-IV" Milton (ENGL 220) In this second lecture on Paradise Regained, the three temptations are examined and Milton's unusual departure from their account in the Gospel of Luke is discussed. The poem's tacit assertion of the superiority of knowledge and ethics over action is probed. Considerable time is spent examining the Son's rejection of classical...
Lec 23 - Samson Agonistes
"Lec 23 - Samson Agonistes" Milton (ENGL 220) This introduction to Samson Agonistes focuses on a psycho-sexual reading of the poem, with particular emphasis placed on the poem's peculiar association of sexuality with violence. The characterization of Dalila and her similarity to Samson is discussed. The problems inherit in Miltonic heroism, especially self-sufficiency and the nature of...
Lec last - Samson Agonistes (cont.)
"Lec last - Samson Agonistes (cont.)" Milton (ENGL 220) In the final lecture of the course, the analysis of Samson Agonistes comes to a conclusion with an exploration of the poem's sexual imagery. Milton's choice of subject matter is puzzled over, as are the ethics of his tragic hero, particularly when compared to the heroes of Milton's previous epics. The poem is positioned as a means by...
Milton with John Rogers
Source of these courses is Yale
A study of Milton's poetry, with some attention to his literary sources, his contemporaries, his controversial prose, and his decisive influence on the course of English poetry.
Yale Website: http://www.dnatube.com/school/yale
