Lecture 6 | Hearing the War in Heaven: Sound and Sense (Book 6) | Paradise Lost in Slow Motion

Join the poetry community and study literature with me at / closereadingpoetry
This lecture continues last week’s consideration of sound and sense in poetry. There are certain moments in this epic when the lines take on a lyrical quality. In Book VI, Raphael continues his narration of the War in Heaven. The faithful Abdiel returns from the troops of rebels, suffering scorn and derision and is met at the Mount of God with praise. The Father then sends out his angels for battle.
While closely listening to the sounds of the descriptions of battle, the goal is "to heighten your awareness and to increase your sensitivity to the bodily experience of poetry. You cannot read a poem like Emerson’s eyeball, an intellectual all in all. You must bring your ears and mouth."

[@mlamferreira]

The battle narration reminded me so much of Tolkien's writing

[@geoffreycanie4609]

I found a short poem of Milton's called "On the Inventor of Gunpowder" - and in it Milton compares the creation of gunpowder to stealing a power of force from Jove's thunderbolt. So when the Devils create gunpowder in book VI, what they might be creating is a blasphemous distortion of God's own power. Just a thought.

[@closereadingpoetry]

Love that connection!

[@augustosarmentodeoliveira3023]

I need to read me some Pope

[@closereadingpoetry]

heck yeah