Structure in Milton's Poetry

Ralph W. Condee

• Publisher: Penn State University Press
• Year: 1991
• eBook ISBN: 9780271071886
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism in Poetry
• Index: Literature

Milton's skill in constructing poems whose structure is determined, not by rule or precedent, but by the thought to be expressed, is one of his chief accomplishments as a creative artist. Professor Condee analyzes seventeen of Milton's poems, both early and late, well and badly organized, in order to trace the poet's developing ability to create increasingly complex poetic structures.

Three aspects of Milton's use of poetic structure are stressed: the relation of the parts to the whole and parts to parts, his ability to unite actual events with the poetic situation, and his use and variation of literary tradition to establish the desired structural unity.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• I. Milton's Poetical Architecture
• II. The Dynamic Structure of Paradise Lost
• III. The Early Latin Poems and "Lycidas"
• IV. The Fair Infant, "Elegia Quinta," and the Nativity Ode
• V. The Companion Pieces and "Ad Patrem"
• VI. Comus as a Multi-Dimensional Poem
• VII. "Mansus" and the Panegyric Tradition
• VIII. "Epitaphium Damonis" as the Transcendence over the Pastoral
• IX. Samson Agonistes and the Tragic Justice of God's Ways
• X. Paradise Regained as the Transcendence over the Epic
• XI. The Developing Concept of Structure in Milton's Poetry
• Notes
• Works Cited
• Index