John Milton: An Annotated Bibliography, 1989–1999

Criticism of Individual Works: Shorter Poems

105 CRITICISM OF INDIVIDUAL WORKS: SHORTER POEMS this perspective in Paradise Lost. “He replaces it...with the ‘emanationist’ view associated with Plotinus” (151), who explains this idea in several passages in the Enneads. Cites several passages from Paradise Lost, especially the Platonic passages in book 5, lines 469–79, 483–87, and 497–501. Adam and Eve are forgiven for their transgression partly because “they had attempted only to anticipate their natural destiny, which was to attain the Platonic vision of a Return to the Author of their being” (162). Barton, Carol. 594. “‘They Also Perform the Duties of a Servant Who Only Remain Erect on Their Feet in a Specified Place in Readiness to Receive Orders’: The Dynamics of Stasis in Sonnet XIX (‘When I Consider How My Light is Spent’).” MiltonQ 32 (1998): 109–22 Believes that the historical interpretation of Sonnet 19 is incorrect, that the final line of the poem has been misinterpreted because of misreadings of the key words serve, stand, and wait. Argues that the poem does not promote passive resignation , that “it would have been unbearable, if not impossible, for someone of Milton’s talents, ego, and aggressive temperament to subscribe even momentarily to the kind of namby-pamby ‘pity poor me’ resignation implicit in the historical reading of this line” (111). Envisions the sonnet as the first major milestone in the poet’s progress toward reforming the heroic ethos of classical antiquity. Suggests that the Son of Paradise Regained best exemplifies the kind of service the sonnet ’s final line celebrates. Abrams, M. H. 591. “Five Types of Lycidas .” In Doing Things with Texts: Essays in Criticism and Critical Theory. New York: W. W. Norton, 1989, pp. 191–216. Reprinted from the revised edition of the Patrides volume on Lycidas (Huckabay and Klemp, no. 1635; see also Huckabay , no. 2331). Also reprinted in part in Hypotheses: Neo-Aristotelian Analysis 14 (1995): 14–24. Still insists, in the newly written postscript, that “we should undertake to read a poem as a unified whole— that is, as having an apt beginning and a middle section that leads coherently to a resolution which, since it requires nothing to follow it, satisfies us that the poem is complete. The degree to which a poem is a coherent and sufficient unity serves as a prime, though not sufficient, criterion of its poetic value” (214). Ahn, Kyung Won. 592. “Conflict in Milton ’s L’Allegro and Il Penseroso and W. B. Yeats’s The Tower.” MilStK 2 (1992): 131–46. In Korean. Abstract in English. Notes that both Milton and Yeats use the image of the tower and believes that they are suggesting mental conflict. Both seek an ideal state of mind in an age of change. Baldwin, Anna. 593. “Platonic Ascents and Descents in Milton.” In Platonism and the English Imagination. Ed. Sarah Hutton and Baldwin. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1994, pp. 151–62. Asserts that the Platonism in Comus reflects a dualist view of nature as expressed in the Phaedo, the Republic, and the Timaeus and that Milton discards 106 JOHN MILTON: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY, 1989–1999 Basile, Mary Elizabeth. 595. “The Music of A Maske.” MiltonQ 27 (1993): 85–98. Discusses Milton’s relationship with Henry Lawes and believes that Comus is “the result of two artists with respect for each other’s talents” (87). Asserts that “Lawes made the exactness of the delivery of Milton’s words a priority over sweet sounding notes or well-balanced phrases that comprised popular tunes of the day” (88). Analyzes Lawes’s musical style and comments on the progression of style in his musical compositions. Concludes that Lawes greatly benefited young Milton and nurtured his “distinctive style” (95). Includes the scores of two of Lawes’s songs from Comus. Baumlin, James S. 596. “William Perkins ’s Art of Prophesying and Milton’s ‘Two-Handed Engine’: The Protestant Allegory of Lycidas 113–31.” MiltonQ 33 (1999): 66–71. Holds that the “crux of St. Peter’s speech” in Lycidas lies not with identifying the two-handed engine but in “the underlying theology” of the speech (67). Believes that it “should be read as deliberately open-ended and layered in meaning” (67). Maintains that its language and imagery “recall the Puritan position on church ritual” (67). Points to a parallel in the Art of Prophesying (1607), in which William Perkins refers to wolves and an engine that has shaken the...