- Published: January 22, 2022
- Updated: January 22, 2022
- Level: Masters
- Language: English
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Sonnet – Milton’s Paradise Lost In John Milton’s Paradise Lost, book 5, God sees the work of Satan in a nightmare of Eve’s that she tells to Adam one morning. In response, he sends the angel Raphael, the archangel whose name means “ God has healed” (Luxon, 2002), down to earth to warn Adam of the dangers of Satan’s lies having already foreseen the fall of man. Raphael comes and eats lunch with Adam and Eve and explains to them first how man and angels are connected, being made of the same material with angels being simply more refined, and then about how the war in heaven started. According to Raphael, when God appointed his Son as King of heaven, Satan was jealous and refused to accept the appointment. Sneaking away in the night with a third of the host of heaven, Satan convinced them that they were equal to the Son and should not have to bow to him. Only one angel, Abdiel, stood up to argue that because they were made by God, God was of a more refined nature even than themselves and so his son must also be. It is only through God that the angels have the wonderful life they have and therefore they should be glad to take example of what is right and good from both God and Son. Satan argued back that because they cannot remember being created, they must have made themselves and are therefore equal to God. Other arguments he brings into the discussion include ideas of skepticism, freedom, equality, and natural right (Hooker, 1996). Abdiel warns of the impending doom descending as the punishing arm of God, but still leaves alone.
The Sleepers
The sun spreads rosy light throughout the land
It creeps across the dull gray concrete roads
It reaches out with bright determined hand
To wake the sleepers from their cold abodes
The light grows stronger with each passing hour
Insisting eyes will open to the day
To see the beauty of both field and flow’r
Before the progress takes it all away
The cars are started in the early light
The workers make their way to buildings dim
They lock themselves away from daytime’s sight
And feel they’re safe from warnings of the sin
Of warming gases and resources lost
They never see the fallout or the cost
Works Cited
Hooker, Richard. 1996. “ Satan’s Argument.” The European Enlightenment. December 2, 2005. < http://www. wsu. edu: 8080/~dee/ENLIGHT/PL5. HTM> Luxon, Thomas H., ed. March, 2002. The Milton Reading Room. December 2, 2005. Milton, John. “ Paradise Lost.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature – Volume 1. Ed. M. H. Abrams. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000. 1895-1915.