‘What though the field be lost? All is not lost.’ And the rousing call to arms goes on: ‘the unconquerable will and study of revenge, immortal hate, and courage never to submit or yield: and what is else not to be overcome?’ Along with Lincoln’s Gettysburg address, Nelson’s signal at Trafalgar and Churchill’s ‘Never in the field of human conflict’ we have examples of the fact that words – sometimes very few – may be not only memorable; they make a difference.
The above quotation comes from an unfashionable source. John Milton was once a man with a great reputation. He was placed at a pinnacle of literary eminence. But his fame is now demolished. His lesser poems are esteemed but his great works, particularly ‘Paradise Lost’, are written off. His influence on subsequent generations of writers is perceived as misguided and dangerous. His style is widely regarded as inflated, pompous and hollow, like the feudal trappings shaping our inherited way of doing things in the UK.
But that is not the only way to look at ‘Paradise Lost’. Agreed, Milton was taking on the impossible. Agreed, he fell short. Even his capabilities – and they shine unmistakably in his minor poems – are not equal to the task. He was attempting ‘things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme’. But what he did achieve was startling and memorable. It is unique in the succession of poets and writers who have enriched our culture. Milton conjures with the English language a penetrating and lofty study of humanity’s place in the cosmos.
‘Paradise Lost’ is about a contest between good and evil. It takes the story of the apple from Genesis and puts it in an elemental perspective. It sets Adam and Eve in a created order where determined forces, creative and destructive, war against each other. The scale is vast, the issues overwhelming. The Genesis story is not belittled by this treatment. It gains significance. Its true potency is made visible. And the outcome is a story to match the vast implications of the Christian revelation.
It is perhaps too much to expect 21st century readers to plunge into the text and savour it. There are so many other claims on our time. But a world without ‘Paradise Lost’ would be like a crown without its jewels. Our imagination would be starved where it could be enriched. We should be the poorer without it. Try reading book one. And on Christmas day we do well to turn to Milton's poem 'On the morning of Christ's nativity'.
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