Student: Bianca Ioana Floroaica

“`Is this the region, this the soil, the clime,’

Said then the lost archangel, `this the seat

That we must change for heav’n, this mournful gloom

For that celestial light? Be it so, since he

Who now is sovran can dispose and bid

What shall be right: furthest from him is best

Whom reason hath equalled, force hath made supreme

Above his equals. Farewell happy fields

Where joy for ever dwells: hail horrors, hail Infernal world, and thou profoundest hell

Receive thy new possessor: one who brings

A mind not to be changed by place or time.

The mind is its own place, and in itself

Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.

What matter where, if I be still the same,

And what I should be, all but less than he

Whom thunder bath made greater? Here at least

We shall be free; the almighty hath not built

Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:

Here we may reign secure, and in my choice

To reign is worth ambition though in hell:

Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven.” (John Milton, Paradise Lost)

1. Identify the book from Paradise Lost this excerpt is from.

2. Identify caesura, explain its function in the poem and give examples.

3. Identify Latinate words and give examples.

4. Give examples of enjambment and explain their roles in the poem.

5. Find at least one example of a form that the Devil can take to become visible (you can find
examples in art, literature, cinema, sculpture, music, etc.)
1. The excerpt is from Book 1.
2. Caesura is a metrical pause or break in a verse where one phrase ends and another
phrase begins. The caesura is marked by the double slash or a comma. In the Miltonic
line,the caesura can appear after any syllable. This a feature scandalized early readers
because conventional prosodic wisdom held that the caesura should fall somewhere
between the fourth and sixth syllables of any given line.Some examples of caesura are:
” Receive thy new possessor: one who brings/ A mind not to be changed by place or
time. ” , ” Farewell happy fields/Where joy for ever dwells: hail horrors, hail Infernal
world, and thou profoundest hell ”.
3. Some Latinate words are: ”Infernal”, ”supreme”, ”ambition”.
4. Enjambament is an incomplete syntax at the end of a line. Meaning flows as the lines
progress.It gives the sensation of urgency and disorder. Some examples are: ” Is this the
region, this the soil, the clime,’/ Said then the lost archangel, `this the seat/ That we must
change for heav’n, this mournful gloom /For that celestial light?” , ” What matter where,
if I be still the same, /And what I should be, all but less than he /Whom thunder bath
made greater?”.
5. The image of the Devil is present in a great number of paintings. The Biblical scenes
often present the victory of good against evil or the levels of Hell, inspired by Dante’s
“Inferno”. For example, Fra Angelico’s “The Pains of Hell” shows Hell as a tenebrous cave.
At the base of the fiery pit is Lucifer, eating the human bodies and bathing in melting
souls of sinners. “St. Michael Vanquishing Satan” by Rafael shows St. Michael preparing
to finish his adversary, the Devil, with a spear. The Devil is depicted as pinned to the
ground, unable to fight back.