L318 4896 MILTON
Judith Anderson

11:15a-12:30p TR (30 students) 3 cr., A&H.

Close study of Milton’s major poems–Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes. Emphasis will be on the special relation of meaning to method in Milton’s poetry, with some attention to the historical context of his religious, social, and political ideas. We’ll also read and discuss a number of Milton’s shorter and earlier poems–his sonnets and “Lycidas,” for example–and some of his prose writings, such as Areopagitica, his tract defending the freedom to publish, since the prose texts cast light on his major poetic achievements. There will be two papers, an hour exam, and a comprehensive final, in addition to other assignments of a more occasional sort. The text that we'll be using is The Riverside Milton, ed. Roy Flanagan.