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| the bottomless pit;"the deep" in the King James Version of the Bible |
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| (Gk. "in other words') any story with both literal and symbolic levels of meaning |
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| a reference to history or literature (John Milton's allusions are often classical or biblical) |
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| a direct address made to a person, place thing, or idea without the expectation of a response |
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| unryhmed iambic pentameter; a ten-syllable line with stresses on the even syllables (Milton's epic is composed in this meter) |
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| a tradition of epic verse in which the poet makes a list of ships, warriors, or other things intended to summon up a vast inventory for the reader's imagination |
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| of or referring to the heavens or the abode of God |
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| along with Seraphs and Thrones, the highest tier of the angelic hierarchy |
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| in literary usage, a tradition (Milton employed the epic traditions of the catalogue, beginning in media res, and the scene of supplication) |
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| (L. "god out of the machine") an artificial ending imposed on the characters rather than arising from them (This originates in a convention of Greek drama: when the plot was overcomplicated and not resolvable by human means, an actor dressed as a god was lowered onto the stage by means of a crane -the "machina"-and he would simply order the conflict to cease.) |
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| a poem that mourns the death of an individual or the passing of earlier, happier times |
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| a long narrative poem with a vast setting and heroic actions told in a formal style |
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| a poem that celebrates a wedding |
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| referring to the upper reaches of the atmosphere; hence, celestial (Milton often used it to mean "spiritual") |
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| a hierarchy assumed by many writers of the Middle Ages and Renaissance that begins with the highest order of angels and ends with earth and rocks (Humans are in the center and may become more like angels or more like animals.) |
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| a ranked series (Because of the age in which Milton wrote- and despite his love for freedom- he ranks the angels and uses the great chain of being.) |
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| a convention of the epic that dictated that the poet start in the middle of the story at a dramatic moment, using flashback to fill in the antecedent events, or "backstory" |
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| a convention of the epic in which the poet called on a muse for inspiration in writing the poem |
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| any discrepancy between appearance and reality; dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows things the characters don't know; situational irony occurs when there is a reversal of expectations; verbal irony occurs when there is a disjunction between what is said and what is meant |
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| a form of poetry in which the poet's personal thoughts and feelings are expressed; distinguished from narrative poetry in which the poet tells a story and dramtic poetry in which the poet creates characters who express their feelings (Paradise Lost is a narrative, but Milton often speaks in his own lyric voice.) |
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| the belief of Medieval and Renaissance writers that the planets and stars were affixed to crystalline spheres that rotated around the earth, producing music as they moved and vibrated |
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| a poem of praise often employing apostrophe |
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| a seeming contradiction that is nevertheless true |
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| a form of poetry that idealizes the lives of shepherds, sheperdesses, and country life in general; an idyll |
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| with Thrones and Cherubs, a member of the highest order of angels |
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| a speech delivered as an aside by a character on stage expressing the inner thoughts of the character |
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