a vote!

I propose a vote concerning the Prospectus and Annotated Bibliography.

Let's keep the due date for the Prospectus set for 5/5; however, I say we can push the Annotated Bibliography back until Monday 5/10. How does that sound?

Comment below and give a "yea" if you are in favor and a "nay" if not.

journal #9 (5/3) and the final readings in Paradise Lost

Over this upcoming weekend we will be finishing Paradise Lost at Book IX. Given the amount of time left in the semester I do not think that we should try and cram in the final three books. Still, if you are planning on using this text in your final paper, come see me for passage suggestions from Books X through XII.

Please read the following segments of the ninth book, as it is vital to the poem and to our discussion of exile in literary character. Once you've finished reading, then complete the journal entry.

Book IX

• 1-13 (Milton announces a change in his theme)
• 13-47 (Milton states his epic is more important in subject than the traditional warfare which was the subject of those epics before; cf. line 42 especially)
• 53-57 *(Satan returns to Eden, improved in fraud and malice)
• 82-97 (Satan roams, looking for the "fittest imp of fraud;" deems the snake the "subtlest beast of all the field")
• 180-191 (Satan finds his target and possesses the serpent by entering the mouth!)
• 212-219 (Eve proposes that they divide their labors; cf. note)
• 232-234 (Adam's call for domesticity; cf. line 318)
• 265-269 (Adam's worry about parting)
• 322-341 *(Eve's argument)
• 370-375 (Adam's final words of strength)
• 385-386 *(their hands withdraw from one another [VIP])
• 463-493 (Satan's thoughts upon first witnessing Eve, and his monologue of rebuke)
• 531f (Satan begins his temptation)
• 546-561 ("a goddess;" Eve's response to the snake's language)
• 579-612 (hunger and thirst drive Satan to eat; he claims upon eating that he gained reason and speech; cf. note on "apple")
• 679-701 *(his guileful argument against death by the fruit)
• 708-715 *("ye shall be as gods")
• 732 ("freely taste")
• 745-833 *(Eve's rational after the serpent's speech; her transgression; the earth "felt the wound;" her "heightened" thoughts thereafter)
• 856-916 *(Eve greets Adam, persuades him; lamenting her loss he nevertheless resolves he cannot without her live)
• 955-959 (unity of man and woman)
• 960-989 (Eve's final plea to Adam [compare to the language of Satan!])
• 997-1039 *(Adam's transgression; his "enflamed" thoughts thereafter)
• 1034-1045 *(they consummate their sin with sexual intercourse, they fall asleep)
• 1053-1059 (our parents awaken with minds darkened by "guilty shame")
• 1066-1690 (Adam laments that the are not only externally naked; he is concerned only with himself in this passage; his wish to hide)
• 1119-1167 *(the internal torment of our fallen parents; they fight verbally, blaming one another; cf. line 1164 especially)
• 1179-1189 (Adam speaks cruelly of women; "neither self-condemning" they continue to argue)

Journal #9 will be due on Monday 5/3. As with previous journals, I would like you to simply react to this last segment of reading; that is, Book IX. Think of all the themes that we have been investigating thus far in the class with regards to Milton's text. How do we see those themes playing out or completing themselves by the close of the ninth book? Is there a resolution? Are you frustrated at the outcome of things, with Satan, with Fate? Are you disappointed with mankind, or do you embrace the condition that has befallen us? This reaction needs to include at least one citation in order to receive full credit.

passages for books VII and VIII

Book VII

• 1-39 (Milton invokes the muse, yet a far different one since those called upon before)
• 59-108 (Adam requests the tale of creation to be told)
• 192-209 (Christ and the angels are the architects of "worlds")
• 243-607 *(the seven days of creation)

Book VIII

• 148-168 (obedience and the sexes)
• 249-333 (Adam relates his "awakening")
• 389-392 (a commentary on fellowship)
• 439-499 (fellowship; creation of woman)
• 604-606 (union, in mind and in soul)
• 640-643 (Raphael gives his final warning or obedience to Adam and Eve)