I am about half way through the book, and I have found
Poole's remarks on Milton's scholarship, poetic theory (Tasso gets good
mentions) and theology to be enlightening. Just ahead in my reading, in the
second half of the book, Poole describes Paradise
Lost. Thus far, I see some interesting reflections of my own questions and
"hunches." Indeed, I am inclined to think that this is the best book
I've ever read on Milton and Paradise
Lost. This study will certainly be helpful as I seek to appropriately
and accurately apply Milton to my ideas on the subject of philosophy and
literature.
Two remarks: 1) Poole's treatment of the
scholarship is exhaustive, to-the-point and well-selected. 2) He is making it
very "easy" (if that is the right word) for me to take Milton's ideas
and apply them to things I find interesting in Locke, Jonathan Mayhew,
Hawthorne, Melville, Nabokov, Wittgenstein, and the authors of the Declaration
and the U.S. Constitution. Reminding us at the beginning of his book that
the subject of Milton and politics has been done over and over again, Poole dismisses any anticipated claims that his project could be construed as
"whiggish," and he states instead that his subject is chiefly
Milton's theology. It is a pleasant statement.
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