Can you provide examples of assonance and metaphor in Paradise Lost books 1 and 2?
Assonance can be defined as the repetition of similar vowel sounds, preceded and followed by different consonants, in the stressed syllables of adjacent words. It is largely employed as a means of emphasizing a particular passage, the better to make it more memorable.
In Satan's speech in Book 1 of Paradise Lost, he justifies his decision to make a heaven of hell and put as much distance between himself and the God who has defeated him:
fardest from him is best
Whom reason hath equald, force hath made supream
Above his equals.
Note the use of assonance in this passage. Satan is arrogantly asserting here that he is God's equal, but that God has only achieved supremacy over him by force.
An example of metaphor, a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action...
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to which it is not literally applicable, can be found in Milton's invocation of the Holy Spirit as muse, where he describes it in the following terms:
Thou from the first
Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread
Dove-like satst brooding on the vast Abyss
And mad'st it pregnant:
In this excerpt Milton invites us to imagine the Holy Spirit, in the shape of a dove, mating with the unformed chaos of primal matter to give birth to the cosmos. It's a pretty grotesque metaphor, to say the least, but perhaps that's the whole point. An expert manipulator of language, Milton knows exactly what he's doing. As with all great writers, he's more than aware of the extraordinary power of a metaphor that really sticks in the mind.
Can you provide an example of alliteration and a paradox from Paradise Lost, books 1 or 2?
The first two books of Paradise Lost are full of stirring martial speeches, as Satan and the other fallen Angels try to rally their spirits after their defeat. However, the use of alliteration is relatively sparse and subtle, often occurring in Milton's descriptions rather than in direct speech. There are, for instance, the repeated "m" sounds in the lines:
For never since created man,Met such imbodied force, as nam'd with theseCould merit more then that small infantry ...
Then there are a couple of instances of daring in Satan's speeches: "durst defie" and "durst dislike."
The two books are full of paradox. Few readers of Paradise Lost have failed to notice that Milton makes his Satan noble and even admirable while still being evil. Then there is the grandeur of his speech, its confidence continually at odds with the hopelessness he feels:
So spake th' Apostate Angel, though in pain,Vaunting aloud, but rackt with deep despare:
The happier state
In Heaven, which follows dignity, might draw
Envy from each inferior; but who here
Will envy whom the highest place exposes
Foremost to stand against the Thunderer's aim
Your bulwark, and condemns to greatest shareOf endless pain? Where there is, then, no good
For which to strive, no strife can grow up there
From faction: for none sure will claim in Hell
Precedence; none whose portion is so small
Of present pain that with ambitious mind
Will covet more!