Finished: Paradise Lost (Milton) Intense story of the fall of Adam and Eve. I was really not looking forward to reading 400 pages of free-style poetry, but found the book easier to read than I thought it would be. I did have to read several passages over and over if my mind wandered in the slightest, but overall, what an amazing piece of work! Paradise Lost starts with Satan down in hell, having lost his battle against God in heaven, thus thrown out and into the depths below. He decides, rather than trying to battle God and his angels again, that he will get revenge on God by destroying his precious, latest creation...man. So, he goes to the Garden of Eden, tempts Eve, and the rest is history.

What I just said in three sentences, Milton tells in over 10,000 lines of poetry. It was quite an undertaking, but a very nicely written, detailed, descriptive piece of work. I'm glad to have finally read this epic poem which is so often referenced by other authors! One thing that struck me....I included the passage below....I've never before heard that God created man to replenish (eventually) the angels up in his realm that he lost when Satan took one-third of his angels with him in battle, and then to hell. Hmm....I never heard that idea before, that man was created by God simply to fill his empty angel coffers. Anyway....here are some passages I liked.

After uttering the now famous quote, "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven", Satan and his right hand man discuss how best to get revenge on God:

Though heaven be shut,
And heaven's high arbitrator sit secure
In his own strength, this place may lie expos'd
The utmost border of his kingdom left
To their defence who hold it: here perhaps
Some advantageous act may be achiev'd
By sudden onset, either with hell fire
To waste his whole creation; or possess
All as our own, and drive, as we were driven,
The puny habitants; or, if not drive,
Seduce them to our party, that their God
May prove their foe, and with repenting hand
Abolish his own works.

God telling his Son how he made man pure, but he is predestined to fall...however, it's not God's fault, he just gave him free will:

I made him just and right;
Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall,
Such I created all th' ethereal powers,
And spirits, both them who stood, and them who fail'd;
Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.
Not free, what proof could they have given sincere
Of true allegiance, constant faith, or love,
Where only what they needs must do, appear'd;
Not, what they would? What praise could they receive?
What pleasure I from such obedience paid,
When will and reason (reason also is choice)
Useless and vain, of freedom both despoil'd,
Made passive both, had serv'd necessity,
Not me? They therefore, as to right belong'd,
So were created, nor can justly accuse
Their Maker, or their making, or their fate;
As if predestination over-rul'd
Their will, dispos'd by absolute decree,
Or high foreknowledge. They themselves decreed
Their own revolt, not I: if I foreknew,
Foreknowledge had no influence on their fault,
Which had no less prov'd certain unforeknown.
So without least impulse, or shadow of fate,
Or aught by me immutably foreseen,
They trespass; authors to themselves in all,
Both what they judge, and what they choose; for me
I form'd them free, and free they must remain.

The angel Raphael retells the entire story of how Satan and one-third of all the other angels rebelled against God and were defeated, and, in the passage, thrown into hell:

Hell heard th' unsufferable noise, hell saw
Heaven ruining from heaven, and would have fled
Affrighted; but strict Fate had cast too deep
Her dark foundations, and too fast had bound.
Nine days they fell; confounded Chaos roar'd,
And felt tenfold confusion in their fall
Through his wild anarchy, so huge a rout
Encumber'd him with ruin: hell at last
Yawning receiv'd them whole, and on them clos'd;
Hell, their fit habitation, fraught with fire
Unquenchable, the house of woe and pain.
Disburden'd heaven rejoic'd, and soon repair'd
Her mural breach, returning when it roll'd.

So then....after losing a third of his angels and worried that Satan might try to do battle again, THAT is why God decides to create man?? So he can eventually replenish his angel force? I guess that's Milton's interpretation anyway:

Yet far the great part have kept, I see,
Their station; heaven yet populous retains
Number sufficient to possess her realms
Though wide, and this high temple to frequent
With ministeries due and solemn rites:
But lest his heart exalt him in the harm
Already done, to have dispeopled heaven,
My damage fondly deem'd, I can repair
That detriment, if such it be to lose
Self-lost, and in a moment will create
Another world, out of one man a race
Of men innumerable, there to dwell,
Not here, till by degrees of merit rais'd
They open to themselves at length the way
Up hither, under long obedience tried,
And earth be chang'd to heaven, and heaven to earth,
One kingdom, joy and union without end.

After Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit, and Adam is repenting in prayer with sincerity, the Son of God appeals to God himself to have more mercy on them. He will, after all, make the ultimate sacrifice for mankind with his own life:

See, Father, what first fruits on earth are sprung
From thy implanted grace in man, these sighs
And prayers, which in this golden censer, mix'd
With incense, I thy priest before thee bring,
Fruits of more pleasing savour from thy seed
Sown with contrition in his heart, than those
Which, his own hand manuring, all the trees
Of Paradise could have produc'd, ere fallen
From innocence. Now therefore bend thine ear
To supplications, hear his sighs though mute;
Unskilful with what words to pray, let me
Interpret for him, me his advocate
And propitiation; all his works on me,
Good or not good, ingraft, my merit those
Shall perfect, and for these my death shall pay.

God instructs arch-angel Michael to show Adam the future of mankind, and lead Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden to start their new lives. Michael gives Adam a last piece of advice after showing him what will happen all the way up to the birth of Christ, his death, and ascension into Heaven:

To who thus also th' angel last replied:
This having learn'd, thou has attain'd the sum
Of wisdom; hope no higher, though all the stars
Thou knew'st by name, and all th' ethereal powers,
All secrets of the deep, all Nature's works,
Or works of God in heaven, air, earth, or sea,
And all the riches of this world enjoy'dst,
And all the rule, one empire; only add
Deeds to thy knowledge answerable, add faith,
Add virtue, patience, temperance, add love,
By name to come call'd charity, the soul
Of all the rest: then wilt thou not be loath
To leave this Paradise, but shalt possess
A Paradise within thee, happier far.