The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems (183 page)
Read The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems Online
Authors: John Milton,Burton Raffel
Tags: #Fiction, #General, #Literary Collections, #Poetry, #Classics, #English; Irish; Scottish; Welsh, #English poetry
2549
[adjective]
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2550
floor [noun, and grammatical subject; the verb is “smiled,” at the end of the next line]
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2551
harmony, music in parts
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2552
harmoniousness
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2554
lower part of a robe
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2559
splendid radiance
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2561
fourth of the nine orders of angels
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2562
sixth of the nine orders of angels
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2563
the fallen angels
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2564
sentence, judge
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2567
curved surface
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2569
(1) sudden incursion, raid, (2) a road in, entranceway
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2570
harsh, severe, pitiless
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2571
at large = unconfined, at liberty
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2572
Himalayan mountain
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2573
leaps, often on horseback [verb]
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2574
leaving his usual surroundings, shifting
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2576
origins, sources
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2579
partly in China, partly in Tibet
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2580
cane, bamboo
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2581
[adjective]
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2582
plenty, abundance
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2585
unnaturally
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2586
hurry [verb]
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2588
transported
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2589
Enoch and Elijah: see Genesis 5:24 and 2 Kings 2:11
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2590
Shinar, in Babylonia
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2591
if they had
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2592
means, resources
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2593
singly, one by one
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2594
he = as per line 471, below: Empedocles
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2595
considered, judged, thought
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2596
foolishly credulous/sanguine
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2597
he = as per line 473, below: Cleombrotus
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2598
as described in Plato’s
Phaedo,
which he had just read
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2599
too long to tell of
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2604
frauds, trash
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2605
where Christ was crucified
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2606
clothes, habits
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2608
i.e., in Franciscan garments
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2609
i.e., “or so they said,” proposed, prated
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2610
all as in Ptolemaic astronomy: the “trepidation” was the shaking of the spheres
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2611
small door/gate
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2613
[trisyllabic, first and third accented]
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2614
sideways, across
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2615
one league = ca. three miles
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2616
askew, out of the right course
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2618
dispensations
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2619
[the pun is surely deliberate]
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2620
[noun, and subject of the verb “turned,” immediately following]
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2623
the decorated entrance of a building
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2626
i.e., making the distinctions of dark and light that indicate depth, color, etc.
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2627
[both bisyllabic, first accented]
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2628
see Genesis 28
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2629
mystically, allegorically
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2630
i.e., this is Jacob’s “ladder”
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2634
commands, injunctions
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2635
(1) choice regard = well-chosen/careful attention
or
(less likely) (2) choice regard = deliberately observed
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2636
Paneas = “spring of Dan” a city near Mt. Hermon, in northern Palestine, at a spring of the River Jordan; now Banias
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2639
Beersheba, in southern Palestine
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2642
(1) of good appearance, (2) large
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2644
constellation, the Scales
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2645
Aries, the Ram
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2648
[verb; rhymes with “finds, minds, binds,” etc.]
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2649
smooth as marble
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2651
in which the Hesperides, daughters of Night and Darkness, guarded a tree that bore golden apples
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2653
“away from the center,” which in this astronomy = the earth
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2654
i.e., whether Ptolemaic or Copernican
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2656
at a distance from
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2660
proper, fitting
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2662
powers, qualities
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2664
made of glass
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2665
telescope: Milton had visited Galileo and looked through his telescope
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2667
stamped, impressed
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2668
see Exodus 28:17–20
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2669
i.e., the so-called philosopher’s stone
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2670
the god also known as Mercury, “volatile” because fond of trickery and furtiveness
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2671
sea god, a shape-shifter
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2672
glass vessel with a beak, used by alchemists for distilling operations
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2673
mythical essence
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2674
liquid, drinkable
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2676
master chemist (or alchemist)
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2681
line (of sight)
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2682
identifiable distance
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2683
see Revelation 19:17
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2684
tiara, headdress
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2685
luminous, shining brightly
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2687
commission, mandate, responsibility
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2688
thought, reflection
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2691
fully grown, mature
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2692
spread, shed [verb]
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2693
a small, inferior crown
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