The Narrator's Journey Toward Faith in Milton's Paradise Lost

Abstract

There have been many different considerations of the invocations that begin Books I, III, VII, and IX of Milton's Paradise Lost. While some critics have stressed the personal elements, others have stressed the Orphic or prophetic traditions, and still others the link between Milton's invocations and those of the classical period. The diverse spread of interpretation of the invocations indicates the richness and complexity of Milton's poem, as well as the importance of determining the function and relevance of four rather short sections that are so personal in nature, contained in a longer, formal poem dealing with other characters.