Epic Similes - Paradise Lost Book 1 - The Uncovered English

Paradise Lost Book - I

John Milton

The Epic Similes in Paradise Lost Book 1 are more functional than decorative. Discuss.

The most striking feature of Milton's style Paradise Lost Book - 1 is the profuse employment of epic similes. Milton follows in this respect the example of Homer, Virgil, Statius, Lucan, Spenser, Tasso etc and even borrows in some cases Similes already used by these epic predecessors. Where original, His Similes are drawn out of a vast range of studies and cover a wide horizon of human experience. In Book - 1 Similes are not employed for decoration and ornamentation but to provide a subtle internal commentary on characters actions, to give a welcome relief to the reader and to enhance the poetic merit of the poem. Hanford observed "A striking feature of Milton's style is his use of the epic or expanded Simile. These digression are for him a welcome means of pouring forth the treasures of his mind." James Whaler rejected the view that the Similes are decorative and said they described situations and illustrated the action.

Milton uses a number of long-tailed Similes in Paradise Lost Book - 1 to depict the fallen angels, their hellish abode and their revengeful activities. These Similes are among his chief means to present scenes and figures out side the range of human experience. In order to stress the strangeness and sublimity of these scenes and figures he also chooses for comparison things also outside human experience things remote, fabulous, mythological, historical, Biblical or natural.

The first long Simile in Book - 1 is that which describes Satan lying on the Burning lake:

"On that sea beast
Leviathan which God of all his works
Created hugest that swim the ocean stream."

In this Simile of 7 lines Milton gives a picture of Leviathan and says that like Leviathan, Satan lay stretched out 'huge and length.' The image of Leviathan and the following details are an example of "pursuing comparison beyond the limits of illustrative likeness" and expanding an image into a descriptive poem.

The suggestion of Satan's huge dimension is emphasised by means of two similes where his shield and spear are compared to the moon and the tallest pine:

"The broad circumference
Humg on his shoulder like the moon, whose Orb
Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views,
* * *
His spear, to equal which the tallest pine
Hewn on Norwegian hills,"

There is an impressive Simile where the vast armies of Fallen angels are compared to 'atumnal leaves':

"Who lay intranced
Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks
In Vallombrosa."

This vallombrosa simile is an adaptation of an epic Simile employed by Homer (Illiad II) Virgil (Aeneid VI) Dante (Inferno III). This simile implies the present miserable condition of the fallen angels and their character and provides thus an internal commentary on characters and incidents.

In the second simile to describe the fallen angels, Milton goes back to one of the familiar stories in the Old Testament, the passage of the Israelites through Red Sea, Pursuade by Paraoh whose chariots and horsemen were destroyed and lay floating in the waves that close behind Israelites.

In Locusts Simile the angels on wings are compared to the locusts and Satan to Moses and a Sultan:

"Over the realm of impious paraoh hung
Like night and darkened all the land of Nile."

Milton also compares the angels to Barbarians who came down from North and like a flood spread over the south to emphasise their countless number.

In the long roll call to the devil, Milton identifies them with the pagan deities oriental and classical. One such identification comes after the building of Pandemonium at the point where the description of the congregation of fields begins. The description of angry Jove pitching Mulciber out of heaven is an example of transposed description.

Milton also shows the multitude of devils suddenly reducing a sworn of bees. Then he compares them to human dwarfs and pigmies living beyond India mount. Next the devils are compared to 'Feiry eleves' on seeing whose midnight revelry scene belated peasants feel both joyful and fear struck. Besides these similes some sort or long tailed similes lie scattered here and there in the Book - 1.

Dr. Johnson says that Milton "does not confine himself within the limit of vigorous comparison: his great excellence is amplitude." A Miltonic epic simile goes beyond the points of comparison and gives a complete poetoc picture of some scene or incident, suggested to the mind of the poet. It is used for illustration and its purpose is to add grandeur to the poem and elevate the readers imagination to a hallowed point. Unlike typical Homeric Similes Milton's are not merely decorative comparison or digression bringing the reader welcome relief from the painful attention to the real point of comparison in an epic Simile. His similes closely bear on the theme and deserve to throw light on characters.

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