News & Views
Poems for These Times: 11
(6 June 2020)
Adam’s Lament
from Paradise Lost by John Milton
In the epic poem Paradise Lost, the English poet John Milton (1608–1674) charts the necessary journey of humanity, in the figures of Adam and Eve, from primal innocence to the bitter knowledge of good and evil. This week’s poetic extract comes towards the end of the poem. Adam is shown the future, and laments for a world in which misery, violence and corruption are almost overwhelming, and in which ‘the sum of wisdom’ has to be hard-won.
We may feel the force of this lament, and Milton’s magnificent lines, more fully if we read the extract aloud.
Afd
Adam’s Lament, from Paradise Lost
O miserable mankind, to what fall
Degraded, to what wretched state reserved!
Better end here unborn. Why is life given
To be thus wrested from us? rather why
Obtruded on us thus? who if we knew
What we receive, would either not accept
Life offered, or soon beg to lay it down,
Glad to be so dismissed in peace. Can thus
The image of God in man created once
So goodly and erect, though faulty since,
To such unsightly sufferings be debased
Under inhuman pains? Why should not man,
Retaining still divine similitude
In part, from such deformities be free,
And for his maker’s image sake exempt?
Poems for These Times
‘Poems for These Times’ is a special collection of poetry offered in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is intended as a way of sustaining us, and to give us something on which to meditate together during these difficult and challenging times.
There will be just one poem each week, so that we can really stay with what is offered. We can read it – perhaps aloud – to ourselves or to any companions in our isolation, and sense the vibrations through our whole being. For poetry has the power to affect us on every level – body, mind, heart and soul. It has a magic, which, in the words of poet Adrienne Rich:
“… goes back very far: the rune; the chant; the incantation; the spell; the kenning; sacred words; the naming of the child; the plant, the insect, the ocean, the configuration of stars, the snow, the sensation in the body… The physical reality of the human voice.”
Of course, not every poem will appeal to everyone – that is inevitable. But there is also the possibility that staying with something that does not immediately appeal can be stimulating and helpful. Experience suggests that sustained attention and contemplation of a poem’s music, words and thoughts can be deeply rewarding.
It would be lovely to share any responses and thoughts you may have through our comments section below.
Barbara Vellacott
Sources (click to close)
Poem: John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book XI, lines 500 – 514
Image: 31 May, 2020, Dallas Texas. Following the death of George Floyd on 25 May, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban stands with Rev. Stacey Brown and Dallas Police Chief Rene Hall (right) as they gather in prayer to ask for justice against racism. Photograph: Smiley N. Pool/Staff Photographer
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I never took to Paradise Lost, couldn’t relate to the language, and now, although that is less of an issue for me, the understanding behind this extract, at least, if not the whole poem, seems wrong, or simplistic. A few years ago I started to understand the Bible (Old and New testaments) as an autobiography. How Piaget’s developmental model is almost perfectly mirrored in the overall arc of the story, from Genesis (my birth), the eating of the fruit – the development of self consciousness and the ego, through magic / mythical, concrete, operational, rational, to self réalisation / transcendence – crucifixion of the false self, the ego, death and resurrection, and finally Apocalypse/ Revelation – the Christian version of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. And our confusions and fears today are a lot about muddling our own, inevitable, endings – we are each of us guaranteed to die, after all – with an external mass event, which we are exaggerating into a literal out-there apocalypse; something we have been prone to do many times in our history.
I find this excerpt very moving, especially in counterpoint to the photo. Adam, sadly, is a seer here. Milton’s gone beyond the Bible, developing a thoughtful and vulnerable character. The hope of salvation glimmers in Paradise Lost; I’ve sometimes wondered if poets like Milton more easily pass by the angel with the flaming sword and visit paradise. I think of Milton’s descriptions in Book IV; I can feel myself in Paradise with Adam and Eve. Adam’s loss is immense, but the poetic evocation of paradise has not passed away. His final question need not be a rhetorical one. From the deformities of mind forged manacles we can be free. It’s happened. It’s possible. Milton’s Adam is learning and growing through loss; we can do likewise.
I studied Milton’s Paradise Lost for A Level English. Milton has a clear idea of Satan’s powers as clearly stated in JOB. My book ‘From Heaven to Heaven’ is based on the teleiological argument that the universe is by God’s design. As an RE teacher in many schools, I believe that proper unbiased teaching should include all religions and non-belief systems for adulthood (1998 Education Reform Act, Schedule 2). The underfunding of Comprehensive schools has resulted in a high level of Mental Health and Suicides, as per my Report on Child Suicide and London Knifings to PM Boris this year. The Education Department has advised me that £52 billion has been pledged this year. In my book, as well as noting my recommendation for a National Commission on Education, the Department has said it will follow up my recommendation for a Community Creativity Centre in each town and village to enable every child to have a creative wholistic education. Prayers, Alan Rainer
Interesting. No doubt Paradise Lost by John Milton is a masterpiece poem written by John Milton. Thanks for sharing such a great piece of English literature. It took me to those ages.