I wrote a chunk of my Milton lecture yesterday. It looks like it's shaping up to be all about sentences . . . specifically how, in one passage, JM's sentences began with a dependence on the rhetorical style of Genesis, King James version, and then, by their own propulsion, brought him to made a pure imaginative leap into his own vision of the fifth day of creation.

Here's the passage. See if you can track what's going on: short sentence, slightly longer sentence, two enormous messy sentences, short sentence. Guess which sentences aren't paraphrasing the Bible.

Don't you love seeing Milton get all sloppy and high-strung and vivid and carried away? This, exactly this, is why I learned to love such a grumpy old man. And don't forget he invented these sentences when he was blind.

from Paradise Lost, Book VII

John Milton

And God said, let the Waters generate

Reptile with Spawn abundant, living Soul:

And let Fowl fly above the Earth, with wings

Display’d on the op’n Firmament of Heav’n.

And God created the great Whales, and each

Soul living, each that crept, which plenteously

The waters generated by thir kinds,

And every Bird of wing after his kind;

And saw that it was good, and bless’d them, saying,

Be fruitful, multiply, and in the Seas

And Lakes and running Streams the waters fill;

And let the Fowl be multipli’d on the Earth.

Forthwith the Sounds and Seas, each Creek and Bay

With Fry innumerable swarm, and Shoals

Of Fish that with thir Fins and shining Scales

Glide under the green Wave, in Sculls that oft

Bank the mid Sea: part single or with mate

Graze the Seaweed thir pasture, and through Groves

Of Coral stray, or sporting with quick glance

Show to the Sun thir wav’d coats dropt with Gold,

Or in thir Pearly shells at ease, attend

Moist nutriment, or under Rocks thir food

In jointed Armor watch: on smooth the Seal,

And bended Dolphins play: part huge of bulk

Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in thir Gait

Tempest the Ocean: there Leviathan

Hugest of living Creatures, on the Deep

Stretcht like a Promontory sleeps or swims,

And seems a moving Land, and at his Gills

Draws in, and at his Trunk spouts out a Sea.

Meanwhile the tepid Caves, and Fens and shores

Thir Brood as numerous hatch, from th’ Egg that soon

Bursting with kindly rupture forth disclos’d

Thir callow young, but feather’d soon and fledge

They summ’d thir Pens, and soaring th’ air sublime

With clang despis’d the ground, under a cloud

In prospect; there the Eagle and the Stork

On Cliffs and Cedar tops their Eyries build:

Part loosely wing the Region, part more wise

In common, rang’d in figure wedge thir way,

Intelligent of seasons, and set forth

Thir Aery Caravan high over Seas

Flying, and over Lands with mutual wing

Easing thir flight; so steers the prudent Crane

Her annual Voyage, borne on Winds; the Air

Floats, as they pass, fann’d with unnumber’d plumes:

From Branch to Branch the smaller Birds with song

Solac’d the Woods, and spread thir painted wings

Till Ev’n, nor then the solemn Nightingale

Ceas’d warbling, but all night tun’d her soft lays:

Others on Silver Lakes and Rivers Bath’d

Thir downy Breast; the Swan with Arched neck

Between her white wings mantling proudly, Rows

Her state with Oary feet: yet oft they quit

The Dank, and rising on stiff Pennons, tow’r

The mid Aereal Sky: Others on ground

Walk’d firm; the crested Cock whose clarion sounds

The silent hours, and th’ other whose gay Train

Adorns him, color’d with the Florid hue

Of Rainbows and Starry Eyes. The Waters thus

With Fish replenisht, and the Air with Fowl,

Ev’ning and Morn solemniz’d the Fift day.