'Through Mazes Running': Rhythmic Verve in Milton's L'allegro and Il Penseroso

Abstract

At a time when interest in literature of the seventeenth century is focused on contextual and especially political meanings, this article reaffirms the central importance of rhythm to the experience of great poetry by concentrating on two poems where it is unusually important to respond to rhythm and find a vocabulary for discussing it. The inadequacies of traditional foot‐substitution prosody for these poems are demonstrated, and a working method of analysis based on the writings of Derek Attridge is outlined. The prosodic implications of Milton's choice of ‘eights and sevens’ for the main body of the poems are explored. The rhythmic verve of the poems is shown to come from the interaction of prosodic discipline and liberty, and particularly from these three factors: the unusual flexibility of Milton's heptasyllables; the frequent interfusion of the prevailing accentual‐syllabic prosody with the lyricism of accentual prosody; and, in comparison with contemporary writing in tetrameter, the pervasive freedom with which Milton handles all his prosodic resources. The Companion Poems have aroused very diverse modes of interpretation, and it is suggested that how the poems are performed rhythmically influences how meaning and tone are felt.

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