Chapter V: The Style of Milton: Metre and Diction

Difficulties of literary genealogy; the ledger school of criticism;
Milton's strength and originality; his choice of a sacred
subject; earlier attempts in England and France; Boileau's
opinion; Milton's choice of metre an innovation; the little
influence on Milton of Spenser, and of Donne; Milton a pupil of
the dramatists; the history of dramatic blank verse; Milton's
handling of the measure; the "elements of musical delight";
Tennyson's blank verse; Milton's metrical licenses; the Choruses
of _Samson Agonistes_; Milton's diction a close-wrought mosaic;
compared with the diffuser diction of Spenser; conciseness of
Virgil, Dryden, Pope, Milton; Homer's repetitions; repetitions
and "turns of words and thoughts" rare in Milton; double meanings
of words; Milton's puns; extenuating circumstances; his mixed
metaphors and violent syntax, due to compression; Milton's
poetical style a dangerous model; the spontaneity and license of
his prose 170