{"id":545,"date":"2007-11-09T07:57:46","date_gmt":"2007-11-09T11:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/?p=545"},"modified":"2016-08-30T15:31:39","modified_gmt":"2016-08-30T19:31:39","slug":"an-introduction-to-john-milton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/an-introduction-to-john-milton\/","title":{"rendered":"An Introduction to John Milton"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Milton's<\/a><\/p>\n

The John Milton Cottage, where Milton wrote the final parts of “Paradise Lost.”<\/em><\/p>\n

From time to time, I teach a course called British Literature to 1800<\/a>, usually with another professor or two so we can distribute expertise, keep the sections smaller, and do some tag-team lecturing at the Big Lecture Moments during the course. I’ve taught with some really smart folks who are also good performers, so the lectures are anything but dry. There’s also been quite a high standard for me to live up to as I write my own stuff.<\/p>\n

Over the years I’ve tried to use my introductory Milton lecture to articulate some of what I find so compelling about his work, and to encourage students to engage with his work in ways they’ve probably not imagined. I start with what I hope is a vivid biographical narrative, during which I ask students to close their eyes and join Milton in his blindness. I then move to an overview of what I call Milton’s “energizing principles,” those things that sparked his imagination and creativity with unusual intensity. Every time I do this lecture I revisit the first stirrings of my own passion for Milton’s work. I feel that getting in touch with those moments, and remembering myself at 22 coming to all of this splendor fresh, gives the lecture an animation and urgency that sets it apart in my own work.<\/p>\n

It’s been a few years since I’ve given this lecture, but the opportunity came again just last week, and this time I recorded it<\/a>. I offer the results here, for your judgment and I hope your enjoyment. My thanks to the many inspiring students who called this out of me; they bear no responsibility for the errors, of course. And my thanks to John Milton, a fascinating, flawed, extraordinary human being who wrote prose and especially verse that still maddens me with wonder after all these years of working with it. I have not lived up to his rigorous example of total commitment, but I hope that at least a few of the things I say here might at least bring a smile to his lips, as a latter-day Miltonist from southwest Virginia does his best to take the measure of some part of his astonishing gift.<\/p>\n

Thank you, John Milton.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/podcast\/milton_intro.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a> (20.4MB) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The John Milton Cottage, where Milton wrote the final parts of “Paradise Lost.” From time to time, I teach a course called British Literature to 1800, usually with another professor or two so we can distribute expertise, keep the sections … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4bHwM-8N","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2583,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions\/2583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}