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 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.
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.
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. 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.
Thank you, John Milton.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (20.4MB)
Great. Downloaded for my trip home.
Awesome! Thanks for posting this!
Gardner, I listened to most of this podcast as I worked outside yesterday afternoon. The sun gradually set, I hauled and stacked wood, then dug twenty feet more of trench as you spoke into my ears, mp3 player coolly muttering in my pocket.
What a splendid, splendid talk. You fired many images for me, brought back many memories, and made me smile, even laugh out loud (“Angels make time for fun”). I recalled line after line of verse as I dug in the soil, seeing plates from Blake (_Milton A Poem_). Your students, even sitting with their eyes closed, are once more objects of envy for all of us who know you.
As you probably know I certainly cannot say no to a GardnerPodcast and this did not disappoint. Still being a relative “n00b” to Milton (my copy of Paradise Lost is waiting for the annual all night reading!) this was a wonderful introduction to Milton and his epic poem. I think your podcasts are the reason I look so smart in my English 205 class, they think I actually know about poetry! ; )
I have been reading the British Literature to 1800 blogs as they have gone through “Paradise Lost” and I am now even more eager to read it. I just love the connections they have come up with and how the poem just turns their (and my) thoughts upside down (sympathy for Satan? Tell me more!).
Thanks for sharing this and keep ’em coming!
Ah Dr. C – Listening to this particular podcast was a homecoming! When I closed my eyes, not only was I feeling Milton, but also a classroom, a teacher and a way of thinking I did not think to experience again anytime soon. Thank you so much for posting…”maybe Satan’s greatest sin is not that he wrestles with God – but that he stops…” Wonderful!!!
hey GC: just catching up on your blog & am looking forward to this podcast. In the meantime, I sent the phot oof Milton Cottage to my son as a prime example of organic architecture. Let’s talk soon!
This is wonderful, Gardner. Thank you.
Dr. Campbell!
So Milton is still your main squeeze? It’s been 6 years since I left MWC and my groups all night reading of Paradise Lost and still I carry that experience with me.
It’s Desiree! Remember, the original Stranded 101 class? Mary J? You can still google Desiree Blatchley and there I am!
I wanted to get in touch with you and figure that in this world of blogging this is the best way to do it. I have my own website now at http://www.book-club-queen.com. I’m an english teacher and so far have gotten my Masters in Ed. Maybe I shouldn’t say all this in a blog but I’d love to hear from you and am glad to see that you are thriving and well- and taking your son on college tours! Wow, does time fly or what? I too have a son of my own now 🙂
I hope you are well Dr. C. Come visit my site and let me know how you are.
Desiree Blatchley (now DiFabio)