the use of an elevated style, may also surely be acknowledged in Paradise Lost: . . . Milton . . . needed a style that could at once invoke and revamp the classical tradition. I shall not discuss the controversies over Milton's 'Latinate' style but only point out some things that have not been said but which help to give the impression of a classical style in Paradise Lost. Milton's method of elevating the language is the common one suggested by Aristotle: vary, within reason, the mode of normal speech by using unfamiliar words, figures, unusual forms and spellings, and, most of all, metaphors. (Blessington 78) There were (and are) those, of course, such as William Empson, Cleanth Brooks, T. S. Eliot, and others, who censured Milton's style. To them, Christopher Ricks responded with the following:That his [Milton's] style astonishes is itself some cause of surprise. The epic is of all literary kind the most dignified, the most concerned to fulfil expectation rather than to baffle or ignore it. . . . [H]e must combine two fervours: a heroic dedication to tradition; and a heroic dedication to himself, a confidence in his own greatness which will prevent his suffocating under the weight of a great tradition. (22-23)Surely it was necessary for Milton to approach his work with a great sense of decorum, both out of respect for its epic tradition and our of respect for its grand subject. The final characteristic of the traditional epic noted above is the objectivity of the poet. In Milton's case, one would be hard pressed to argue that he was able to maintain that stance, though William G. Riggs tries:It should be clear that for Milton it is the poet's submission to the voice of his muse, to divine inspiration, which ultimately distinguishes the soaring creation of Paradise Lost from an act of blasphemous pride. Milton does not, however, present the invocation of a heavenly muse as his only defense against presuming too much. Through the narra...
