Paradise Lost - John Milton

Short Milton Emulation
This poem takes place among demons and angels and in the Garden of Eden; however, as we
have seen, it involves ambitions, conflicts, arguments , and relationships that we can recognize
in ourselves and in our world. It also has a dazzling poetic style. Both of these traits make it
ripe to practice emulation.
Find approximately 8-12 lines that impressed you from book 9 of Paradise Lost - either of
description or inside a speech from Satan, Adam, or Eve- and do the following three
tasks.
1) type out the lines
2) Make an attempt at an emulation. This means you come up with your own topic (that might
loosely fit the situation) and craft your own version of the lines, containing some of Milton’s
logic, elevated diction, allusions, figurative language, sentence structure, and/or any other
interesting stylistic technique that seems interesting in the passage.
3) Write a paragraph that discusses your emulation in comparison to Milton’s lines. Explain
how you tried to capture Milton’s lines and tone, what you think worked well, and what
perhaps fell short and why. Discuss some specific details here.