John Milton June: The world was all before them

LifeVol. 73, No. 25. 1972. via.

The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide:
They hand in hand with wand’ring steps and slow
Through Eden took their solitary way.

The End.

(John Milton. Paradise Lost. Book XII, 646-49.)

I hope you enjoyed John Milton June, and sorry I was such a slug about regularly posting. Maybe next year we’ll try Milton May all over again. Thanks for coming on the ride and what willll Julyyyy beeeee….? (I’m open to ideas.)

John Milton June: Your length of life permit to Heaven

Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou liv’st
Live well; how long or short permit to Heaven.

(John Milton. Paradise Lost. Book XI, 553-4.)

cf.: “Summum nec metuas diem, nec optes.” (Neither fear nor wish for your last day.)

(Marcus Valerius Martialis, aka “Martial.” Epigramatta. Book X, Epigram 47. 13-14.)

John Milton June: Unseen spiritual creatures

via.

Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth
Unseen, both when we wake, and when we sleep.

(John Milton. Paradise Lost. Book IV, 677-8.)

John Milton June: Incensed with indignation Satan stood

“Don’t” by crayonboxx on the d.a.

Incens’d with indignation Satan stood
Unterrify’d, and like a comet burn’d
That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge
In th’ arctic sky, and from his horrid hair
Shakes pestilence and war.

(John Milton. Paradise Lost. Book 2, 707-11.)

Fury.

John Milton June: As stars to thee appear

Andre de Dienes.

A broad and ample road, whose dust is gold,
And pavement stars, —- as stars to thee appear
Seen in the galaxy, that Milky Way
Which nightly as a circling zone thou seest
Powder’d with stars.

(John Milton. Paradise Lost. Book VII, 577-581.)

John Milton June: Endowed with all their gifts

via.

In naked beauty more adorn’d,
More lovely than Pandora, whom the Gods
Endow’d with all their gifts.

(John Milton. Paradise Lost. Book IV, 713-715.)

Oh, that Eve.

John Milton June: Poor, poor, pitiful me.

Satan is a little black raincloud, hovering over the honey tree.

Thus with the year
Seasons return; but not to me returns
Day, or the sweet approach of ev’n or morn,
Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer’s rose,
Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;

But cloud instead, and ever-during dark
Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men
Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair
Presented with a universal blank
Of Nature’s works to me expunged and razed,
And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.

(John Milton. Paradise Lost. Book II, 40-50.)

cf.: Faust. Don’t you think?

John Milton June: The best society, sometimes

For solitude sometimes is best society,
And short retirement urges sweet return.

(John Milton. Paradise Lost. Book VIII, 249-250.)

I have actually not had a great deal of solitude whatsoever lately, but I have been hustling my sweet ass from Hell to Kansas just about every day with this and that, and I do plan to try and take some alone time soon. Maybe just a drive and some photos or something. I’ve enjoyed my flurries of activity, but you can’t drift away from your center, and I find my center in stolen, quiet moments here and there. Got to capture me some of those.

John Milton June: Long is the way and hard

                                        Long is the way
And hard, that out of Hell leads up to Light.

(John Milton. Paradise Lost, Book 2, 432-3.)

John Milton June: Imparadised

These two
Imparadis’t in one another’s arms,
The happier Eden, shall enjoy thir fill
Of bliss on bliss.

(John Milton. Paradise Lost, Book 4, 505-508.)

Charming, romantic, a little sexy even, yes? These lines crop up on “quotes about love” here and there. But the scene is not so romantic when you consider it’s being reported to you by an envious, voyeuristic Satan who is literally hellbent on revenge on Man. Here’s what’s actually around that quote:

      Sight hateful, sight tormenting! thus
[these two imparadised blah blah blah bliss]
while I to Hell am thrust,
Where neither joy nor love, but fierce desire,
Among our other torments not the least,
Still unfulfill’d with pain of longing pines.

(Ibid. 505-510.)

via.

So the lines are really more an illustration of how Paradise is still agonizingly out of Satan’s reach on every possible level than they are a spectacular commentary on the magic of love or whatever.

Suck it, romantics. Milton will have none of your frippery.

Milton May: Out of the earth

Oh, Milton May. You say goodbye, but I say hello — to John Milton June! Coming tomorrow.

This is a far more relevant picture for me than you, likely.

Out of the earth a fabric huge
Rose, like an exhalation.

(John Milton. Paradise Lost, Book 1, 710.)

I’ve been trying to quit smoking so I can, like, live longer or whatever. Mixed results but I’m doing pretty well all in all. I just hate to admit anything like that because then if you fuck up or fall off the wagon everyone knows and people can’t know things about me. Anyway, hence the smoking picture simply because of the word “exhalation.” I’ve made flimsier illustrative leaps to promote vice along with literature, but usually for nudity, not cigarettes.

Milton May — All apologies.

Here we may reign secure, and in my choice
to reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.

(John Milton. Paradise Lost, Book 1: 261-263.)

Sorry, John Milton fans. Miltonians? Miltonites? Miltoniacs. You feeling that? Anyway, I dropped the ball on Milton May so we’ll have to extend the focus in to “John Milton June.” Consider this a preview of coming attractions.