...not likely to attract in the present day. It is certainly not such as we should expect from a poet " soaring in the high region of his fancies, with his garland and his singing robes about him;"1 nor is it such as he has shown in his Philarete, and in some parts of...

...for nearly twenty years (1640 — 1660), with but moments of exception, he had to cease to be "a poet soaring in the high region of his fancies with his garland and singing-robes about him," and to " sit below in the cool element of prose." It was not only Milton's...

...INTRODUCTION. VVHEN, about the year 1640, Milton was whirled into politics, he ceased to be a poet " soaring in the high region of his fancies, with his garland and singing robes about him," and was brought "to sit below in the cool element of prose,"1 entering thus into the second period...

...because with more folly, to have courteous pardon. For although a poet, soaring in the high reason of his fancies, with his garland and singing robes...sitting here below in the cool element of prose, a mortal thing among many readers of no empyreal conceit, to venture and divulge unusual things of myself,...

...'fJlOR although a poet, soaring in the high region of his 1 fancies, with his garland and singing-robes about him, might, without apology, speak more of himself...sitting here below in the cool element of prose, a mortal tiiing among many readers, of no empyreal conceit, to venture and divulge unusual tiiings of...

...mere ability). But he, who without regard to the unfitness of the time and the audience, will soar iu the high region of his fancies with his garland and singing robes about him, will not acquire the eredit of seriousness amidst frivolity, but Trill be condemned for his silliness,...

...mere ability). But he, who without regard to the unfit ness of the time and the audience, will soar in the high region of his fancies with his garland and singing robes alxnit him, will not acquire the credit of seriousness amidst frivolity, but will be condemned for...

...inspired with gifts of the highest muse, and, as one of ancient fame hath said, in circumstances similar, "for me, sitting here below in the cool element of prose, a mortal thing amongst many readers of no empyreal conceit," to attempt to develop them is presumptuous...

...phlegmatic: "sitting here below in the cool element of prose" contrasts dramatically with the "Poet soaring in the high region of his fancies with his garland and singing robes about him" (1.808). Elsewhere, however, this conceptual hierarchy could be shaken or even reversed. Milton's earliest...

...relation to the empowering trope of renunciation becomes clearer as Milton progresses: For although a Poet soaring in the high region of his fancies with his...about him might without apology speak more of himself then I mean to do, yet for me sitting here below in the cool element of prose, a mortall thing among...