ABSTRACT
Before moving on to the second-generation Romantics this chapter examines in more detail the etymology of the expression 'reading against the grain'. It seems appropriate to do so because the phrase has a history that is particularly appropriate to the study of Paradise Lost – one in which Milton himself has a prominent place. Tennyson's use broadens the expression from cutting against the grain of individual temperament to reading against the grain of the ethical position of another – undoubtedly the primary site of readings made against the grain of Paradise Lost in the Romantic period. The etymology of the expression is also appropriate, however, in thinking through the metaphor's applicability to the formal readings. The lateral reading against the grain of Paradise Lost is frequently privileged for its imaginative reworking of the ethics of narrative. Romantic imaginations are the dominant and definable theological tenets on which the grain of Paradise Lost is founded.
