ABSTRACT
John Milton’s passion for structure and pattern, as a reflection of Providence, made his most famous poem such a large and complex work that only repeated reading can begin to appreciate many of its effects. Milton’s descriptions of Eden are written with a fallen world in mind, and they seldom fail to hint at the change to come. The recognition is important, because the audacity of Bellerophon is a close analogue not only to Satan’s rebellion, the subject of the previous book, but also to Milton’s own ‘adventurous song’, which has perhaps ‘presumed’ in daring to tell of things so far above mortal knowledge. Another kind of human interest is provided by the ‘digressions’ in which Milton speaks in his own person. Urania was the classical Muse of astronomy, but in calling ‘the meaning, not the name’, Milton is associating her with the Heavenly Muse first invoked by this name in a poem of Du Bartas.
