Milton's Poetic Ideal

The purpose of this thesis is twofold:first,by probing into all those ancient doctrines of music and their respective influence on Milton's writings,together with his own theory of music and poetry,to prove that Milton's poetic ideal is to recover the divine music within human soul so to realize the beautiful harmony between man's world and God's divine world;second,while exerting to achieve the first purpose,it becomes self-evident that music is a productive approach to Milton.In Chapter One,this thesis presents a brief literature review,including researches coveting rather long time span,both at home and abroad,on Milton's poetry,prose,as well as epics.Meanwhile,an introduction of the relationship between music and poetry.In Chapter Two,this thesis gives a description of Milton's music-related life.Those music-related factors include his music-loving father and his family background,the education condition that he got as a youngster,his friends circle that are mostly taking musical vocations,and finally,his tour to the Europe.In Chapter Three,this thesis analyzes all those ancient ideas of music and their specific influences on Milton's writings,and lists some of their manifestations in Milton's poetry. In Chapter Four,this thesis probe into Milton's cosmology,his concept of music and his theory of poetry,each two of which have their inter-association with each other,and in his theory of poetry,the author is able to deduce the first purpose of this whole thesis—Milton's poetic ideal.In Chapter Five,this thesis concludes that,putting much emphasis on music in his poetry and taking the vocation of poet as his lifelong pursuit,Milton's poetic ideal is to recover the divine music within human soul so to realize the beautiful harmony between human's world and God's divine world.