Writing Paradise Lost

Abstract

Some well known lines overheard in the ninth Book of Paradise Lost:

… If answerable style I can obtain

Of my celestial patroness, who deigns

Her nightly visitation unimplored,

And dictates to me slumb’ring, or inspires

Easy my unpremeditated verse

…

… unless an age too late, or cold

Climate, or years damp my intended wing

Depressed, and much they may, if all be mine,

Not hers who brings it nightly to my ear.

(11. 20–47)¹