PARADISE LOST by John Milton, Book 11, Part 4

As book ten ended, Adam and Eve were bowing in worship and sincere repentance to God for their failures, so book eleven opens with heaven's response, God's grace in His Son, offering Himself as "advocate and propitiation," so that:

my merit those shall perfect ... till death, his doom ... to better life shall yield him; where with me all my redeemed may dwell in joy and bliss; made one with me, as I with thee am one.

Thus the breaking of relationship accomplished in sin and Fall is restored in the Son. But the Father declares that the Pair must leave Eden, for "longer in that Paradise to dwell the law I gave to Nature him forbids," and to keep man from eating of the tree of life which would serve, "but to eternize woe," for God's mercy "provided death" as a "final remedy" for a life of sin.

The Archangel Michael is chosen to carry out the mission of driving Adam and Eve from the Garden, and to "guard all passage to the tree of life."

Adam expresses to Eve his fundamental faith in God's goodness: "Eve, easily may faith admit, that all the good which we enjoy from Heaven descends. Acknowledging her part in the Fall, Eve pledges to Adam, "I never from thy side henceforth to stray, where'er our day's work lies, though now enjoined laborious ... here let us live, though in fallen state, content."

When the Pair hear of their expusion from Eden, Adam says this:

This most afflicts me, that, departing hence, as from his face I shall be hid, deprived of his blessed countenance: here I could frequent with worship place by place where he vouchsafed Presence Divine.... In yonder nether world where shall I seek His bright appearances, or foot-step trace?

The loss of the immediate presence of God to man is part of the great tragedy Milton sees in the fall. Michael's response is that God is to be found everywhere in Creation.

The remainder of Book eleven is a recounting of the history to come for Adam, ending with the great flood and the Noahic covenant - the rainbow in the sky.

Paradise Lost Book 11 Summary & Analysis | LitCharts

This is an excellent summary and commentary on each of the books in PARADISE LOST. I strongly recommend reading these commentaries over as you listen to our readings of this great poem!

 

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