/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.19737348]

You didn’t actually try to read this without reading all of the bible, Greco-Roman literature and Italian literature first, right?

[Anonymous No.19737352]

>>19737348
I mean I did try.

[Anonymous No.19737360]

>>19737348
You pretend everyone on this board is a tourist. I mean, I don't blame you, I can understand why, but I read many of them years ago. I still need to break into the tragedians, however. Anyways...

As new waked from soundest sleep,
Soft on the flowery herb I found me laid,
In balmy sweat; which with his beams the sun
Soon dried, and on the reeking moisture fed.
Straight toward Heaven my wondering eyes I turned,
And gazed a while the ample sky; till, raised
By quick instinctive motion, up I sprung,
As thitherward endeavouring, and upright
Stood on my feet: about me round I saw
Hill, dale, and shady woods, and sunny plains,
And liquid lapse of murmuring streams; by these,
Creatures that lived and moved, and walked, or flew;
Birds on the branches warbling; all things smiled;
With fragrance and with joy my heart o'erflowed.
Myself I then perused, and limb by limb
Surveyed, and sometimes went, and sometimes ran
With supple joints, as lively vigour led:
But who I was, or where, or from what cause,
Knew not; to speak I tried, and forthwith spake;
My tongue obeyed, and readily could name
Whate'er I saw. Thou Sun, said I, fair light,
And thou enlightened Earth, so fresh and gay,
Ye Hills, and Dales, ye Rivers, Woods, and Plains,
And ye that live and move, fair Creatures, tell,
Tell, if ye saw, how I came thus, how here?--
Not of myself;--by some great Maker then,
In goodness and in power pre-eminent:
Tell me, how may I know him, how adore,
From whom I have that thus I move and live,
And feel that I am happier than I know

[Anonymous No.19737372]

>>19737348
How many references are people able to pick up while reading this? I read that he makes some of the most obscure references that even people in the 18th century complained about they couldn’t get it.

[Anonymous No.19737377]

>>19737348
How many references are people able to pick up while reading this? I read that he makes some of the most obscure references that even people in the 18th century complained about how they couldn’t get it.

[Anonymous No.19737411]

>>19737377
All that brilliance wasted on Christian imagery.

[Anonymous No.19737517]

>>19737348
it's fine. you don't need to read everything that an author read before you can appreciate their work . we'd never get past arguing about Plato.if that were the case, certainly never so far as postmodernism.
there are footnotes if you need them.
start with the Greeks is a myth. people in the past read them for you. start with the now and work back.

[Anonymous No.19737538]

>>19737348
Actually read it in the order you propose entirelly accidentally.

[Anonymous No.19737725]

>>19737348
>read all the italian lit
>read picrel
>realize is just La Divina Commedia bootleg and author is a hack

[Anonymous No.19737750]

>>19737411
This reminds me why John Milton wrote a biblical epic in the first place. It likely arose from reading about how Emperor Julian once banned Christians from reading and teaching classics and some Christians at the time like Apollinarian reacted to this ban by writing epic poems using scripture.

> John Milton’s views on Julian, the son of Constantine’s half-brother, were inevitably hostile, but this time they collected around not Milton’s dominant political obsession – the relation between the church and the state; but his dominant literary obsession – the relation between sacred and secular literature.

> Milton had long been interested in Julian the Apostate. Probably in 1637 or early 1638, he wrote into his commonplace book under the heading De scientiâ literarum or On the knowledge of literature:“Even the faithless Julian saw by what weapons his cause might be weakened, when he forbade to Christians the teaching of poetry, rhetoric, and philosophy; “for,” said he, “as the proverb has it, we are struck by our own quills.”

> Specifically, it was Milton’s encounter with Julian’s edict against Christian teachers, and with the Apollinarian reaction to it, that convinced him that literature and drama could be, must be made to be, truly religious.

[Anonymous No.19737754]

>>19737411
This reminds me why John Milton wrote a biblical epic in the first place. It likely arose from reading about how Emperor Julian once banned Christians from teaching classics and some Christians at the time like Apollinarian reacted to this ban by writing epic poems using scripture.

> John Milton’s views on Julian, the son of Constantine’s half-brother, were inevitably hostile, but this time they collected around not Milton’s dominant political obsession – the relation between the church and the state; but his dominant literary obsession – the relation between sacred and secular literature.

> Milton had long been interested in Julian the Apostate. Probably in 1637 or early 1638, he wrote into his commonplace book under the heading De scientiâ literarum or On the knowledge of literature:“Even the faithless Julian saw by what weapons his cause might be weakened, when he forbade to Christians the teaching of poetry, rhetoric, and philosophy; “for,” said he, “as the proverb has it, we are struck by our own quills.”

> Specifically, it was Milton’s encounter with Julian’s edict against Christian teachers, and with the Apollinarian reaction to it, that convinced him that literature and drama could be, must be made to be, truly religious.

[Anonymous No.19737768]

>>19737411
According to people like this merely referencing other works is a sign of genius. I've seen this attitude in other threads too, particularly when discussing ulysses. If they were to take their words seriously then they surely shouldn't be reading, they should be watching family guy instead. God, I hate this type of person.

[Anonymous No.19737793]

>>19737768
It’s the way once references other works. You can deliver more meaning by using less words through it. To the person who understands the reference they’re getting double meaning from it essentially.

[Anonymous No.19737879]

>>19737793
Referencing other works is the easiest thing to do in literature. Even a middle school boy is able to do it. It's the last thing that can show your brilliance.