Introduction: -

“The name of Milton”, says Raleigh, “is become the mark, not of a biography
nor of a theme, but of a style – the most distinguished in our poetry.” In all that he has written
he has impressed his indomitable personality and irrepressible originality. Jhon Milton is not only
in every line of Paradise lost but in every line of poetry that he has written. As Macaulay has said:
“There is not a square inch of his poetry from first to last of which one could not confidently
say.” “This is Milton and no one else.” His accent and speech alike in Ode to Nativity and in
Paradise lost are his own and in marked contrast to any other English poet.

Essentials of Miltonic Style: -

Since style is the expression of personality, we have to find the

peculiar quality of Milton’s style in his personality and character. In the first place, Milton’s mind
was “nourished upon the best thoughts and finest words of all ages”, and that is the language,
says Pattison, of one “who lives in the companionship of the great and the wise of the past.”
Secondly , Milton was a man of lofty character, whose “soul was like a star that dwelt apart, and
who in all that is known about him, his life, his character, and his power of poetry, shows
something for which the only fit words is sublime.” Thirdly, Milton was a supreme artist.
“poetry”, says Bailey, “has been far our greatest artistic achievement, and he (Milton) is by far
our greatest poetic artist. Tennyson truly called him “God gifted organ-voice of England.” “To live
with Milton,” says Bailey, “is necessarily to learn that the art of poetry is not triviality, no mere
amusement, but a high and grave thing, a thing of the choicest discipline of phrase, the finest
craftmanship of structure, the most nobly ordered music of sound. So, in Milton’s poetic style we
inevitably find the imprint of a cultured mind, a lofty soul and an artistic conscience. “In the sure
and flawless perfection of his rhythm and diction, he (Milton) is as admirable as Virgil or Dante,
and in this respect, he is unique amongst us. No one else in English literature possess the like
distinction...... Shakespeare is divinely strong, rich and attractive; but sureness, of perfect style
Shakespeare himself does not possess. Milton from one end of Paradise Lost to the other is in his
diction and rhythm constantly a great artist in the great style.” (Mathew Arnold). “The study of
his verse is one that never exhausts itself, so that the appreciation of it has been called the last
reward of consummate scholarship.” Above all, there is a certain loftiness about the style