Homeric Simile In Paradise Lost
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An epic simile, also known as a Homeric simile, is defined as a simile where A is compared to B, then B is described in such detail that it becomes a digression. John Milton employed this device several times throughout Paradise Lost. The first two books of Paradise Lost are justly celebrated; t ....
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.... in such a context. Milton decided to abandon the radically figurative style of his early poems -- notably, Lycidas and certain passages of Comus -- which critics like to call Shakespearean (MacCaffrey, 119). Both Homer (the originator of the extended/epic simile) and Milton found it necessary to stop short of the complex metaphors that served the dramatists as instruments for psychological exploration and symbolic statement.
Homer’s similes provide a respite from the steady surge of h ....
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Page count: 14 (approximately 250 words per page)
