Milton’s political tract Areopagitica is discussed at length. The author’s complicated take on state censorship and licensing, both practiced by the English government with respect to printed materials at the time, is examined. His eclectic use of pagan mythology, Christian scripture, and the metaphors of eating and digestion in defense of his position are probed.
Milton’s poem Lycidas is discussed as an example of pastoral elegy and one of Milton’s first forays into theodicy. The poetic speaker’s preoccupation with questions of immortality and reward, especially for poets and virgins, is probed. The Christian elements of the poem’s dilemma are addressed, while the solution to the speaker’s crisis is characterized as erotic and oddly paganistic, pointing towards the heterodox nature of much of Milton’s thinking.
This second lecture on Milton’s masque probes its complex depictions of virginity and chastity. The version of the masque performed in 1634 is compared with the published version of 1637, with particular emphasis on a monologue on the vanquishing powers of virginity that is created for the latter. The poet’s commonplace book, specifically his notes on the self-mutilation of the medieval nuns of Coldingham, is linked to images of the body in the masque. Milton’s gradual revision of his initial position favoring life-long virginity is described in detail.
Milton’s first publication, A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle, is examined. Milton’s vision of a poet’s heaven in Ad Patrem, paired with the letter to Charles Diodati, with its particular emphasis on the need for chastity in poets, is used as a springboard to a discussion of the depiction of sexual ideals in the masque. Revelation 14, 1 Corinthians, and the Apology for Smectymnuus are also discussed at length, as are the poet’s biography and the history of the masque’s title.
This lecture examines the role and meanings of the word vocation in Milton’s life-long meditation on (and concern for) what it means to be chosen by God. Milton’s profound anxiety in the years following his graduation from Cambridge regarding his poetic career and, more specifically, his status as a Christian poet selected by God for greatness is outlined. The topic is traced through Milton’s polemical treatise The Reason of Church Government, the poem Ad Patrem, and the author’s correspondence.
Milton’s early ode, “On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity” (1629) is presented and discussed. The author’s preoccupation with his standing as a novice poet and his early ambitions, as carefully outlined in the letter to Charles Diodati, are examined. The ode’s subject matter, other poets’ treatment of the Nativity, and Milton’s peculiar contributions to the micro-genre are discussed, including his curious temporal choices, the competitive attitude of his narrator, and the mingling of Christian and classical elements.
An introduction to John Milton: man, poet, and legend. Milton’s place at the center of the English literary canon is asserted, articulated, and examined through a discussion of Milton’s long, complicated association with literary power. The conception of Miltonic power and its calculated use in political literature is analyzed in the feminist writings of Lady Mary Chudleigh, Mary Astell, and Virginia Woolf.
The idea of ecological communities has changed tremendously over the past forty years. The classical view stated that there were so many different species because evolution packed them tightly into the available niches. The modern view emphasizes the idea of trophic cascades, or top-down control in food chains. This emphasized the importance of predation in ecology, although it downplayed the significance of food webs, which showed the interrelated nature of ecosystems better than simple food chains.
Competition among species, or interspecific competition, can have an even greater effect on selection than competition within species (intraspecific competition). This is often the case in lower density populations. Different species can have positive, neutral, or negative effects on each other’s fitness, and the effect species 1 has on species 2 is not necessarily the same that 2 has on 1. The effects that cohabiting species have on each other shapes evolution the same way that selective pressures from within a species or the physical environment shapes it.
The growth of populations is held in check by several factors. These can include predators, food and other resources, and density. Population density affects growth rate by determining how likely is it that an organism will interact with a member of its own species compared to an organism of a different species. Population growth studies rely on the mathematics of logs and exponents.
