annis
09-30-2010, 06:36 AM
A scholarly argument has developed over the surprising discovery of a bawdy poem apparently written by great 17th century religious poet, John Milton. Is it genuine, or a 17th century attempt to cast a slur on the poet's reputation?
"Jennifer Batt, an English lecturer at Oxford University, came across An Extempore Upon a Faggot with an attribution "by Milton" in a long-forgotten volume, Oxford and Cambridge Miscellany Poems, published in 1708, 34 years after the poet's death.
While Milton's best-known work is marked by the breadth and depth of its biblical and classical references, its soaring descriptive passages, complex piety and its profound insights into the human character, An Extempore Upon a Faggot is markedly different.
It draws a crude comparison between the ways that women of differing experience might respond in bed and the relative merits of a fresh faggot - a bundle of sticks - and seasoned firewood".
Story (and poem) here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/8019748/John-Miltons-bawdy-poem-questioned.html
"Jennifer Batt, an English lecturer at Oxford University, came across An Extempore Upon a Faggot with an attribution "by Milton" in a long-forgotten volume, Oxford and Cambridge Miscellany Poems, published in 1708, 34 years after the poet's death.
While Milton's best-known work is marked by the breadth and depth of its biblical and classical references, its soaring descriptive passages, complex piety and its profound insights into the human character, An Extempore Upon a Faggot is markedly different.
It draws a crude comparison between the ways that women of differing experience might respond in bed and the relative merits of a fresh faggot - a bundle of sticks - and seasoned firewood".
Story (and poem) here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/8019748/John-Miltons-bawdy-poem-questioned.html