The focus of this study is on the working of Milton's sensibilities and the reader's response to the materials of the poem. Professor Shumaker demonstrates the special resonance Milton gave to Paradise Lost through his development of its mythic quality and through the emotive patterns in the poem. Shumaker describes the effect on the reader's subconscious responses of Milton's choice of visual and auditory images. Underlying the treatment is an assumption that during the act of composition the poet's mind is often stirred to its depths and registers with astonishing fidelity what is happening on all the levels of his psyche, conscious and unconscious.
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