24. Samson Agonistes (cont.)

Milton (ENGL 220)

In the final lecture of the course, the analysis of Samson Agonistes comes to a conclusion with an exploration of the poem's sexual imagery. Milton's choice of subject matter is puzzled over, as are the ethics of his tragic hero, particularly when compared to the heroes of Milton's previous epics. The poem is positioned as a means by which Milton ultimately resolves the poetic, religious, and career-related crises of his earlier poem, "The Passion," and the compelling relationship between the corpus and the poet's biography is revisited one final time.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Introduction
02:07 - Chapter 2. Why Did Milton Choose Samson for the Subject of his Final Work?
35:32 - Chapter 3. Final Thoughts on Milton

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2007.