WHEN THE ASSAULT WAS INTENDED TO THE CITY by JOHN MILTON (Poem & Summary)

WHEN THE ASSAULT WAS INTENDED

TO THE CITY

by JOHN MILTON

(Poem & Summary) 

John Milton was the poet of the age of Puritanism. This age is also known as the age of Milton.

·      Civil war and

·      Puritanical movement

were the general characteristics of the age. The literary characteristics of the age were:

·      influence of Puritanism,

·      want of vitality and concreteness,

·      want of the spirit of unity,

·      critical and intellectual spirit and

·      the decay of drama.

John Milton was born in London on Dec. 9, 1608. After completing his M. A. he tried to work in the church but due to the corruption, he gave up the idea of entering the church. His poetry contains lofty conception, love of beauty, Puritanism and classicism.

When assault

was intended to the city

(The Poem)

Captain, or colonel, or knight in arms,

Whose chance on these defenceless doors may seize,

If deed of honour did thee ever please,

Guard them, and him within protect from harms.

He can requite thee, for he knows the charms

That call fame on such gentle acts as these,

And he can spread thy name o’er lands and seas,

Whatever clime the sun’s bright circle warms.

 

Lift not thy spear against the Muse’s bower;

The great Emathian conqueror bid spare

The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower

Went to the ground; and the repeated air

Of sad Electra’s Poet had the power

To save the Athenian walls from ruin bare.

Summary

The main theme of the sonnet ‘When the assault was intended to the city’ is the power of poetry.

In the octave (8 lines), the poet requests the army officials to save his house and also those who are inside that house. In the sestet (6 lines), he develops the thought of the octave by giving 2 examples of Electra’s poet and of Pindarus.

In the first part of the sonnet the poet requests the army officials to protect the defenseless doors of his house and also those, who are inside that house. He says, that in return of this genteel act, he would repay by calling fame to those army officials. The poet further says, that he would spread their name over lands and seas, wherever the Sun shines.

In the next part (sestet), he again asks the army officials not to lift their spear against the bower of the muse because Alexander the great had also left the house of Pindarus, even when he destroyed temples and towers. He further says that the chorus of Electra’s tragedy had saved the Athenian walls from ruin bare.

‘When the assault was intended to the city’ is a Miltonic sonnet divided into two parts, octave and a sestet. The rhyming pattern in the sonnet is a b b a, a b b a – c d c d c d. Adjectives have been used in abundance i.e., defenseless door, gentle act, repeated air, etc.