Summary of the poem when the assault was intended to the city
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Answer:
This poem was written by Milton at that time it was believed that an attack on London by Charles Ist was Imminent
In above lines Milton fearing that his city will be defenseless during assault calls for heroes to protect his city and its inhabitants and he as their reward will immortalize their name in all over the world through his poetries, a while later he remembering the legend of Alexander the great he says that while the sack of Thebes Alexander told his soldiers to leave the home of the poet Pindar untouched due to his respect for poets works here Milton adding a touch of humor states that like Pindar was spared by Alexander he will also be spared by Charles Ist, Milton in next lines adding even more humor states that as the sad poet Electra was able to save the city of Athens through his poetry he will also be able to save the city of London.
The poem “when assault was intended to the city” is an outstanding example of Milton grand poetry style which made him famous it was his eighth poem to be published and he was yet maturing his style but even then it shows the massive talent of the prodigy which was seen at the best in Milton’s epic “paradise lost”.
When The Assault Was Intended On The City by John Milton
The poem's fancy is that it should be written out on a bit of paper which is then pinned to the surface of the door and acts as a way of an appeal to spare the lifetime of the poet who cowers inside. The supposed model for doing this is often Alexander the Great's sparing of the poet Pindar during the seizure of Emathia. It is Alexander who is given the title 'Emathian Conqueror' in the poem.
The poem's appeal is to the readers' imagination. He invites readers to imagine that the poet pins this sonnet to his door to guard his property during a military attack. Here, you'll notice slightly of reality. Milton, like most of London in 1642, probably expected the King's forces to attack the town . You may infer from this that Milton designs this sonnet as a plea for special protection for poets in time of war. In its gesture, the poem alludes to Alexander the good , who is claimed to possess spared the house of the poet Pindar during his invasion of Thebes.
We, as reader, may ask why should a poet be spared by an invading army more than any other person? It may be argued that the poet may be a talented one that might act as a valuable resource for the invader. However, the fact remains that in a situation of civil war and revolution, the seizure and control of the means of production of ideas would be an important part of the struggle. Elimination of an opposing voice (if it could not be suborned) would be important to Charles and his supporters. In that sense, then, it would be more sensible for Milton to hide himself away as a non-exceptional person whom the invaders would not bother to hunt or kill. This leads us to ask: is that the poet overstating his importance? But the associated question is: why should he do so? We may say that the poet is deliberately overstating his importance for comic effect. However, at the same time he is having an undercurrent of what must be understandable and indeed justifiable fear. Fear, because if an outspoken individual such as Milton had been taken by the enemy, then he would certainly have been in serious trouble. Several critics like Barbara Lewalski are of the view that this sonnet "inaugurates the political sonnet within the English tradition".
The sonnet's structure is formally quite straightforward. It is written in the conventional iambic pentameter and follows a rhyming scheme of abba abba dedede. It would have been more normal for the final two lines to have had an 'ff' rhyme scheme and to act as a couplet which concludes and summarises in some way the content and meaning of the poem - this is a technique that had been much used by Shakespeare. Milton avoids this technique and gives the feeling of life continuing into the future, an unknown future to be sure without a specific end point. For a poet of Milton's calibre, it may be assumed that even the smallest detail has meaning.