Stylistic Analysis of Milton’s Invocation of Paradise Lost Book 1

Poetic diction is very important to understand a writer’s literary style, and this unique poetic diction separates it from prose. The writer’s selection of graphic words and other stylistic devices not only affect the reader’s attitude but also convey his feelings toward the literary work. The researcher chose the Invocation [the opening lines: l – 26] from Paradise Lost Book-1 for many reasons. These reasons are the outstanding status of Paradise Lost in English literature, its complex narrative ingenuity, its grand style, its religious theme, its graphological, phonological, grammatical, lexical and semantic features, and the use of these features collectively to enhance the religious theme of this epic poem that is the relationship of man and God. This research tried to explore different levels of stylistic deviations, Milton’s lexical choices from the Bible and the Quran, his religious and historical references. It focused on analyzing the unique stylistic features of the Invocation, levels of deviation, lexical choices and features through Milton’s literary work, the King James Bible Online (1611) and the Corpus of the Quran for deeper understanding of this outstanding narration and the religious theme.