Signet Sprints Through Milton

Milton enthusiasts spent over nine hours tackling the 12-volume epic poem, Paradise Lost, from cover to cover last night in the Signet Society house.

The long journey, termed “Milton Madness” by Signet Society member and event organizer, Grace Tiao ’08, began with more than 20 avid participants.

Tiao said that she was inspired to organize the marathon reading by her desire to read the epic aloud with others and the “curiosity to know what Satan sounds like at three in the morning.”

For added effect, the room was decorated with exotic plants and jewelry to create a environment modeled after the Garden of Eden. The presence of apples and a bird of paradise also served to contribute to the surroundings.

The event opened with an introductory speech to Paradise Lost by Barbara K. Lewalski, a history and literature professor, regarding the surprising nature of Paradise Lost given that is an epic poem. As she said in her opening remarks, “there are no warriors and battles. The whole epic is about a kind of reconsideration of what heroism is.”

In addition to a complete reading of the entire poem, the Milton marathon included a re-enactment of the climactic moment when Adam, played by Benjamin M. Woodring, who is in his first year of the English PhD program, and Eve, played by Danielle C. Kijewski ’11, eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Adorned with loincloths and fig-leaves, they made resounding crunches from apples for added emphasis.

Over the course of the night, the nearly two dozen participants whittled down to the eight remaining iron-willed members. These poetic marathoners, after journeying from Man’s first disobedience to Adam and Eve’s expulsion, felt relieved at the finish, but also accomplished because they had just undertaken a project of this magnitude.

“I have never done anything like this,” said Sarah R. Harland-Logan ’10. “It was a one-of-a-kind experience. This was a man-trial by fire.”

Said Woodring: “I’ve done similar things in terms of a physical nature, but not intellectual. This is like a trek, only manifested intellectually.”