'Through mazes running': Rhythmic verve in Milton's L''Allegro' and Il 'Penseroso'

At a time when interest in literature of the seventeenth century is focused on contextual and especially political meanings, this article reaffirms th e central importance of rhythm to the experience of great poetry by concent rating on two poems where it is unusually important to respond to rhythm an d find a vocabulary for discussing it. The inadequacies of traditional foot -substitution prosody for these poems are demonstrated, and a working metho d of analysis based on the writings of Derek Attridge is outlined. The pros odic implications of Milton's choice of 'eights and sevens' for the main bo dy of the poems are interaction of prosodic discipline and liberty, and par ticularly from these three factors: the unusual flexibility of Milton's hep tasyllables, the frequent interfusion of the prevailing accentual-syllabic prosody with the lyricism of accentual prosody; and, in comparison with con temporary writing in tetrameter, the pervasive freedom with which Milton ha ndles all his prosodic resources. The Companion Poems have aroused very div erse modes of interpretation, and it is suggested that how the poems are pe rformed rhythmically influences how meaning and tone are felt.