NEWPORT, VERMONT – Join us on April 13 at 7:00 PM in the Parish Hall of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 44 2nd St, Newport, VT for “Poets’ Paradises” with Dr. Margaret Kilgour. Refreshments will be available!
This talk shows how the association of the Judeo-Christian God with creativity offers poets an inspiring model for their own artistry. In John Milton’s 1667 epic poem, “Paradise Lost,” especially, God’s power and goodness are expressed most vividly in his creativity. Moreover, the beings Milton’s God creates are also creative in their own right. Adam and Eve are natural poets, and even the natural world becomes an artist that joins in a universal hymn to God. Milton represents paradise as a world of continual and ubiquitous creativity uniting all aspects of creation to the creator. Paradise Lost is an eloquent defense of poetry which asserts the power of the poet’s own imagination and his ability to generate creativity in others.
About the speaker – Dr. Margaret Kilgour
Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada[1],
Maggie Kilgour is Molson Professor of English at McGill University in Montreal,
where she teaches mostly poetry of the 16th-17th centuries, as well as
classical literature in translation. An omnivorous reader and lover of poetry
especially, she has written on literature from the ancient world to the
present, and on subjects including cannibalism and communion, the epic, and the
gothic novel.
[1] The fellowship of the RSC comprises 2000 Canadian scholars, artists, and scientists, peer-elected as the best in their field. These are distinguished men and women from all branches of learning who have made remarkable contributions in the arts, the humanities and the sciences, as well as in Canadian public life.