For contemplation he and valour formed; / For softness she and sweet attractive grace, / He for God only, she for God in him: / His fair large front and eye sublime declared / Absolute rule.
Interpretation
The quote contrasts the qualities of male and female, portraying them as reflections of divine attributes.
This quote from John Milton explores the relationship between masculinity and femininity, suggesting that men embody contemplation and valor while women represent softness and grace. It implies that both genders have distinct but complementary qualities, underscoring the idea that they reflect divine characteristics: men seek God directly, while women seek God through their connection with men. The imagery of absolute rule indicates a harmony in their relationship, where both qualities contribute to a greater whole.
In practice
In a discussion about gender roles in literature, this quote can highlight the attributes associated with masculinity and femininity.
They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld Of Paradise, so late their happy seat, Waved over by that flaming brand, the gate With dreadful faces thronged and fiery arms: Some natural tears they dropped, but wiped them soon; The world was all before them, where to choose Their place of rest, and Providence their guide; They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow, Through Eden took their solitary way.
The stars, that nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps with everlasting oil, give due light to the misled and lonely traveller.
Ev'n them who kept thy truth so pure of old, When all our fathers worshipp'd stocks and stones.
Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss
The end of all learning is to know God, and out of that knowledge to love and imitate Him.
Apt words have power to suage the tumors of a troubled mind.
It's only in hindsight that you realize what indeed your childhood was really like.
[Government] regulation is an imperfect substitute for the accountability, and trust, built into a market in which food producers meet the gaze of eaters and vice versa.
Why did God make me an outcast and a stranger in mine own house? The shades of the prison-house closed round about us all: walls strait and stubborn to the whitest, but relentlessly narrow, tall, and unscalable to sons of night who must plod darkly on in resignation, or beat unavailing palms against the stone, or steadily, half hopelessly, watch the streak of blue above.
When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.
No intelligent man will ever be so bold as to put into language those things which his reason has contemplated.
It has always seemed strange to me... the things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.
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