The structural quality of tone-color in Paradise lost

Abstract

This paper attempts to show to what extent the various manifestations of tone-color in Paradise Lost have compensated for the absence of rhyme. A chapter is devoted to the assimilative office of tone-color in the poem, that is, the use of alliteration and assonance to procure smoothness in reading from one line to another, and to unify and harmonize the verse-paragraphs. In the second part of the paper, the author deals with the structural aspect of end-rhyme, assonance, and alliteration as they appear in the poem. To evaluate the results he compares Milton's usage with the practice of other representative authors of blank verse.