Paradise Lost: Imagery 8 key examples

God is not even visible on his throne, which is made of "glorious brightness," since he himself is made of blazing "beams," seemingly brighter than the sun, with a "cloud" wrapped around him "like a radiant shrine" (leading Seraphim to cover their eyes with their wings): this imagery is meant to show that God's brilliance, divinity, and authority are unmatched, but also potentially dangerous (the Seraphim could blind themselves if they looked directly at him, as one would from looking at the sun for too long).

Paradoxically, God's robes are "Dark with excessive bright"—in other words, so bright that they appear dark, passing from one end of the spectrum to the other: this paradox both underscores God's brilliance and power, but also shows that not all in Heaven is lightness and serenity. God has a dark side to him, too—as demonstrated by the punishments he enacts against those who disobey him. 

This strange and striking moment (this distinction between good and bad angels and their facial expressions is an invention of Milton's—not founded in any Biblical story) demonstrates Satan's unique complexity as a character (capable of expressing many different kinds of emotions, while good angels have "clear" faces, unperturbed by emotion), and his weakness as a villain: he cannot help but "betray" himself as "counterfeit," and does not realize that his face has changed expressions until it is too late (and Uriel has spotted him). 

Emotions, for God and good angels, are negative qualities: they "mar" and "dim" Satan's face, whereas the good angels have no such "distempers foul."

Though Milton's intention in the poem is to "justify the ways of God to men," he portrays God and the good angels as cold and dispassionate; in some ways, it seems understandable that Satan would have sought to rebel against them. Milton seems to be making a broader point about the way power operates—without emotion, and often through punishment and violence—even as he criticizes Satan's own actions. 

This instance of imagery highlights both the transcendent beauty of Eden—which matches Eve's beauty, drawing a parallel between womankind and the natural world—and hints at the differences between Adam and Eve (in terms of both personality and social status): whereas Adam's sleep is "airy light," and he wakes up feeling calm, Eve has just had a dream in which Satan appeared to her and urged her to eat the forbidden fruit. Eve's tresses are "discomposed," suggesting her susceptibility and wildness—versus Adam's composure and leadership (he wakes up first, while Eve is still engrossed in her dream). 

Milton also makes use of a few allusions to Greek poetry/mythology: the "rosy steps" of "Morn" are reminiscent of the "rosy-fingered dawn," an epithet that appears in the Illiad and the Odyssey, and Zephyrus is a Greek god of the west wind who is married to Flora (the goddess of flowers). These allusions further elevate the scene—underscoring the power of both Eden and Eve's beauty. 

This imagery is clearly intended to demonstrate Eden's dazzling beauty: as Adam and Eve exit the "shady arborous roof" under which they have been sleeping, the sun greets them, and though "scarce up risen," its rays illuminate all of Eden, immediately transforming night into day. 

Milton personifies the sun as a powerful, omnipotent deity of sorts—capable of enlightening the "wide landscape" of Paradise—and thus draws a clear parallel to God: in this prelapsarian world, whose inhabitants God loves unconditionally (since they have not yet disobeyed him), all Adam and Eve know is magnificence. For now, they are free to enjoy "Eden's happy plains," illuminated by the sunlight of God's favor.

By personifying the natural world as a woman—one who gives birth to nature, and is then clothed by nature—Raphael is drawing attention to the fecundity and beauty of the natural world, God's most impressive creation. Additionally, Raphael creates a parallel with Eve, foreshadowing the ultimate consequences of her disobedience. The natural world is "Desert and bare," "unadorned," or naked—like Eve before the fall—and must be clothed in order to be "made gay." Eve, too, will be clothed by the Son of God (in "skins of beasts") after she eats from the Tree of Knowledge and loses her innocence. 

Additionally, Raphael's monologue highlights the central role of women in the world. Eve was created after Adam—from a part of his body—and is implicitly inferior to him. Adam serves God, while Eve serves Adam ("He for God only, she for God in him"). But Eve, the "general mother" of humankind, has the capacity to give birth, just as nature gives birth to more nature: "fruit tree yielding fruit after her kind." (In Book 5, Eve is described as having a "fruitful womb" that will "fill the world more numerous with thy sons/Than with these various fruits the trees of God/Have heaped this table.") As Milton makes clear throughout the poem, this capacity lends Eve a kind of supreme power, justifying her position alongside Adam as representatives of God on Earth. 

Milton's description of this "prodigious" bridge may seem like a purely fantastical image—consistent with other elaborate descriptions of Hell, Heaven, and Eden's geographies—but importantly, it serves to highlight the consequences of Eve and Adam's transgressions: Eden/the Earth is now directly joined to Hell, which makes it possible for humankind to "smoothly" descend to Hell, now that original sin has been unleashed upon the world. 

By depicting Sin and Death as human-like (though clearly monstrous) figures with the capacity to engineer this bridge, Milton renders vivid a key tenet of Christianity: sin and death are not inherent human experiences, but external forces, indeed punishments, leveled against humans to remind them of (and rebuke them for) their capacity for error. 

This intricate description of the great flood (sent by God as a punishment against postlapsarian humans—Noah's ark is the "floating vessel" that survives) makes the consequences and significance of Adam and Eve's disobedience starkly apparent, with phrases that render vivid the scale of the flood—"sea cove[ring] sea," "impetuous" rain, the earth "No more was seen" in the midst of the flooding. 

By comparing the "thickened sky" to a "dark ceiling," Milton (describing the image Michael has conjured) is indicating God's absolute authority over humankind: Heaven, in the sky, is the "ceiling" under which mortals live—there is no tier beyond it—and God has the capacity to destroy their world. 

Milton's imagery allows the reader to stand in Adam's place: the reader is transported, as Adam has been, to a scene of terror and destruction—which helps the reader to empathize with Adam while also understanding (in a visceral way) the magnitude of God's power. 

That Adam and Eve exit Eden with "some natural tears" and "wand'ring steps"—the latter emphasizing their capacity for error, but also resolution and grace ("The world was all before them")—demonstrates that the punishments they have received from God have not led to utter despair and ruination (as Satan intended): instead, they must slowly and carefully make their way through the world to find a "place of rest"—a journey that typifies the human condition.

Also, that Adam and Eve are taking their "solitary" way out of Eden and into the postlapsarian world is significant: though they have lost the relationship with God that they had in Eden (he will no longer speak to them directly), the bond between them has been strengthened (as evidenced by them walking "hand in hand").