English 4190, Milton
Homage to Mnemosyne, an extra-credit exercise (optional)

The mother of the muses requires her sacrifice. We shall offer it and thereby repudiate all those critics who aver that ours is an age without a memory. Memorize the first verse-paragraph from Paradise Lost (ll. 1-26). Learn it by heart. On Monday, November 21st, I�ll ask you to write it down from memory at the beginning of class, and your score will be 26 points minus a half point for each error committed. This total will be added to your quiz scores.  Even punctuation counts. As Blake says in his Milton (1804), �the daughters of memory shall become the daughters of inspiration.�