n he comes to describe his epic personages and
his embodied visions, all is power, and vagueness, and grandeur. His
imagination, escaped from the narrow prison of his thought, rises like a
vapour, and, taking shape before his eyes, proclaims itself his master.

No other poet has known so well how to portray, in a few strokes, effects
of multitude and vastness. Now it is the sacred congregation in Heaven:--

About him all the Sanctities of Heaven
Stood thick as stars, and from his sight received
Beatitude past utterance.

Now the warrior host of Hell:--

He spake; and, to confirm his words, outflew
Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs
Of mighty Cherubim; the sudden blaze
Far round illumined Hell.

In these, as in other like scenes, he preserves epic unity by throwing
the whole into the distance. So after the approach of the Messiah to
battle, "the poet," says Coleridge, "by one touch from himself--'far off
their coming shone!'--makes the whole one image." He describes at a
greater range of vision than any other poet: the frame-work of his single
scenes is often not less than a third of universal space. When he has
added figure to figure in the endeavour to picture the multitudinous
disarray of the fallen Angels on the lake, one line suffices to reduce
the whole spectacle to its due dimensions beneath that cavernous tent of
darkness:--

He called so loud that all the hollow deep
Of Hell resounded.

The same effect of number and vastness, diminished and unified by the
same reference to a larger setting, wherein all is seen at a glance, may
be noted in the description of the raising of Satan's standard in Hell:--

The imperial ensign, which, full high advanced,
Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind,
With gems and golden lustre rich emblazed,
Seraphic arms and trophies; all the while
Sonorous metal blowing martial sounds:
At which the universal host up-sent
A shout that tore Hell's concave, and beyond
Frighted the reign of Chaos and old Night.
All in a moment through the gloom were seen
Ten thousand banners rise into the air,
With orient colours waving: with them rose
A forest huge of spears; and thronging helms
Appeared, and serried shields in thick array
Of depth immeasureable.

Sometimes a line or two gives him scope enough for the rendering of one
of these epic scenes, immense and vivid. The ruin and prostration of the
rebels is made visible