Mockery and Superiority in Canzone: Supported by Areopagitica Examines John Milton's use of mockery and superiority in the poem Canzone; supported by Areopagitica.

Mockery, as well as a sense of pride and/or superiority comes out in many of Milton's works and he exemplifies this by writing in ways that seems to humble himself, charm the subject of the poem, and yet scoff at him/her at the same time as well as prove his high intellect. Milton's often-circular logic exemplifies his cunning as well as his superciliousness. He first charms his subject (which also happens to be …

…to be a way to keep Milton grounded and remind the reader that he is only human too. What other author of such high quality, especially of the classics, can be found titillating; probably not many. Works Cited Milton, John. John Milton: A Critical Edition of the Major Works. Ed. Stephen Orgel, Jonathan Goldberg. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. Milton Reading Room. "Canzone" 5 June, 2002. http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/sonnets/canzone/index.shtml