SOURCE: Radzinowicz, Mary Ann. “‘Smit with the Love of Sacred Song’: Psalm Genres.” In Milton's Epics and the Book of Psalms, pp. 135-69. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1989.

In this excerpt, Radzinowicz suggests that the mixture of psalm genres and classical influences apparent in the work allows Paradise Lost to transcend the epic genre and become an expression of religious worship as well.

Milton's use of psalm genre in Paradise Lost is not only prior to that in Paradise Regained, but richer. This richness owes something to the greater sweep of Paradise Lost, a sweep that allows him both to exploit all the literary capacities of those genres prominent in Paradise Regained—hymns, laments, and wisdom songs—and to deploy the three genres not significant in the briefer epic: prophetic psalms, blessing psalms, and thanksgiving psalms.

Hymns are sung across Paradise Lost not only by angelic choirs...