On the Late Massacre in Piedmont Analysis

Title: On the Late Massacre in Piedmont
Author: John Milton
The Grammatical Level
General Idea: Martyrs are killed in Piedmont for their religious beliefs.
Vocabulary & Diction: Authoritative, educated, condemning, etc.
Imagery: Uses the characteristics of nature cast in almost a fog to refer to corruption of good by evil.
Unanswered Questions: The poem doesn’t explain anything beyond the event, so we have no real context aside from historical events similar to refer to to fully grasp the concept of the poem.
The Rhetorical Level
The Speaker: Milton
The Addressee: God
General Purpose: Beg the Lord to avenge the death of the martyrs at Piedmont who were killed for believing in Him. / Comment on the horrid massacre that took place in Piedmont
Connotative Language: “Martyr’d blood and ashes sow” - The martyrs’ deaths affect life from then on, literally and figuratively as they seep into the soil and affect the future land and in reality the murderers, as well.
Techniques: Dark imagery, metaphor involving their ashes affecting the future
Tone: Dark
Mood: Enraged
Sound Patterns: Sonnet form, slight end rhyme till end

The Poetic Level
The Parts: Sonnet format, ABBA rhyme scheme
The Whole: Old English vocabulary with breaks in words and lines throughout
Implied Themes: Battle between good and evil
Questions
Who was killed?
Martyrs
By whom?
The people of Piedmont
Why?
The martyrs believed in a God, who the poem calls to avenge their deaths.
How?
The people of Piedmont brutally murdered them (uses words like ‘slain’, therefore you can imply it was a massacre).
Where?
The hills of Piedmont
What is left unexplained?
The poem doesn’t explain anything beyond the event, so we have no real context aside from historical events similar to refer to to fully grasp the concept of the poem.