College News
In Memoriam: David Ian Marquand
25 Apr
This award recognises a distinguished article on Milton published in a journal or in a multiauthor collection of essays.
College Principal, Helen Mountfield, KC, said:
“We are delighted that our dear Emeritus Fellow John Creaser has received such wonderful and well-deserved recognition for his important work”.
Reacting to the news of his award, Professor Creaser said:
“I am staggered to have won what is just about the premier award open to scholars of John Milton, the great English poet and politician – the James Holly Hanford award of 2022 for my book Milton and the Resources of the Line (Oxford University Press).
“Hanford was one of the supreme Miltonists of the twentieth century, and the Milton Society of America – the key gathering of Milton scholarship – names its awards for what are judged to be the finest book and the finest article of a given year in his memory. I happened to win the article award in 2007, and am now all the more delighted to receive the book award, joining a formidable list of scholars over several decades.
“My book starts from the simple fact that poetry is written not only in sentences but also in lines, and shows how, in a supreme poet such as Milton, the mere lineation grows into and informs the passions, the drama, the themes, and even the ideology of the verse. Whereas current scholarship tends to go straight to political and theological import, my aim is to show how the nuances of verse enrich and enhance the total experience.”
