21 pages • 42 minutes read
On the Late Massacre in Piedmont
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Symbols & Motifs
Alpine Mountains
The setting of the Alpine mountains symbolizes coldness, harshness, and violence. In the sonnet, the otherwise beautiful ranges become identified with the tyranny of the Piemontese soldiers. Though Milton does not describe the mountains in great detail, spare, powerful descriptions like the bones lying scattered on the cold peaks (Lines 2-3) immediately paint the image of a bleak, dark landscape. The events’ nature as a massacre only heightens the mountains’ menace. The reader can picture the soldiers herding the Waldensians up narrow, constricting mountain passes, up the angular, jagged lines of the range. In Lines 7-8, the soldiers are described as rolling people down the slopes. The image infuses the sheer precipice with terror and vertigo. The wails of the dying ricocheting against the valleys and hills (Line 9) adds to the menace.
Blood
The symbol of blood occurs in Line 10 of the poem, marking the beginning of the volta or the sonnet-turn. Thus far in the poem, the Waldensians have been depicted as violently victimized, and it would seem that blood should symbolize their agony or death. To the contrary, blood symbolizes life: Occurring as it does at the beginning of the sestet, the “martyr’d blood” (Line 10) symbolizes the true destiny of the Waldensians, which is not to go extinct, but to proliferate through mind and spirit. The blood of the martyred is fertile, much like the blood of Jesus in Christian theology. Significantly, the speaker says the blood will cover the very “Italian fields” (Line 11) that are the seat of the Holy Roman Empire. Each drop spilled will bring forth more saints and martyrs. Blood is therefore redemptive, purifying, and generative in the sonnet. Blood is also dramatic and dynamic, ultimately changing the initial cold Alpine landscape into a fertile grassland.
The Triple Tyrant
“The triple tyrant” (Line 12) refers to the Catholic Pope, whose mitre (or ceremonial headgear) is traditionally three-cornered. The expression here is striking in the technical sense because it combines elements of metonymy (the “triple” evoking the mitre to denote the Pope in particular and the Holy Roman Empire in general) with a strong alliteration of the hard “t” sound. Semantically, the symbol is rhetorically powerful: It recalled for Milton’s contemporary reader the grandeur and ostentation of the papacy, which many Protestant schools avoided, advocating for simpler clerical robes. The multiplicative “triple” magnifies the tyranny of an Empire that culls its perceived opponents, like the Waldensians, mercilessly. The word also evokes the Christian Trinity: the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit. This latter symbolism implies that the ills of the Catholic Church mock the true spirit of the Trinity.
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By John Milton
