I'm sorry, but I think that that could be the most amazing thing ever - a reworking of Paradise Lost in limmerick form. Or senryu. Or how about in palindrome (I.Q. level required to even attempt this I estimate to be around 225, but by then you'd be too clever to understand the original, on the principle that lawn mowers mow grass very badly when powered by jet engines). I recently saw a stage adaptation that had its moments, so if a poem can be made into a play, surely transforming it into another poetic form would be simple. My tongue IS in my cheek.
However, the idea of trying to take the essence of Milton's work and put it in senryu/cinquian (tomato, tomato - let's call the whole thing off. Sigh, that one doesn't work when you write it down) isn't necessarily a bad one. Finding moments of ku in the poetry rather than attempting to reproduce the narrative would I think be the best approach - possibly modernising the concepts, thus acknowledging how recent (recent) western interest in other cultures has been. Here's a silly thirty second attempt at condensing the whole of paradise lost into one senryu (I am in a funny mood tonight. You may have noticed that I am prone to funny moods).
Earth, virgin wasteland
man and angel stake their false claims
then waste it again
Alex
[This message has been edited by Alexander Grace (edited April 17, 2005).]
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