...relief, as Milton described in L' Allegro: with many a winding bout Of linked sweetness long drawn out, With wanton heed, and giddy cunning, The melting voice...all the chains that tie The hidden soul of harmony. (139-44) Milton seems to have considered the verse paragraph as his unit of construction. The syntactical...

...the meeting soul may pierce In notes, with many a winding bout Of linked sweetness, long drawn out: With wanton heed, and giddy cunning, The melting voice,...all the chains that tie The hidden soul of harmony, The subject here is song — specifically, how singing, while it may lead us through a thousand complications,...

...winding bout Of linked sweetness long drawn out ; With wanton heed, and giddy cunning, The nudting voiee through mazes running ; Untwisting all the chains that tie The hidden soul of harmony." Let us parallel this with the softness, the winding surface, the unbroken continuance, the easy gradation...