All 3 Uses of
revolution
in
Paradise Lost
- Thither, by harpy-footed Furies haled,
At certain revolutions all the damned
Are brought; and feel by turns the bitter change
Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce,
From beds of raging fire to starve in ice
Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine
Immovable, infixed, and frozen round
Periods of time,—thence hurried back to fire.†Book 2
- reasoning I oft admire,
How Nature wise and frugal could commit
Such disproportions, with superfluous hand
So many nobler bodies to create,
Greater so manifold, to this one use,
For aught appears, and on their orbs impose
Such restless revolution day by day
Repeated;†Book 8
- that fear
Comes thundering back with dreadful revolution
On my defenceless head; both Death and I
Am found eternal, and incorporate both;
Nor I on my part single; in me all
Posterity stands cursed: Fair patrimony
That I must leave ye, Sons!†Book 10 *
Definitions:
-
(1)
(revolution as in: the computer revolution) dramatic change -- sometimes violent overthrow of a government
-
(2)
(revolution as in: revolution around the sun) circular movement -- sometimes referring to exactly one rotation