Satan's first words to Eve when he enounters her in the Garden is a pivotal moment in the story in Paradise Lost that requires all of Satan's eloquence to be convincing. Satan pours praises on Eve in the style of Petrarchan love poetry. In addition to what Satan says, the beautfiul rhetoric he employs makes him all the more convincing.
The first two lines of his speech end with enjambement. Milton uses this to reflect Satan quickly justifying the prescence of another speaking being in the Garden and relaxing Eve before he showers her with praise. Satan then compares her to God by saying "Fairest resemblence of thy Maker fair" and proceeds to embellish the grandeur of Eve's situation.
"Thee all things living gaze on, all things thine by gift, and thy celestial beauty adore with ravishment beheld, there best beheld where universally admired." Were a beast to praise me so beautifully I'd eat whatever he told me to. Milton's brilliance shines through here not only in being able to construct a beautiful bit of poetry but to use it for the purpose of the very first seduction of a woman. The true brilliance of Satan's deceptive prelude comes when he introduces the very idea of his intention by stating that her beauty is too great to be by beasts in this "enclosure wild." He introduces the idea of wanting something more than what God has provided for Eve.

A catalogue of fallen gods dominates the opening book of Milton's Paradise Lost. The footnote informed me that a catalogue of such things was an epic convention which made me wonder at Milton's use of and derivations from epic conventions. The foremost of which in Book One is this catalogue of fallen demons with the names of Pagan gods. This does not serve as any sort of movement or action but seems to be an extended exposition that seeks to convey the massive amount of force at Satan's command and by extension the might of God who defeated this force. The only seemingly important secondary character listed is Beezelbub for he speaks with Satan early in the book. Milton begins the book with a theme/invocation and an opening question; both epic conventions. Milton uses the invocation to explain the feat he is attempting to achieve with Paradise Lost and the question to bring about how his subject, the fall of man, relates to his goal. Which thus leads us into the explanation of Satan's awakening in Hell for "he it was, whose guile...decieved the mother of mankind." After reading the entire first book the direction of the story was easily forgotten and reviewing the first 26 lines helped me put the voluminous descriptions in perspective. The first book utilizes epic conventions and sweeping descriptions to set the stage for... a meeting. A meeting of demons and fallen gods no less, but still not the typical occurence in an epic poem. Another seemingly lacking area in epic convention is that their is no clear hero. Perhaps conventional sentiments towards Satan make me reluctant to call him a hero but then again most epic heroes do not begin their journey/battle with a great host packaged and ready. If Satan is to be a "hero" of the epic then it is unclear even from an unbiased standpoint. And that at the very least is a derivation from epic convention.

I closed the book on Volpone satisfied that they got theirs. Who is this they? There are two main groups here. The carrion birds; Corbaccio, Corvino, and Voltore all recieved due punishment for their willingness to perjure, pimp, and prosecute innocents all for the sake of a dying man's wealth. The other main cluster of those getting theirs are Volpone and Mosca's punishment for playing with people's lives for their own amusement. The other noteworthy come-uppance is Sir Politic Would-be's ridiculing at the hands of Peregrine. I think it worth the time to examine the appropriateness of their punishments. Corbaccio loses his estate to his son and is sent to die in a monastery. The crime against Bonario is righted and the only consideration given to Corbaccio is a place to die which fits his old age and utter uselessness. Corvino is to be paraded around marked as a criminal of a sexual nature as befitting one who falsely accuses his wife of lechery shortly after offering her to Volpone. Voltore recieves a simple banishment and stripping of office. Note that each of the carrion eaters recieves a punishment equivocal or suggestive of that which they used to gain favor with Volpone. Volpone is made to live the falsehood that caused this debacle by being chained until sickened enough to die. Mosca's sentence is arguably the harshest which befits his role in the problems of the play. This synthesis of crime and punishment brings a fine comedic order that wraps the play up nicely.
A little edit to my post to apply it a bit to the prompt. The scene I spoke of in my post was the last one where the punishments were handed out. The points I made in the blog post serve to augment the satire in that the crimes of the characters were married to their punishments. This is Jonson saying that people who act this way will get theirs according to their actions. I think an English crowd of Jonson's time would respond favorably to this form of satire and take away from the play his assault on avarice which is driven home by the punishments.

Ben Jonson's Volpone saves the reader a trip back to the Dramatis Personae page by naming its characters appropriately. As I put my appreciation of Jonson's consideration aside I started to wonder if there were a greater purpose to his forthright nomenclature. The first observation on these names I made was the grouping of Volpone's "suitors" who are each named after carrion birds. Voltore (vulture), Cobaccio

A Dialogue between Soul and Body by Andrew Marvell reveals a sort of internal strife that Marvell percieves in the human existence. The soul and body are both unhappy with being inextricably bound to one another. His usage of the form of a dialogue allows him to transpose these two entities.
The result of both his form and the content of the soul and body's complaints conveys a certain malcontent with being a human with both soul and body. The body always wants to rest while the soul wants to roam. Marvell seems to account for humanity's problems with this contrast. The soul's desires and the body's lack make a human being a confused mess of opposing compelling forces.

Donne's Love's Alchemy has a bitter and towards the end misogynistic tone. And I love this poem. Not because of its cynicism or misogyny but because I have been there before. The poem's conceit is a comparison of true love to the quest for elixir sought by alchemists. The first stanza simply expounds on this metaphor and lacks the aforementioned bitterness. Lines are married into couplets with a few exceptions and enjambement rushes the reader through the middle of the poem. This rushing comes shortly after Donne declares claims of true love as "imposture" in line 6 and builds the intensity until the couplet in lines 10-11. The next stanza is a change of pace and the enjamebent here only serves to finish the (false according to Donne) idea of Donne's servant being as happy as he can be through love. Line 18's "loving wretch" can either refer to this servant or just any loving wretch in general who is in this situation. I think we all know that loving wretch. The guy who claims hes in love but you just want to scream "Thats not love!!" at. This is mainly why I like this poem. Ive seen this, and Im glad Donne has too and wrote a poem about it. The final couplet is where you get the doseof misogyny. While I disagree with this as a position Ive felt this way before when frustrated with the female sex and I feel thats the way it is intended in this poem. Donne is obviously frustrated at other's claims of having found true love by loving their woman's minds. So while they may not be the most enlightened lines in the poem they still reflect the frustration in the poem and are less misogynistic than they appear.

Viola's soliloquy in part 2.2, Lines 17-41 of the play comes shortly after recieving the ring sent by Olivia and serves as a major juncture in the plot's revelation, reveals Viola's character through her reaction to the presented predicament, and is in itself an analysis of gender.
This soliloquy follows Viola's first visit to Olivia's court and summarizes the implications of what occurred there. While it was apparent to the audience through asides that Olivia was attracted to Viola as Cesario this did not allow for a reaction by a character. Viola is the only character who can realize the full implications of the predicament she is in and therefore only a soliloquy authored by her could analyze, summarize, and truly reveal the main problem of the play.
Viola pities Olivia's love for her as she sees that her own deception has suddenly made it seemingly impossible for Viola to be with the Duke and for Olivia to be with Cesario. As starkly different as these relationships are they seem to lock together in a perfect trinity of discord. Each person loves so passionately that they are not willing to remand and thus force each other apart. Viola's neccessary deception, Olivia's spurning of Orsino, and Orsino's need to use Viola as Cesario to proclaim his love to Olivia all perfectly maintain each other. Viola blames her situation on the impressionable nature of women(including herself) when faced with a man they desire. Shakespeare's clever wordplay is clear in this soliloquy in how Viola refers to herself and the twists on gender. She refers to herself as a monster without gender which is truly the best description of the Viola-Cesario beast. A creature with the problems and duties of a man yet the self-admitted frailty of a woman.