The tree shuddered in the snow- a tree can't actually shudder!
Answer:
C. The theme is Paradise Lost, and the historical context is prior epic
poetry: The Iliad and Beowulf
Explanation:
Theme tells us what is the main preoccupation of the article, while the historical context is a period in history that serves us as a reference point for analysing the text.
Here, the critic deals with Milton's most famous work, an epic poem "Paradise Lost", explaining how it differs from epic poems written before it. From this, we can conclude that the theme of this article is "Paradise Lost".
Also, here, we are not directly given a specific year or an event that would suggest a historical period. But, the author compares Milton's poem to famous epic poems written previously. These poems represent an over a millennium long period of time, when all epic poems shared similar characteristics. Changing the focus of his poem, Milton broke from the epic tradition, whose representatives are The Iliad and Beowulf.
In this sense, we could say that the historical context here is prior epic poetry.
