Biography

Born into a financially prosperous middle class family, John Milton was well educated, receiving degrees from Cambridge University. After completing his MA with honors, Milton moved to his father’s home where he spent several years in private study and writing. He also, like most well-to-do young men, undertook an extended trip to the continent, returning to England when civil war seemed imminent.

Referred to as the great Puritan poet, Milton found his fortunes went up and down with the rise and fall of Cromwell’s commonwealth. He accepted a government post as a translator under the commonwealth government, writing treatises supporting republicanism and Oliver Cromwell. During this period, Milton lost his vision and was forced to continue his writing by dictating to assistants, including poet Andrew Marvell. Following the Restoration, a warrant was issued for Milton’s arrest because of his support of Cromwell and the commonwealth government. Milton was arrested and imprisoned for a time until friends, again including poet Andrew Marvell, intervened and won his release, possibly saving Milton from execution. Milton retired to a small cottage in Chalfont St. Giles, where he continued to write until his death in 1674.

In 2008, Christ’s College, Cambridge created a Milton website as part of a celebration of Milton’s 400th birthday. It includes an abundance of information about Milton as well as an interactive study resource on Paradise Lost titled Darkness Visible.

Milton Dictates to His Daughters Delacroix.

Milton’s Literature

Milton wrote several types of literature:

• poetry

  • lyric poems
  • sonnets
  • longer poems such as “L’Allegro” and “Il Penseroso”
  • his elegy Lycidas, written in memory of his friend Edward King
  • his most famous work, the epic poem Paradise Lost
• a masquea form of entertainment for the court involving singing and dancing as well as acting, usually with elaborate costumes and sets, a form of entertainment for the court involving singing and dancing as well as acting, usually with elaborate costumes and sets. The lords and ladies of the court sometimes took part in a masque as well as professional entertainers. Milton’s masque Comus, unlike the traditional masque, was not performed at court but in the castle of a nobleman. Its subject was the virtue of chastity rather than the more risqué subjects found in most masques.
• prose works on political and religious topics such as his Divorce Tracts and Areopagitica, a pamphlet arguing for freedom of the press

Texts

• “Books by Milton, John.” Project Gutenberg.
• “The John Milton Reading Room.” Thomas Luxon, Professor of English. Dartmouth College.
• “Selected Poetry of John Milton (1608–1674).” Representative Poetry Online. University of Toronto.

Paradise Lost Text

• Paradise Lost. Project Gutenberg.
• Paradise Lost. The 12-Book 1674 Edition. Michael E Bryson, Department of English. California State University, Northridge.
• Paradise Lost. “The John Milton Reading Room.” Thomas Luxon, Professor of English. Dartmouth College.
• Paradise Lost (1667). Judy Boss. Renascence Editions. text of 1667 edition with 10 books.

Paradise Lost

Milton had long contemplated writing an epic poem before he began Paradise Lost. He first thought of making the Arthurian legends its topic. Then he decided to write about the fall of man—”of man’s first disobedience.” Paradise Lost is considered the greatest epic written in the English language.

The Epic

An epica long narrative poem in elevated style depicting the heroic adventures of a valiant, superhuman individual is a long narrative poem in elevated style depicting the heroic adventures of a valiant, superhuman individual.

Examples of epics include

• Homer’s the Iliad and the Odyssey
• Virgil’s Aeneid
• Beowulf
• The Song of Roland
• Milton’s Paradise Lost

Epics share the following characteristics:

• an epic hero: an historical or legendary individual capable of great deeds that are important to his/her people
• setting: a place of historical or legendary significance at a time crucial to the people of the story
• action: valiant feats requiring great courage and massive strength (physical or, sometimes, psychological)
• supernatural forces: mythological or supernatural figures that intervene in human events

• style: an imposing, formal style that includes the use of literary and metrical techniques to convey a sense of eloquence and gravity, such as the caesura in Beowulf and in Paradise Lost

  • enjambmenta sentence that continues from one line into another in a poem, continuing a thought over two or more lines rather than ending each sentence at the end of each line of poetry (end-stopped poetry)—a sentence that continues from one line into another in a poem, continuing a thought over two or more lines rather than ending each sentence at the end of each line of poetry (end-stopped poetry)
  • inversionchanging the normal word order of a sentence—changing the normal word order of a sentence
  • elisionomitting a letter or syllable of a word to maintain the meter of a line of poetry—omitting a letter or syllable of a word to maintain the meter of a line of poetry

In addition to these characteristics of epics, epics share a group of conventionstraditional features that are usually employed in a particular genre, traditional features that are usually employed in a particular genre:

• a statement of theme at the beginning of the poem
• the invocation of a muse to inspire and instruct the poet
• a narrative opening in medias resbeginning a narrative in the middle of the action (beginning a narrative in the middle of the action)
• cataloguesa formal list of items such as battleships or warriors (formal lists of items such as battleships or warriors)
• extended formal speeches by the main characters
• epic similessimiles several lines long and developed in great detail (similes several lines long and developed in great detail)

Resources