Poets - 07 - John Milton (1608-1674)

John Milton the most outstanding English poet of the seventeenth century was born in 1608, in London, England.

He had his basic education at St Paul’s School, London and higher education at the University of Cambridge.

It is reported that Milton voraciously read English, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French and Italian works during the five years he spent there.

Next he made a trip abroad that lasted for two years.

By 1639 he was over thirty. The long period of study and the excursion abroad had combined together to produce distinguished poetry. Thus ‘Lycidas’ the finest elegy in English, was written by Milton upon the death of a close friend, at the time.

Despite his extensive preparation, Milton’s poetic performance was interrupted by the outbreak of civil war in England.

Milton was a puritan. As a staunch supporter of the parliamentary cause against the Royalist, the poet devoted twenty years out of the prime of his life, from 1640 to 1660 to defend the puritan commonwealth against its enemies.

During the long interlude Milton wrote primarily prose phamplets on matters related to the new government. The little poetry Milton produced during these years was inspired by current events, and they are of little literary value.

As Latin Secretary in Cromwell’s government he laboured so diligently in preparing documents in the official language of the state, that his eyesight began to fail him. By 1652 he was blind.

When the Royalists managed finally, in 1660 to triumph over Cromwell’s followers and restore monarchy, Milton’s very life was in danger. But influential literary men like Andrew Marvell came to his rescue in time, and Milton was pardoned for his earlier anti-Royalist activities. He survived with a fine and with a confiscation of some of his property.

In poverty Milton then moved to a village West of London where he began his masterpiece, conceiving and memorizing portions of it at night and dictating what he had created to secretaries in the morning.

In that laborious way he wrote ‘Paradise Lost’ a work of over ten thousand lines, the greatest epic in the English language.

‘Paradise Lost’ was first published in 10 books in 1667. In 1674 he produced a revised edition in 12 books.

Written in blank verse, it relates the theological stories of Satan’s rebellion against God, and Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Its sequel ‘Paradise Regained’ published in 1671 was in four books, and describes Christ’s temptation.

‘L’ Allegro and II Pensoroso’, ‘Comus’, ‘Paradise Regained’ and ‘Samson Agonistes’ are the other major works by John Milton.

John Milton passed away in 1674 in his residence in the village he lived.

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