John Milton

• He was born in 1608
• He was an English poet, polemicist, and civil servant
• Paradise Lost elevated Milton's reputation as one of history's greatest poets
• He is among history's most influential defenders of freedom of speech and freedom of the press
• He was the first modern writer to employ unrhymed verse outside of theatre
• He lived through the English Civil War
• His best-known prose is in the pamphlets Areopagitica, on freedom of the press
• He also wrote tracts on divorce and against the monarchy and the Church of England
• He toured Europe, spending most of his time in Italy

Paradise Lost

• Paradise Lost was written in 1667
• It is an epic poem written in a time of immense religious flux and political upheaval
• It is written in blank verse
• It includes twelve books
• The poem is about the fall of man, including the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and God's expulsion of them from the Garden of Eden
• Milton portrays Satan as a powerful, tragically ambitious, and sympathetic character
• The poem's portrayal of Adam and Eve emphasizes their humanity, exploring their innocence before the Fall of Man
• Themes:
  • Free will
  • The moral consequences of disobedience
• Techniques derived from the classics:
  • The 12-book structure
  • The story beginning in medias res
  • The invocation of the muse