John Milton: The Greatest English Poet Best Known for Writing “Paradise Lost”

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“Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.

A mind not to be changed by place or time. The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.

They also serve who only stand and wait.”

-John Milton

 

Introduction

 

John Milton was a seventeenth-century historian, journalist, and poet born in London on December 9, 1608. He studied at Cambridge University and aspired to be a full-time writer. From his earliest youth, he was an omnivorous reader and student and to this day he stands as the most learned poet and cultural artist. 

 

Milton aspired to write an epic that would encompass all poets, space, and time. He mastered the classics and the chief writers. He was firmly fixed in his determination to devote himself to the service of humanity-to lead a life that ought to be a real poem. 

 

William Hayley's 1796 biography titled him as the "greatest English author", and he is generally regarded "as one of the pre-eminent writers in the English language”

 

Influence

The son of a scrivener was educated by private tutors and attended St Paul’s School and Christ’s College, Cambridge. Milton was a man of European culture. Milton did not fight the war, but he did write political pamphlets throughout the 1640s and 1650s.In the summer of 1642, the beginning of the English Civil War, he married Mary Powell.

His first utterances were naturally on the topic of episcopacy. The outbreak of war in 16432 forced upon Milton the question of whether he should take up arms in defense of the principles he advocated. He did not abandon his poetic plans (between the 1640s and 1650s) but wrote only a few sonnets. He believed he could serve his country with his pen rather than a sword, so he wrote his sonnet, “When the assault was intended to the city”.

Critics argued that Milton suffered from writer’s block, which was better only after he became blind in 1652. He deferred his poetic ambitions because he thought that his political pamphlets fulfilled a more important purpose.

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As a protestant, he believed in the freedom of worship and was often at odds with the Roman Catholic Church He would work for the English government under Oliver Cromwell after the removal of the monarchy. Many of his works have political and personal themes. On the eve of Restoration, he published” The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth’ (March 1660).

 The seventeenth century was an era of significant cultural and political changes. Milton’s political hopes collapsed with the Restoration of King Charles II. Milton was arrested and then released.

Notable Works and Poetry

“Paradise Lost,” tells the story of how Satan tempted Adam and Eve and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. He initially wanted the poem to be a tragedy. However, the main action of the poem is very simple; two people eating apples in the garden. The poem contains epic sublimity. Readers see Milton renovating a tradition that he loves. He treats nakedness heroically because the two main characters are naked for most of the action. In the poem, he does not equate nakedness with shame. The deeper purpose of this epic poem is to justify the doings of God to humans.

A revised, 12-volume version of Paradise Lost was published in 1674. Some of his famous works are: ‘On the Morning of Christ's Nativity (1629), ‘On Shakespeare’ (1630), ‘L'Allegro Il Penseroso’, ‘A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle’ (1634), and Lycidas.

Experts agree that Milton’s theology belongs to the “great central tradition: of Christian has the right, even the obligation to interpret scripture in the light of his conscience. He believed that choosing right from evil was a crucial part of a Christian’s life of faith. 

“Freely we serve

Because we freely love, as in our will

To love or no in this we stand or fall.”

-John Milton

The works of Milton have been won by people who are more or less inspired by him and will be kept only by those who are capable of appreciating the height and breadth of his ineffable personality.

Written By - Rachita Arora