John Milton (1608-1674)

I. Biography:born in London in 1609. His father, an arbiter(scrivener), was a Puritan and a lover of music and literature. From

Boyhood, Milton was a hard student and at 12 we find him already a scholar in spirit: “When I was yet a child, no childish play to me was pleasing; all my mind was serious to learn and know, and

.” Thence to do what might be public good; myself though born to that end, born to promote all truth, and all righteous things.”

Educated at St. Paul’s school and Cambridge. After graduation in1632, he spent six years at his father’s country home on solitary study, greedily drilling the treasures over the fields of languages, literature, science, theology, and music. To complete his preparation for his literary career, he started his travel on the Continent in 1638.

1649– pointed as Latin Secretary to Cromwell’s Council of State.

1652– totally blind

1660– Restoration

1665– Paradise Lost finished, published in 1667.

II. Literary Creation: three groups: the early poetic works, the middle prose pamphlets and the last great poems.

In his early works, Milton appears as the inheritor of all that was best in Elizabethan literature. Lycidas (1637) is a typical example, composed for a collection of elegies dedicated to Edward King, a fellow undergraduate of Milton’s at Cambridge.

Milton devoted almost twenty years of his best life to the fight for political, religious and personal liberty as a writer. His powerful pamphlets written during this period make him the greatest prose writer of

his age. And they can be compared with his achievement in poetry, at least not unfavorably. Areopagitica (1644)《论出版自由》 is probably his most memorable prose work. It is a great plea for freedom of the press. Compared with the tough style of the other prose work, it is rather smooth and calm.

After the restoration in 1660, when he was blind and suffering, and when he was poor and lonely, Milton wrote his three major poetical works: Paradise Lost (1667), Paradise

Regained (1671), and Samson Agonistes(1671) Among the three, the first is the greatest, indeed the only generally acknowledged epic in English literature since Beowulf; and the last one is the most perfect example of the verse drama after the Greek style in English.

III. Features of Milton’s Poetry

1. Works with revolutionary spirit: Milton was political in both his art and his life; he

was an outstanding pamphleteer of the period of the English Revolution, and a greatest English revolutionary poet of the 17th century. Those later revolutionary poets such as Shelly, Byron own much to his inspiration. “Satanic poets”.

2.Milton is a great stylist. He is famous for his grand style, which is the result of his long long classical and biblical study. The artistic effect of his work is achieved by definite and obvious rhetorical devices. For

example, I his poetry he particularly likes to use proper names of resonance and colour– scattering them over his stanzas with an effect of displaying of fire works.

3. Milton is a master of blank verse. He learned much from Shakespeare and first used blank verse in non-dramatic works and with his genius for poems, he achieved great success in blank verse.

4. His sublimity of thought and majesty of expression.(气宇非凡词语）

IV. The Epic “Paradise Lost”

1. Resource: the Old Testament: (1) the creation; (2)the rebellion in Heaven of Satan and his fellow-angels; (3)their defeat and expulsion; (4) the creation of earth and of Adam and Even; (5) the fallen angels in hell plotting against God; (6) Satan’s temptation of Even; (7) and the departure of Adam and Even from Heaven.

2. The story (omit)

3. Structure:

1) Satan and his follower are banished from Heaven and driven into hell.

2) Satan’s revenge– by tearing Adam and Even away from the influence of God and making them tools in his struggle against God’s authority.

3) God learn’s of his intention and sends the Archangle Raphael to warn Adam and even of Satan’s plan.

4)Satan succeeds in persuading Even to break God’s commands. She eats the apple from the forbidden tree and picks another for Adam.

5)Adam and Even are driven out of the Garden of Eden.

4.Theme: The theme is the “Fall of Man” , man’s disobedience and the loss of Paradise, with its prime cause—Satan; Milton originally intends “to justify the

ways of God to man”, but after reading it, one gets the impression that the main idea of the poem is a revolt against God’s authority.

5. Characterization:

God and Satan: In the poem God is no better than a selfish despot, seated upon a throne with a chorus of angels about him eternally singing his praises. His long speeches are never pleasing. He is cruel and unjust in his struggle against Satan. His angels are silly. While the rebellious Satan who rose against God and though defeated,

Adam and Even: they embody Milton’s belief in the powers of man. Proud and noble in their friendship, they courageously opposed the wrath of God. Their craving (desiring) for knowledge as Milton stresses, adds a particular significance to their characters. This longing for knowledge opens before mankind a wide road to an intelligent and active life.