From Gustav Dore's Paradise Lost illustrations 

    On Dec 9,1608, in London England, John Milton, arguably the greatest epic poet in English literature, was born. Milton’s reputation lies in accomplishing the Herculean task of single-handedly redefining the epic tradition, transforming the martial heroism of his epic predecessors in to the spiritual warfare of the good Christian soldier. At an early age Milton knew that he had a poetical vocation, but his expectation of the poet’s role assumed sublimer proportions. Three years old when the King James Bible was published in 1611 and eight years of age when Shakespeare died in 1616, Milton was immersed in a rich religious and cultural tradition. In many ways, Milton is the last great Christian humanist of not only the seventeenth but of any century, always aspiring to sing of heroic deeds and extol the virtues of right living. All of Milton’s poetry can be construed as an exercise in prayerful praise.

    From1649 to 1653, Milton supported the Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell, writing political tracts on what he believed to be the defense of liberty. The consequences were exacting, debilitating his already weakened eyesight, and in 1660, at fifty two years of age, old and blind, disappointed that the “good old cause” had failed and the Restoration had been ushered in, Milton began writing his magnum opus, Paradise Lost, his epic poem about the fall and redemption of creation. Milton’s accomplishment is comprehensive. He not only poetically translated the Bible from Genesis to Revelation but his poem encapsulates the entire Greco-Roman-Judea-Christian tradition. From Paradise Lost alone, western civilization could conceivably be reconstructed in the wake of Armageddon. With the publication of his other two major works in 1671, Paradise Regained, classified as a brief epic, and Samson Agonistes, written in the style of classical Greek tragedy, the Milton canon is complete and can be viewed as a panaramic epic trilogy, a journey towards cultivating the paradise within so vainly sought and little found in the world. In 1674, the old grey poet passed away, secure in the knowledge that he at least would be recorded in God’s Book of Life if not remembered in the annals of time.

    Milton took English poetry to the heights of mystical discourse. His poetics of the holy, as Michael Lieb puts it, is an exercise in sacramental devotion. His only real competitor is the King James Bible. Milton is usually classified as a Puritan or a radical Christian, but  generations of readers, Catholic and Protestant alike, have been united in their praise of a poet who made it his life’s sacred duty to “see and tell/ Of things invisible to Mortal sight” (PL III 54-5), justifying “the ways of God to men” (PL I 26).

                                                                                                                             -Written by Dr. Marc Ricciardi

Works Cited

Milton, John.  Paradise Lost. Ed. Merrit Y. Hughes.  Indianapolis: Hacket Publishing Company, 1957.  211-469