"Paradise Lost"
- Characters: Satan, Beelzebub, Abdiel, Adam and Eve
"Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe,
With lss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,
Sing Heavn'nly Muse, that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed,
In the beginning how the heav'ns and earth
Rose out of Chaos: or if Sion hill
Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowed
Fast by the oracle of God; I thence
Invoke thy aid to my advent'rous song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above th' Aonian mount, while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme....
"How Soon Hath Time"
How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,
Stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year!
My hasting days fly on with full career,
But my late spring no bud or blossom shew'th.
Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth,
That I to manhood am arrived so near,
And inward ripeness doth much less appear,
That some more timely-happy spirits endu'th.
Yet, be it less or more, or soon or slow,
It shall be still in strictest measure even
To that same lot, however mean or high,
Toward which Time leads me, and the will of HEaven;
All is: if I have grace to use it so,
As ever in my great Task-Master's eye.
"On Shakespeare"
- Ben Jonson also wrote about Shakespeare
- Andrew Marvell wrote about Milton
What needs my Shakespeare for his honour'd Bones,
The labour of an age in piled Stones,
Or that his hallow'd reliques should be hid
Under a Star-y pointing Pyramid?
Dear son of memory, great heir of Fame,
What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name?
Thou in our wonder and astonishment
Hast built thy self a live-long Monument.
For whilst to th' shame of slow-endeavouring art,
Thy easie numbers flow, and that each heart
Hath from the leaves of thy unvalu'd Book,
Those Delphick lines with deep impression took,
Then thou our fancy of it self bereaving,
Dost make us Marble with too much conceaving;
And so Sepulcher'd in such pomp dost lie,
That Kings for such a Tomb would wish to die.
"On the Late Massacre in Piedmont"
Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold,
Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old,
When all our father worshipped stocks and stones;
Forget not: in thy book record their groans
Who were thy sheep and in their ancient fold
Slain by the bloody Piedmontese that rolled
Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans
The vales redoubled to the hills, and they
To Heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow
O'er all th' Italian fields where still doth sway
The triple tyrant; that from these may grow
A hundred-fold, who having learnt thy way
Early may fly the Babylonian woe.
"When I Consider How My Light is Spent" (also sometimes called "On His Blindness")
When I consider how my light is spent,
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith m yMaker, and present
My true account, lest He returning chide,
"Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?"
I fondly ask; But patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies "God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts. Who best
Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best. His state
Is kingly: thousands at His bidding speed
And post o'er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait."
Areopagitica
- protest against censorship and obstruction of the press
- considers the political freedom of ancient Greece to have been ideal and attempts to link the greatness of Greece with that of England
- three central points in his attack of censorship:
- books are not the sole purveyors of evil or destructive information, so attempts to halt the flow of evil by regulating book publishing would be ineffective
- only inhumanly perfect individuals could serve as judges, or else personal biases and misunderstandings would creep into the system and damage the chances that "good" books had of publication
- even "bad" books can be constructive through strengthening an individual's resistance to faulty or evil ideas
"For Books are not absolutely dead things, but doe contain a potencie of life in them to be as active as that soule was whose progeny they are; nay they do preserve as in a violl the purest efficacie and extraction of that living intellect that bred them. I know they are as lively, and as vigorously productive, as those fabulous Dragons teeth; and being sown up and down, may chance to spring up armed men. And yet on the other hand unlesse warinesse be us'd, as good almost kill a Man as kill a good Book; who kills a Man kills a reasonable creature, Gods Image; but he who destoryes a good Book, kills reason it selfe, kills the Image of God, as it were in the eye. Many a man lives a burden to the Earth; but a good Booke is the pretious life-blood of a master spirit, imbalm'd and treasur'd up on purpose to a life beyond life."
Comus
- masque about the attempted seduction of a young girl by Comus, a supernatural being
- the Lady is rescued by her brothers and a couple of attendant spirits
- dedicated to the Earl of Bridgewater and features his children in the priamry roles
"Love virtue, she alone is free;
She can teach ye how to climb
Higher than the sphery chime:
Or, if virtue feeble were,
Heaven itself would stoop to her."
Of Education
- on contemporary debate about methods of education
- part of larger discussion about how the Church should be organized and how the State should be governed
- importance of clearer consciousness among teachers and students of education as a discipline for active life
- insistence upon a more extensive reading of ancient classical and Christian writers as the means of securing this discipline
- attitude of severe and hostile criticism towards medieval education and culture
Samson Agonistes
- play retelling the story of Samson
- concentrates on Samson after he had been betrayed by Delilah and was blinded and held prisoner by the Philistine
- Samson resists the temptation to become despondent and, having regained his strength by allowing his hair to grow after the Philistines had cut it, destroys the leadership of the Philistines by pulling down a large building on them and himself
- a reflection on how Milton, like Samson, had devoted his life to his country and see his efforts come to nothing when the monarchy was restored with Charles II - he had temporarily given up his poetry and worked for Oliver Cromwell and the Commonwealth government
"Lycidas"
- pastoral elegy
- dedicated to the memory of Edward King, a collegemate of Milton's at Cambridge who had been drowned when his ship sank
- a shepherd mourns his drowned friend Lycidas, alluding to the immortal fame of a poet
It begins:
"Yet once more, O ye laurels, and once more
Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere
I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude,
And with forced fingers rude,
Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year...
Last came, and last did go,
The Pilot of the Galilean lake,
Two massy Keyes he bore of metals twain,
(The Golden opes, the Iron shuts amain)
He shook his Miter'd locks, and stern bespake,
How well could I have spar'd for thee young swain,
Anow of such as for their bellies sake,
Creep and intrude, and climb into the fold?
Of other care they little reckn'ning make,
Then how to scramble at the shearers feast,
And shove away the worthy bidden guest.
Blind mouthes! that scarce themselves know how to hold
A sheep-hook, or have learned aught else the least
That to the faithful herdsman's art belongs@
What recks it them? What need they? They are sped;
And when they list, their lean and flashy songs
Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw.
The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed,
But swol'n with wind, and the rank mist they draw,
Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread,
Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw
Daily devours apace, and nothing said.
But that two-handed engine at the door
Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more.
"blind mouths" - corrupt clergy who acquire their position with dishonest means
"Wolf" - allegory for the Catholic Church
"engine" - a type of sword
Final lines of poem:
"And now the Sun had stretch'd out all the hills
And now was dropt into the Western bay;
At last he rose, and twitch'd his Mantle blew:
Tomorrow to fresh Woods, and Pastures new."
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