John Milton Summary

Biography EssayJohn Milton's career as a writer of prose and poetry spans three distinct eras: Stuart England; the Civil War (1642-1648) and Interregnum, including the Commonwealth (1649-1653) and Pro... Read more

John Milton's career as a writer of prose and poetry spans three distinct eras: Stuart England; the Civil War (1642-1648) and Interregnum, including the Commonwealth (1649-1653) and Protectorate (1654... Read more

England's preeminent epic poet, John Milton was also the author of a logic textbook: Joannis Miltoni Angli, Artis logicae plenior institutio, ad Petri Rami methodum concinnata, adjecta est praxis anna... Read more

In the essay below, Fink explores seventeenth-century political understandings of the notion of dictatorship. He maintains that the depiction of Satan as a dictator in Paradise Regained underscores Mi... Read more

In the following essay Lewalski examines Milton's political pamphlets in the tumultuous years of 1659-60. She argues that his seeming inconsistencies and reversals are not evidence of ficklenes... Read more

In the essay below, Helgerson discusses Milton's role as laureate, a position which traditionally inhibited poetic creativity. Helgerson posits that Milton escaped this pitfall once he became l... Read more

In the following essay, Lowenstein examines tension in Milton's later revolutionary writings. The critic suggests that, in serving both historiographic and mythopoeic functions, Milton understo... Read more

In the following essay, Shawcross examines Milton's Calvinist beliefs and the role his father's and grandfather's experiences with the Church may have influenced his theological i... Read more

In the following essay, Fish offers a performative reading of "L'AUegro" and "Il Penseroso." I have only one point to make and everything else follows from it: �... Read more

Martin explores the role of desire in Milton's depictions of Paradise. On Milton's sociability: One can imagine the blind poet visiting a coffee house to hear the Gazette read aloud and ... Read more

In the following excerpt, Chesterton sees Milton as a seventeenth-century individualist, standing apart from the Classical tradition on which he drew. Of all poets Milton is the one whom it is the mos... Read more

In the following essay. Leavis dismisses Milton's poetry as puritanical and pedantic Milton's dislodgment, in the past decade, after his two centuries of predominance, was effected with ... Read more

In the following essay, Kermode examines the depiction of Christ in Paradise Regained, establishing Christian heroic virtue as distinct from pagan. The heroic poem, said Davenant, should "exhib... Read more

In the following excerpt, originally published in his Lives of the English Poets in 1780, Johnson critcizes what he thinks are the faults of John Milton's poem Lycidas, whose pastoral form he f... Read more