John Milton
John Milton
John Miltonwas an English poet, polemicist, and man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell. He wrote at a time of religious flux and political upheaval, and is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost, written in blank verse...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth9 December 1608
saint saws late
Methought I saw my late espoused saint.
dark fighting air
Into this wild Abyss/ The womb of Nature, and perhaps her grave--/ Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire,/ But all these in their pregnant causes mixed/ Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight,/ Unless the Almighty Maker them ordain/ His dark materials to create more worlds,--/ Into this wild Abyss the wary Fiend/ Stood on the brink of Hell and looked a while,/ Pondering his voyage; for no narrow frith/ He had to cross.
kings lying wish-to-die
And so sepúlchred in such pomp dost lie, That kings for such a tomb would wish to die.
pain ease void
Ease would recant Vows made in pain, as violent and void.
god temptation taste
Taste this, and be henceforth among the Gods thyself a Goddess.
wings golden wheels
Him that yon soars on golden wing, guiding the fiery-wheelèd throne, the Cherub Contemplation.
time forget thee
With thee conversing I forget all time.
music sweet bird
Sweet bird, that shun the noise of folly, most musical, most melancholy!
peace sloth ease
Thus Belial, with words clothed in reason's garb, counseled ignoble ease, and peaceful sloth, not peace.
love sweet soul
Those graceful acts, those thousand decencies, that daily flow from all her words and actions, mixed with love and sweet compliance, which declare unfeigned union of mind, or in us both one soul.
majestic sober demure
Come, pensive nun, devout and pure, sober steadfast, and demure, all in a robe of darkest grain, flowing with majestic train.
confusion ruins paradise-lost-book-2
With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout, Confusion worse confounded.
angel looks ruth
Look homeward, Angel, now, and melt with ruth.
thrones oratory fierce
Thence to the famous orators repair, Those ancient, whose resistless eloquence Wielded at will that fierce democratie, Shook the arsenal, and fulmin'd over Greece, To Macedon, and Artaxerxes' throne.