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
spray woods
O nightingale, that on yon bloomy spray / Warblest at eve, when all the woods are still.
dangers days evil mortal mute safe sing though unchanged
More safe I sing with mortal voice, unchanged / To hoarse or mute though fall'n on evil days, / On evil days though fall'n, and evil tongues; / In darkness, and with dangers compassed round, / And solitude.
alone climb feeble follow higher itself love stoop teach virtue
Mortals, that would follow me, / Love virtue, she alone is free, / She can teach ye how to climb / Higher than the sphery chime; / Or if virtue feeble were, / Heav'n itself would stoop to her.
best last latest
My fairest, my espoused, my latest found, / Heaven's last best gift, my ever new delight.
heroic life poems writers-and-writing
Let those who would write heroic poems make their life an heroic poem.
chronicle fighting fights-and-fighting wars
To chronicle the wars of kites and crows, fighting in the air.
dancing youth
To many a youth and many a maid, / Dancing in the chequered shade.
faith angel wings
O welcome pure-eyed Faith, white handed Hope, Thou hovering angel girt with golden wings.
music sweet lying
Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie.
bad men pretend shall wisest women
Wisest men / Have erred, and by bad women been deceived; / And shall again, pretend they ne'er so wise.
flown forth insolence night sons wander wine
When night Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine
english-poet heal otherwise
He that studieth revenge keepeth his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well.
heaven hell mind
The mind is its own place and in itself, can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
reign
Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.