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
running grief men
What need a man forestall his date of grief, And run to meet what he would most avoid?.
ears hearing
Where more is meant than meets the ear.
ivy watches flaunting
I sat me down to watch upon a bank With ivy canopied and interwove With flaunting honeysuckle.
running voice dumb
The oracles are dumb, No voice or hideous hum Runs thro' the arched roof in words deceiving.
purpose airy
Execute their airy purposes.
thinking anxiety arms
From restless thoughts, that, like a deadly swarm Of hornets arm'd, no sooner found alone, But rush upon me thronging.
society delight harmony
Among unequals what society Can sort, what harmony, or true delight?
wine society aristocracy
Lords are lordliest in their wine.
christian evil vices
What wisdom can there be to choose, what continence to forbear without the knowledge of evil? He that can apprehend and consider vice with all her baits and seeming pleasures, and yet abstain, and yet distinguish, and yet prefer that which is truly better, he is the true wayfaring Christian.
virtue circumstances prudence
Prudence is the virtue by which we discern what is proper to do under various circumstances in time and place.
may sometimes knows
Few sometimes may know, when thousands err.
angel tears cry
Tears such as angels weep.
virtue
Virtue that wavers is not virtue.
night clouds silver
Was I deceiv'd, or did a sable cloud Turn forth her silver lining on the night?