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
astray behold head highest led near riding wandering wide
To behold the wandering moon, / Riding near her highest noon, / Like one that had been led astray / Through the heav'n's wide pathless way; / And oft, as if her head she bowed, / Stooping through a fleecy cloud.
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.
fancies garland high poet region robes singing soaring
A poet soaring in the high region of his fancies with his garland and singing robes about him.
dire entrance high immortal leads rocks verse whose
Storied of old in high immortal verse / Of dire chimeras and enchanted isles, / And rifted rocks whose entrance leads to Hell.
beauty high
Beauty is Nature's brag, and must be shown/ In courts, at feasts, and high solemnities.
highest middle sat tree
Thence up he flew, and on the Tree of Life,/ The middle tree and highest there that grew, / Sat like a cormorant.
full high imperial streaming
The imperial ensign, which, full high advanced, / Shone like a meteor, streaming to the wind.
steps higher highest
Lifted up so high I disdained subjection, and thought one step higher would set me highest.
obscure palpable uncouth
Through the palpable obscure find out / His uncouth way.
rude winter
It was the winter wild, / While the Heaven-born child, / All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies.
among faithful
The seraph Abdiel, faithful found, / Among the faithless, faithful only he.
contagion flashy foul hungry lean mist pipes rank rot sheep songs wretched
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 swoln with wind, and the rank mist they draw, / Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread.
embryos
Embryos and idiots, eremites and friars / White, black, and grey, with all their trumpery.
shades
Fled / Murmuring, and with him fled the shades of night.