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
arabian bird knows lay nor second self woods
Like that self-begotten bird / In the Arabian woods embost, / That no second knows nor third, / And lay ere while a holocaust.
heard nor sound
Nor war, or battle's sound / Was heard the world around.
love nor permit short thou thy
Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou liv'st, Live well, how long or short permit to heav'n
appeared excess form glory less lost nor original
His form had yet not lost / All her original brightness, nor appeared / Less than archangel ruined, and th' excess / Of glory obscured.
against argue bear hand heart nor onward steer
I argue not against heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot of heart or hope, but still bear up, and steer right onward
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.
cricket far resort save
Far from all resort of mirth, / Save the cricket on the hearth!
farewell fields hail happy joy
Farewell happy fields / Where joy for ever dwells: Hail horrors, hail!
affected cloak dull fear luke name seldom themselves
Fear and dull disposition, luke warmness and sloth, are not seldom wont to cloak themselves under the affected name of Moderation.