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
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.
sheep looks hungry
The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed.
morning silly sheep
On the Morning of Christ's Nativity Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep, was all that did their silly thoughts so busy keep.
sheep hook mouths
Blind mouths! That scarce themselves know how to hold A sheep-hook.
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.
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.
bad exalted merit raised satan
Satan exalted sat, by merit raised / To that bad eminence.
cared less rather
Rather than be less / Cared not to be at all.