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
flat moon radiant sea sun though virtue
Virtue could see to do what Virtue would / By her own radiant light, though sun and moon / Were in the flat sea sunk.
ambition choice heaven hell reign serve though worth
Here we may reign secure, and in my choice To reign is worth ambition though in hell: Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven
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.
ambition reign serve though worth
To reign is worth ambition though in hell: Better to reign in hell, than serve in heav'n
hath love offense regain strange though
Yet beauty, though injurious, hath strange power, After offense returning, to regain Love once possess'd
audience fit govern thou though
Still govern thou my song, / Urania, and fit audience find, though few.
dark foul hides himself secrets soul thoughts walks
But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts benighted walks under the mid-day sun; Himself is his own dungeon.
oft though
All is best, though we oft doubt, / What the unsearchable dispose.
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.