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
daily lies life prime wisdom
To know that which before us lies in daily life is the prime wisdom.
blank book cheerful cut entrance fair knowledge men presented quite shut universal ways wisdom works
From the cheerful ways of men / Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair / Presented with a universal blank / Of nature's works to me expunged and razed, / And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.
wisdom philosophy vain
Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy.
wisdom sleep thinking
And oft, though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps At wisdom's gate, and to simplicity Resigns her charge, while goodness thinks no ill Where no ill seems.
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.
bad exalted merit raised satan
Satan exalted sat, by merit raised / To that bad eminence.