2. Milton

Saw his vocation as poetry at a very early age, and was enthusiastically supported by his family, who, though not aristocratic, were wealthy enough to ensure that he could devote himself single-mindedly to his art. His life was marked by two elements: a love of learning and religious beliefs.

Milton was the only poet to identify himself with Puritanism. However, he was such a strong personality, that he cannot be taken to represent any one except himself. Wordsworth: “Thy soul was like a star, and dwelt apart”. As a poet Milton dominated his century from so great an altitude that he cannot be merged into it. He speaks only for one soul, strong and lofty though it was – and that soul was his own.

Milton’s early poems, successful and impressive in themselves, sometimes have the flavor of conscious apprenticeship, of being deliberate preparation for the large works that one day Milton knew would be within his grasp. All of them are marked by immense learning – Milton was one of the most widely-read Europeans of his time – and by an attempt to explore new modes and metres.

Paradise Lost

An epic poem in blank verse originally in ten books, later rearranged in twelve, first printed in 1667.

M ilton formed the intention of writing a great epic poem as early (as he tells us) as 1639. There still exists a list of possible subjects written in Milton’s own hand: some scriptural, some from British history. He had even dallied with the idea of an Arthurian cycle. Later it was clear that no subject less majestic than a biblical one could match Milton’s powers or fit the turbulence that his mature years had witnessed.

The Subject.

Paradise Lost is based on the Old Testament Myth of Creation, the Fall of Man and his punishment. During Milton’s time and later, in the eighteenth century, the poem was considered as a religious epic, glorifying the onmipotent God and condemning the depravity of Satan.

Milton states his aim himself at the very beginning: “assert eternal Providence and justify the ways of God to Men”.

The Contents.

Book one

The poet, invoking ‘The Heavenly Muse’, states his theme – the Fall of Man through disobedience – and his aim – ‘to justify the ways of God to men’. Then he presents the defeated archangel Satan with Beelzebulb (his second-in-command) and his rebellious angels, lying on the burning lake of Hell. Satan awakens his legions, rouses their spirits, and summons a council. The Palace of Satan, Pandemonium (the word coined by Milton) is built.

BOOK TWO

The council debates whether another battle for the recovery of Heaven be hazarded. Satan undertakes to visit it alone. Guarded by Sin and Death (Satan’s children) he passes through the hell-gates and upwards through the realm of chaos.

BOOK THREE

Milton invokes celestial light to illuminate the ‘ever-during dark’ of his blindness. Describes God who sees Satan’s flight and foretells his success and the fall and punishment of Man. The Son of God offers himself as a ransom. Satan disguises himself as a cherub and is directed to earth by Uriel.

BOOK FOUR

In the Garden of Eden Satan sees Adam and Eve ‘in naked majestie’ and overhears their discourse about the forbidden Tree of Knowledge. He resolves to tempt them to disobey the prohibition, but he is discovered by the guardian angels and expelled from the Garden by their commander, Gabriel.

BOOK FIVE

Eve relates to Adam the disquieting dream of temptation which Satan had inspired. Raphael, sent by God, comes to Paradise and warns Adam. At Adam’s request he relates how Satan inspired by hatred and envy of the newly anointed Messiah, roused his legions to revolt.

BOOK SIX

Raphael continues his narrative. Michael and Gabriel were sent to fight against Satan. After indecisive battles, the Son of God, alone, attacked the hosts Satan, drove them to the verge of Heaven and forced to leap down through Chaos into the deep.

BOOK SEVEN

Raphael gives an account of God’s decision to send his Son to create another world from a vast abyss. He describes the six days of creation, ending with the creation of Man.

BOOK EIGHT

Adam wants to know about the motion of the heavenly bodies. They also talk of the relations between the sexes. Raphael warns to ‘take heed least Passion sway the Judgement’

BOOK NINE

Satan enters into the body of the serpent, finds Eve, persuades her to eat of the Tree of Knowledge. Eve brings the fruit to Adam. Knowing that she is doomed, Adam resolves to perish with her and eats the fruit. They fall to mutual accusations.

BOOK TEN

God sends his Son to judge the transgressors. He pronounces his sentence. Sin and Death resolve to come to this world and make a highway from Hell. Satan announces his victory in Hell. He and his angels are temporarily transformed into serpents. Adam and Eve are reconciled and resolve to seek mercy from the Son of God.

BOOK ELEVEN

The Son of God seeing their penitence intercedes. God decides that they must leave Paradise and sends Michael to carry out his command. Michael reassures them that God is omnipresent and unfolds the future, revealing the future misfortunes of mankind, ending with the Flood.

BOOK TWELVE

Michael relates the subsequent history of the Old Testament, then describes the coming of the Messiah, his death, resurrection. Adam rejoices over so much good sprung from his own sin. Adam and Eve resolved on obedience and submission, assured that they may possess ‘a Paradise within’, are led out of the Garden.

The interpretation of the epic poem was dramatically revised in the early nineteenth century. English Romantics were the first to emphasize the revolutionary spirit of the poem. William Blake (The Defense of Poesy) claimed that Milton, unaware of it belonged to the party of Satan. Percy Shelly thought Milton did not give his Satan any moral superiority to God. Coleridge connected the poem with Milton’s revolutionary youth, and saw in it a religious penitence of a sinner, who’d taken part in the “Great Mutiny”.

The perception of the poem by the Romantics triggered a new interpretation – Paradise Lost was considered as an allegoric history of English Revolution.

Milton was a very religious person, a fervent Puritan, and his intention couldn’t have been otherwise than making God the embodiment of Good, and Satan – a personification of Evil. Still, we must remember, that religious, ethical and political elements are closely connected in the subject of Paradise Lost, and the Old Testament myth is filled with the mutinous spirit of his own age.

The Problem of Good and Evil in the Epic Poem.

The forms of good and evil can be paradoxically close, which serves to show how difficult it is at times to distinguish between the two. There is a point of view that Milton saw evil as a potential existing in God. At least God allows the existence of Evil. Not only that, he actually uses it to achieve his ends.

Adam exclaims when departing from Eden: