John Milton and His Oh So Heavenly Insights

    He’s at the very top of the “Recommended Reading List for the GRE Subect Test in Literature”  because he appeared 27 times in 5 tests. In other words, know him or fail, my world weary readers.

   John Milton. He was blind, as I have no doubt you know, and he lived in the early-mid 17th century, rubbing elbows with greats like Oliver Cromwell and Galileo. His most famous work, the epic poem “Paradise Lost”, was published in 1667, but don’t you go making the mistake of thinking that was all Milton is famous for. Not only did he work for Cromwell, but he also wrote some heavy stuff other than “Paradise Lost”, both poetry and prose. In poetry, he is known for his “Lycidas”, “L’Allegro”, “Il Penseroso”, and “Paradise Regained” (which, as you might guess, is about Jesus undoing what Adam and Eve do with the devil’s allurement in Paradise Lost). In prose, he is most famous for Areopagitica, a speech delivered to parliament praising freedom and demanding free rights of press.  However, he also wrote avidly in support of legitimizing divorce, he wrote much theology, and he wrote a History of Britain. For a man who blind, he made his daughters write quite a bit for him!

Influence: Milton influenced EVERYONE. Seriously, he deserved to be worshipped, and he got what he deserved. John Dryden commented on John Milton as “the poet of the sublime” (in reference to his subject matter). Later, in the 18th century enlightenment, he gained popularity amongst critics and poets such as Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson. William Blake (in the Romantic age) considered himself Milton’s poetical son (such a Blake thing to do!) and used Milton as a character in
“Milton: A Poem.” The list could go on and on…

“Paradise Lost” is an epic poem in blank verse, separated into 12 ‘books.’ (Blank verse is a type of poetry distinguished by having regular meter but no rhyme). The poem recounts the Christian Bible’s account of the creation of the universe and the fall of Adam and Eve, ending with God’s promise to restore them to their former favor through the sacrifice of His son. Milton states his purpose in Book 1 as an attempt to “justify the ways of God to man” (1.26), making the poem a clear examination of the Problem of Evil.pdf. 

A couple things to know: like any good epic poem (think Virgil and Dante), Milton starts of his poem “in medeas res” (in the middle of things) and he invokes a muse. Because Milton is so popular on the GRE, I recommend reading at least 10 pages or so of his work, so as to recognize his style.

To get my nerd going for a bit: I love love LOVE “Paradise Lost” because Milton addressed such a difficult philosophical question with so much daring. Let’s ignore the fact that he’s speaking for God (a big enough task in itself). Let’s even ignore the guts it takes to try and explain God sending all of humanity to hell for eternity. Milton’s sheer temerity is most clearly evident in the books dealing with the plight of Satan and Satan’s angels, because in these books we are forced to come face-to-face with the idea that, according to the Christian Bible, God foreknew that these angels would sin and be eternally cursed and yet he created them specifically for this reason. With the humans, Milton comes up with a sort of explanation – that is, that God created humans perfect but free, so that they could choose to fall. However, God explains that they are entitled to redemption “because they were deceived.”

And so, as I put down “Paradise Lost”, I was haunted by the question, “Why not the devil’s angels?” It seems clear in the poem that these devils were in true doubt as to the omnipotence of God. If they weren’t, they would never have rebelled (after all, God must have made them either lacking in intelligence or knowledge, since they would never have joined a helpless cause).