Paradise Lostby John Milton

PART TWOILLUSTRATIONS

Satan Arousing the Rebel Angels

Satan Sin and Death – Satan comes to the Gates of Hell

Christ Offers to Redeem Man

Satana Spying on Adam and Eve and Raphael Descent to Paradise

Satan Watches the Endearements of Adam and Eve

Raphael Warns Adam and Eve

The Route of the Rebel Angels

The Creation of Eve“And She Shall Be Called Woman”

The Temptation and Fall of Eve

The Judgement of Adam and Eve “So Judged He Man”

Michael Fortels the Crusifixion

The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden

Born 9 December 1608 – Died 8 November 1674

John Milton

Paradise Lost has many of the elements that define epic form: it is a long, narrative poem; it follows the exploits of a hero (or anti-hero); it involves warfare and the supernatural; it begins in the midst of the action, in media res, with earlier

crises in the story brought in later by flashback; and it expresses the ideals and traditions of a people. It has these elements in common with the Aeneid, the Iliad, and the Odyssey

Paradise Lost is an Epic

The poem is in blank verse, that is, non-rhyming verse. In a note he added to the second printing, Milton expresses contempt for rhyming poetry.

Paradise Lost is composed in the verse form of iambic pentameter—the same used by Shakespeare. In this style, a line is composed of five long, unaccented syllables, each followed by a short, accented one.

Poetic Form of the Epic

1st edition published in 1667 in 10 books

Publishing the Book

2nd edition published in 1674 reorganized in 12 books with

some revisions

Milton's epic achieved classical status in the last years of the 17th century, when it was published with explanatory notes

Twenty years later, its position was consolidated by an influential series of articles written by Joseph Addison in the Spectator (a daily paper).

In 1732 Richard Bentley produced a corrected version of the poem claiming that the blind poet had employed an incompetent secretary, argued that the published version contains many errors of wording and logic

Bentley's unjustified and insensitive revisions attracted widespread ridicule

These revisions reflected, however, a feeling that Paradise Lost, though a national classic, was somehow unorthodox in its theological and philosophical outlook.

Pope's poem, and indeed his earlier work Rape of the Lock, show another kind of response to Milton. They are 'mock-epics', and re-deploy elements of Milton's style (and, of course, that of his classical antecedents) to comic ends.

Milton's achievement was felt to be so great that no contemporary poet could rival or match it: writing a serious epic would be out of the question.

Paradise Lost in 18th Century

The End