In my article, I describe about John Milton a great poet. Milton’s Life John Milton (1608-1674) was born in London on 9th December, 1608. His father was a lover of literature, and the child enjoyed all the advantages of a cultivated home. He was educated at St. Paul’s school, and at Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he remained seven years, taking his B.A. in 1629 and his M.A. in 1632. His systematic studies did not, however, close with the close of his college course. He, now, took up his abode in the country house of the family at Horton and decided to give himself up entirely to self-culture and poetry. During six years of his stay here, he was able to pursue his studies undisturbed and thus became a great scholar. This point is important because his learning everywhere nourishes and interpenetrates his poetic work. Having now reached his thirtieth year, he resolved to complete his studies by travel. He, therefore, left London in May, 1638, and went by way of Paris to Italy; however, he was called back by news of the critical state of things at home. Back in London from 1640 he was quite as a supporter of the Puritan cause. On the establishment of the Commonwealth he was appointed Latin Secretary to the Committee of Foreign Affairs. In 1643, he married Mary Powell, but the union proved a most unhappy one. Early in 1653 a terrible calamity overtook him; he lost his sight and became totally blind. Three years later he married again, but his wife, Catherine Woodcock, died within fifteen months. On the restoration of Charles II, Milton was arrested and two of his books were publicly burnt; but he was soon released and permitted to drop into political obscurity. He was now poor and lonely as well as blind; his third wife, Elizabeth Munhall brought some comfort to his declining years. It was in darkness and sorrow, therefore, that he now turned back upon the ambitious poetical designs – his Paradise Lost was published in 1667, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonists together in 1671. Three years later on 8th November, 1674 Milton died. Milton’s Works His famous works are – L’Allegro and II Penseroso (1633), Comus (1634), Lycidas (1637), Areopagitica (a collection of his prose pamphlets), Paradise Lost(1667), Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes(1671). In Milton’s work the moral and religious influences of Puritanism were blended with the generous culture of the Renaissance. It was this combination of elements which gave its distinctive quality to his greatest poetry. After Shakespeare, Milton is the greatest English poet outside the drama. He is regarded as one of the three or four supreme poets of the world. We find in him a wonderful union of intellectual and creative power. He is also a consummate artist. He is the most sublime of English poets and the acknowledge master of the grand style. In sustained majesty of thought and diction he has no rival. His descriptive power is astonishing. He is known for the great and varied beauty of style and versification; he is, thus, the great master of the blank verse which had not been thus far used so effectively for a non-dramatic poem.

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