We know more about Milton's poetic career than that of any poet before him and many after him. As well as two lives by those who knew him well (one by his nephew Edward.Phillips, the other anonymous) we have a number of autobiographical passages inserted into his political writings and his Latin poems, from which we can deduce an intense concern with his own career.
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John Milton (1608-74) has a strong claim to be considered the greatest English poet after Shakespeare.His early poems, collected and published in 1645,include the much-loved pair L'Allegro and II Penseroso ('the cheerful man and the thoughtful man'), Lycidas (his great elegy on a fellow poet) and Comus (the one masque which is still read today).
When the Civil War began Milton abandoned poetry for politics and wrote a series of pamphlets in defence of the Parliamentary party, then in defence of the execution of Charles I: these include his great defence of the freedom of the press, Areopagitica.
In the course of this work he lost his sight, and was blind for the last twenty years of his life. During this time he wrote his two great epics, Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, and his retelling of the story of Samson as a Greek tragedy.
This edition contains all his poems in English, with introduction and notes by Laurence Lerner (formerly Professor of English, University of Sussex).
General Introduction
Further Reading
MISCELLANEOUS POEMS
On the Morning of Christ's Nativity
A Paraphrase on Psa/m 114
Psalm 136
The Passion
on Time
Upon the Circumcision
At a Solemn Music
An Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester
Song on May Morning
On Shakespeare
On the University Carrier
Another on the Same
L 'Allegro
I1 Penseroso
SONNETS
Sonnet
Sonnet
When the Assault was Intended to the City
Sonnet
To the lady Margaret Ley
ARCADES
Arcades
LYCIDAS
Introduction
Lyc/das
COMUS
Introduction
Comus
POEMS ADDED IN THE 1673 EDITION
On the Death of a Fair Infant Dying of a Cough
At a Vacation Exercise in the College
The Fifth Ode of Horace
SONNETS
On the Detract/on wh/ch Followed
upon My Writing Certain Treatises
On the Same
To Mr H. Lawes an his Airs
On the Reli~ous Memory of Mrs Catherine Thomson
On the Late Massacre in Piedmont
Sonnet
Sonnet
Sonnet
Sonnet
On the New Forcers of Conscience
under the Long Parliament
On the Lord General Fairfax,
at the Siege of Colchester
To the Lard General Cromwell, May 1652
To Sir Henry Vane the Yaunger
To Mr Cyriack Skinner Upon His Blindness
PSALMS
Psalm 1
Psalm 2
Psalm 3
Psalm 4
Psalm 5
Psalm 6
Psalm 7
Psa/m 8
Psa/m 80
Psa/m 81
Psa/m 82
Psa/m 83
Psa/m 84
Psalm 85
Psa/m 86
Psalm 87
Psalm88
PARADISE LOST
Introduction
The First Book
.The Second Book
The Third Book
The Fourth Book
The F/fib Book
The Sixth Book
The Seventh Book
The Eighth Book
The Ninth Book
The Tenth Book
The Eleventh Book
The Twelfth Book
PARADISE REGAINED
Introduction
The First Book
The Second Book
The Third Book
The Fourth Book
SAMSON AGONISTES
Introduction
Samson Agonistes
Notes
Index of Tides
Index of First Lines