
Biography of John Milton
John Milton was born in London on December 9, 1608, into a middle-class family. He was educated at St. Paul’s School, then at Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he began to write poetry in Latin, Italian, and English, and prepared to enter the clergy.
After university, however, he abandoned his plans to join the priesthood and spent the next six years in his father’s country home in Buckinghamshire following a rigorous course of independent study to prepare for a career as a poet. His extensive reading included both classical and modern works of religion, science, philosophy, history, politics, and literature. In addition, Milton was proficient in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, Spanish, and Italian, and obtained a familiarity with Old English and Dutch as well.
During his period of private study, Milton composed a number of poems, including "On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity," "On Shakespeare," “L’Allegro," “Il Penseroso," and the pastoral elegy "Lycidas.” In May of 1638, Milton began a 13-month tour of France and Italy, during which he met many important intellectuals and influential people, including the astronomer Galileo, who appears in Milton’s tract against censorship, “Areopagitica.”
In 1642, Milton returned from a trip into the countryside with a 16-year-old bride, Mary Powell. Even though they were estranged for most of their marriage, she bore him three daughters and a son before her death in 1652. Milton later married twice more: Katherine Woodcock in 1656, who died giving birth in 1658, and Elizabeth Minshull in 1662.
During the English Civil War, Milton championed the cause of the Puritans and Oliver Cromwell, and wrote a series of pamphlets advocating radical political topics including the morality of divorce, the freedom of the press, populism, and sanctioned regicide. Milton served as secretary for foreign languages in Cromwell’s government, composing official statements defending the Commonwealth. During this time, Milton steadily lost his eyesight, and was completely blind by 1651. He continued his duties, however, with the aid of Andrew Marvell and other assistants.
After the Restoration of Charles II to the throne in 1660, Milton was arrested as a defender of the Commonwealth, fined, and soon released. He lived the rest of his life in seclusion in the country, completing the blank-verse epic poem Paradise Lost in 1667, as well as its sequel Paradise Regained and the tragedy Samson Agonistes both in 1671. Milton oversaw the printing of a second edition of Paradise Lost in 1674, which included an explanation of “why the poem rhymes not," clarifying his use of blank verse, along with introductory notes by Marvell. He died shortly afterwards, on November 8, 1674, in Buckinghamshire, England.
Paradise Lost, which chronicles Satan’s temptation of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from Eden, is widely regarded as his masterpiece and one of the greatest epic poems in world literature. Since its first publication, the work has continually elicited debate regarding its theological themes, political commentary, and its depiction of the fallen angel Satan who is often viewed as the protagonist of the work.
The epic has had wide-reaching effect, inspiring other long poems, such as Alexander Pope‘s The Rape of the Lock, William Wordsworth‘s The Prelude and John Keats‘s Endymion, as well as Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, and deeply influencing the work of Percy Bysshe Shelley and William Blake, who illustrated an edition of the epic.
Poems by John Milton
- An Epitaph on the Admirable Dramatic Poet W. Shakespeare
- An Epitaph On The Marchioness Of Winchester
- Another On The Same
- Arcades
- At A Solemn Musick
- At A Vacation Exercise In The Colledge, Part Latin, Part English. The Latin Speeches Ended, The English Thus Began
- Comus
- From 'Arcades'
- From 'Samson Agonistes' i
- How Soon Hath Time
- Hymn on the Morning of Christ's Nativity
- Il Penseroso
- L'Allegro
- Light
- Lycidas
- Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint
- On His Blindness
- On His Deceased Wife
- On Shakespear
- On The Death Of A Fair Infant Dying Of A Cough
- On The Lord Gen. Fairfax At The Seige Of Colchester
- On The Morning Of Christs Nativity
- On The New Forcers Of Conscience Under The Long Parliament
- On the Religious Memory of Mrs. Catherine Thomson, my Christian Friend, Deceased Dec. 16, 1646
- On the Same
- On The University Carrier Who Sickn'd In The Time Of His Vacancy, Being Forbid To Go To London, By Reason Of The Plague
- On Time
- Psalm 01
- Psalm 02
- Psalm 03
- Psalm 04
- Psalm 05
- Psalm 06
- Psalm 07
- Psalm 08
- Psalm 80
- Psalm 81
- Psalm 82
- Psalm 83
- Psalm 84
- Psalm 85
- Psalm 86
- Psalm 87
- Psalm 88
- Samson Agonistes
- Song On May Morning
- Sonnet 01
- Sonnet 02
- Sonnet 03
- Sonnet 03: Canzone
- Sonnet 04
- Sonnet 05
- Sonnet 06
- Sonnet 07
- Sonnet 08
- Sonnet 09
- Sonnet 10
- Sonnet 11
- Sonnet 12
- Sonnet 13
- Sonnet 14
- Sonnet 15
- Sonnet 16
- Sonnet 17
- Sonnet 18
- Sonnet 19
- Sonnet 20
- Sonnet 21
- Sonnet 22
- Sonnet 23
- Sonnet to the Nightingale
- The Fifth Ode Of Horace. Lib. I
- The Hymn
- The Passion
- To a Virtuous Young Lady
- To Mr. Cyriack Skinner Upon His Blindness
- To Mr. H. Lawes on His Airs
- To Mr. Lawrence
- To My Lord Fairfax
- To Sr Henry Vane The Younger
- To the Lady Margaret Ley
- To the Lord Generall Cromwell May 1652
- To The Nightingale
- To the Same
- Upon The Circumcision
- When the Assault Was Intended to the City