John Milton (1609 - 1674)

John Milton (1609 – 1674)

John Milton was an English poet, best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost, was born on December 9^th, 1609.

Milton was educated at St. Paul’s School. London. He was originally destined for a ministerial career, but his independent spirit led him to give this up. He matriculated at Christ’s College, Cambridge in 1625 and studied there for seven years before he graduated as Master of Arts cum laude on July 3^rd, 1632. At Cambridge, Milton tutored the American theologian Roger Williams in Hebrew, in exchange for lessons in Dutch. On graduating from Christ’s College, Milton undertook six years of self-directed private study in both the ancient and modern disciplines of theology. Philosophy, history, politics, literature and science, in preparation for his prospective poetical career. As a result of such intensive study, Milton considered to be among the most learned of all English poets. In a Latin poem, possibly composed in the mid 1630s, Milton thanks his father for supporting him during this period.

Milton spent several years devoted almost entirely to prose work in the service of the Puritan and Parliamentary cause. The onset of glaucoma (a type of Eye disease), caused by his labours setting the typeface for numerous controversial pamphlets (Thus straining his optic nerve), eventually le to permanent blindness, forcing him, from 1654, to dictate his verse and prose to his granddaughter.

Milton wrote propaganda for the English Republic in the early 1650s, including the Eikonolastes, which attempts to justify the execution of Charles I. When he was caught and arrested in October 1659, he was not summarily executed several influential people had spoken on his behalf. Milton then lived in retirement, devoting himself once more to poetical work, and publishing Paradise Lost in 1667, the epic by which he attained universal fame (blind and improvised, he sold the publishing rights to this work on April 27 that year for £ 10), to be followed by Paradise Regained, together with Samson Agonistes, a drama on the Greek model, in 1671.      

Milton penned paradise Lost and Paradise Regained through dictation because of his blindness. This required him to store vast portions of the poems in his memory oral recitation.

Milton’s literary career cast such a formidable shadow over English poetry in the 18^th and 19^th centuries that he was often judged favourably against all other English poets, including Shakespeare. 

The unparalleled scope of Paradise Lost, his masterpiece, sees Milton justifying the ways of God to men, and the poem also depicts the creation on the universe, earth, and humanity; conveys the origin of sin, death, and evil; imagines events in hell, the Kingdom of Heaven, the garden of Eden, and the sacred history of Israel; engages with political ideas of tyranny, liberty ad justice; and defends theological positions on predestination, free will, and salvation. Milton’s influence on the literature of the Romantic era was profound. John Keats found the yoke of Milton’s style debilitating; he exclaimed that “Miltonic verse cannot be written but in an artful or rather artist’s humour.” Milton died on November 8^th, 1674. The John Milton Society for the blind was founded in 1928 by Helen Keller to develop an interdenominational ministry that would bring spiritual guidance and religious literature to deaf and blind persons.

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