Essay Database

John Milton's work is marked by cosmic themes and lofty religious idealism; it reveals an astonishing breadth of learning and command of the Greek, Latin, and Hebrew classics. His blank verse is of remarkable variety and richness, so skillfully modulated and flexible that it has been compared to organ tones. Milton's career as a writer may be divided into three periods. The first, from 1625 to 1640, was the period of such early works as the poems …

…in his most forceful and exalted style. Paradise Regained, which tells of human salvation through Christ, is a shorter and lesser work, although still one of great richness and strength. In Samson Agonistes, a tragedy on the Greek model composed partly in blank verse and partly in unrhymed choric verse of varied line length, Milton employed the Old Testament story of Samson to inspire the defeated English Puritans with the courage to triumph through sacrifice