~JOHN MILTON A FEW WORDS ON JOHN MILTON, WHOSE WORDS OF WISOM WE SHARE WITH YOU TODAY........ John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet, polemicist, man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell. He wrote at a time of religious flux and political upheaval, and is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost(1667), written in blank verse. Miltons poetry and prose reflect deep personal convictions, a passion for freedom and self-determination, and the urgent issues and political turbulence of his day. Writing in English, Latin, Greek, and Italian, he achieved international renown within his lifetime, and his celebratedAreopagitica (1644) — written in condemnation of pre-publication censorship — is among historys most influential and impassioned defenses of free speech and freedom of the press. William Hayleys 1796 biography called him the greatest English author,[1] and he remains generally regarded as one of the preeminent writers in the English language,[2] though critical reception has oscillated in the centuries since his death (often on account of his republicanism).Samuel Johnson praised Paradise Lost as a poem which...with respect to design may claim the first place, and with respect to performance, the second, among the productions of the human mind, though he (a Tory and recipient of royal patronage) described Miltons politics as those of an acrimonious and surly republican.[3] Because of his republicanism, Milton has been the subject of centuries of British partisanship (a hostile account by Anthony à Wood in 1691, a nonconformist biography by John Toland in 1698, etc).
Posted on: Fri, 24 Jan 2014 01:27:42 +0000