Publisher Description

A selection of Milton's poetryThe poems of John Milton (1608-74) have inspired readers for generations and the selection in this new edition spans his entire career, from his earliest works to the magnificent epics of his later life. The devotional 'On the Morning of Christ's Nativity', his first great poem, anticipates the probing religious questions of Paradise Lost. Works such as 'L'Allegro' and 'Il Penseroso' consider divisions of loyalties, while 'A Masque' ('Comus') explores Milton's great theme of temptation, and the pastoral elegy 'Lycidas' contemplates mortality and the meaning of human life. This volume includes considerable selections from Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained - Milton's late epics on the Fall of Man and Christ's temptation in the wilderness - and the complete Samson Agonistes, in which the great hero undergoes a profound crisis of faith in his final hours.

Notes

A compilation of Milton's poetry, selected and introduced by John Leaonard.

Author Biography

John Milton was born in London in 1608 and studied at the University of Cambridge. He originally planned to become a clergyman, but abandoned those ambitions to become a poet. Political in his writings, he served a government post during the time of the Commonwealth. By 1660, he was completely blind but continued to write, finishing Paradise Lost in 1667 and Paradise Regained in 1671. He died in 1674.

Long Description

An authoritative new edition of Miltons essential verse John Milton, who abandoned early plans of becoming a clergyman to become a poet, was a master of almost every type of versefrom the classical to the religious, from the lyric to the epic. His writing reflected his radical views and his profound understanding of politics and power. This collection includes such early works as the devotional On the Morning of Christs Nativity, Comus, and the pastoral elegy Lycidas.

Promotional "Headline"

A selection of Milton's poetry

Excerpt from Book

Ode on the Morning of Christ''s Nativity This is the month, and this the happy morn Wherein the Son of Heav''n''s eternal King, Of wedded maid, and virgin mother born, Our great redemption from above did bring; For so the holy sages once did sing That he our deadly forfeit should release, And with his Father work us a perpetual peace. That glorious form, that light unsufferable, And that far-beaming blaze of majesty Wherewith he wont at Heav''n''s high council-table To sit the midst of trinal unity, He laid aside; and here with us to be, Forsook the courts of everlasting day, And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay. Say, Heav''nly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein Afford a present to the Infant God? Hast thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain, To welcome him to this his new abode, Now while the heav''n, by the sun''s team untrod, Hath took no print of the approaching light, And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright? See how from far, upon the eastern road, The star-led wizards haste with odours sweet: O run, prevent them with thy humble ode, And lay it lowly at his bless

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