Milton, John

Milton, John (1608-74), poet, b. Cheapside, London.

'From twelve years of age,' wrote John Milton, 'I hardly ever left my studies or went to bed before midnight.'

He had made up his mind to become a great poet. At sixteen, he went to Cambridge University and there, at the age of twenty, he wrote his first great poem, On the Morning of Christ's Nativity.

After leaving Cambridge, he spent five years on his father's estate near Windsor, Berkshire, studying and writing. There he wrote L'Allegro, II Penseroso and Lycidas, three more great poems. Yet he told a friend he was only preparing himself to be a poet. Afterwards he traveled in France and Italy.

Milton was a strict Puritan and in the English Civil War (1642-46) he supported Parliament. Afterwards he was given the job of translating messages for other countries into Latin and he also wrote pamphlets supporting Parliament's ideas.

In 1652, Milton went blind, but he continued to work for Parliament until 1660. As a result, for twenty years, he produced no poetry except sonnets, but these include some of the best sonnets ever written.

After 1660, he produced the greatest of all his works, Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes.

Paradise Lost is regarded as one of the greatest poems ever written in any language.