74-399: The Harvard Aesthetes was a group of poets attending Harvard University in a period roughly between 1912 and 1919. It includes: This American poet–related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry . Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be
148-532: A scrivener . He lived in and worked from a house in Cheapside at Bread Street, where the Mermaid Tavern was located. The elder Milton was noted for his skill as a composer of music, and this talent left his son with a lifelong appreciation for music and friendships with musicians such as Henry Lawes . The prosperity of Milton's father allowed his eldest son to obtain a private tutor, Thomas Young ,
222-519: A warrant was issued for his arrest and his writings were burnt. He re-emerged after a general pardon was issued, but was nevertheless arrested and briefly imprisoned before influential friends intervened, such as Marvell, now an MP. Milton married for a third and final time on 24 February 1663, marrying Elizabeth (Betty) Minshull, aged 24, a native of Wistaston , Cheshire. He spent the remaining decade of his life living quietly in London, only retiring to
296-531: A Dutch law philosopher, playwright, and poet. Milton left France soon after this meeting. He travelled south from Nice to Genoa , and then to Livorno and Pisa . He reached Florence in July 1638. While there, Milton enjoyed many of the sites and structures of the city. His candour of manner and erudite neo-Latin poetry earned him friends in Florentine intellectual circles, and he met the astronomer Galileo who
370-454: A Reformed faith and a Humanist spirit, led to enigmatic outcomes. Milton's apparently contradictory stance on the vital problems of his age, arose from religious contestations, to the questions of the divine rights of kings. In both the cases, he seems in control, taking stock of the situation arising from the polarization of the English society on religious and political lines. He fought with
444-617: A Scottish Presbyterian with an MA from the University of St Andrews . Young's influence also served as the poet's introduction to religious radicalism. After Young's tutorship, Milton attended St Paul's School in London, where he began the study of Latin and Greek; the classical languages left an imprint on both his poetry and prose in English (he also wrote in Latin and Italian). Milton's first datable compositions are two psalms written at age 15 at Long Bennington . One contemporary source
518-534: A career as pamphleteer and publicist under Charles I 's increasingly autocratic rule and Britain's breakdown into constitutional confusion and ultimately civil war. While once considered dangerously radical and heretical, Milton contributed to a seismic shift in accepted public opinions during his life that ultimately elevated him to public office in England. The Restoration of 1660 and his loss of vision later deprived Milton much of his public platform, but he used
592-517: A career as a poet, they can be helpful as training, and for giving the student several years of time focused on their writing. Lyrical poets who write sacred poetry (" hymnographers ") differ from the usual image of poets in a number of ways. A hymnographer such as Isaac Watts who wrote 700 poems in his lifetime, may have their lyrics sung by millions of people every Sunday morning, but are not always included in anthologies of poetry . Because hymns are perceived of as " worship " rather than "poetry",
666-409: A collection of his letters and the Latin prolusions from his Cambridge days. An unfinished religious manifesto, De doctrina christiana , probably written by Milton, lays out many of his heterodox theological views, and was not discovered and published until 1823. Milton's key beliefs were idiosyncratic, not those of an identifiable group or faction, and often they go well beyond the orthodoxy of
740-597: A continuation of patronage of poets by royalty. Many poets, however, had other sources of income, including Italians like Dante Aligheri , Giovanni Boccaccio and Petrarch 's works in a pharmacist's guild and William Shakespeare 's work in the theater. In the Romantic period and onwards, many poets were independent writers who made their living through their work, often supplemented by income from other occupations or from family. This included poets such as William Wordsworth and Robert Burns . Poets such as Virgil in
814-594: A cottage during the Great Plague of London — Milton's Cottage in Chalfont St. Giles , his only extant home. During this period, Milton published several minor prose works, such as the grammar textbook Art of Logic and a History of Britain . His only explicitly political tracts were the 1672 Of True Religion , arguing for toleration (except for Catholics), and a translation of a Polish tract advocating an elective monarchy. Both these works were referred to in
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#1732801675250888-588: A dinner given by the English College, Rome , despite his dislike for the Society of Jesus , meeting English Catholics who were also guests—theologian Henry Holden and the poet Patrick Cary . He also attended musical events, including oratorios, operas, and melodramas. Milton left for Naples toward the end of November, where he stayed only for a month because of the Spanish control. During that time, he
962-650: A manservant, Milton embarked upon a tour of France and Italy for 15 months that lasted until July or August 1639. His travels supplemented his study with new and direct experience of artistic and religious traditions, especially Roman Catholicism. He met famous theorists and intellectuals of the time and was able to display his poetic skills. For specific details of what happened within Milton's " grand tour ", there appears to be just one primary source : Milton's own Defensio Secunda . There are other records, including some letters and some references in his other prose tracts, but
1036-766: A scrapbook), now in the British Library . As a result of such intensive study, Milton is considered to be among the most learned of all English poets. In addition to his years of private study, Milton had command of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, Spanish, and Italian from his school and undergraduate days; he also added Old English to his linguistic repertoire in the 1650s while researching his History of Britain , and probably acquired proficiency in Dutch soon after. Milton continued to write poetry during this period of study; his Arcades and Comus were both commissioned for masques composed for noble patrons, connections of
1110-540: A secretary, and Edward was Milton's first biographer. Milton's poetry was slow to see the light of day, at least under his name. His first published poem was "On Shakespeare" (1630), anonymously included in the Second Folio edition of William Shakespeare 's plays in 1632. An annotated copy of the First Folio has been suggested to contain marginal notes by Milton. Milton collected his work in 1645 Poems in
1184-540: A strained relationship with them. On 12 November 1656, Milton was married to Katherine Woodcock at St Margaret's, Westminster . She died on 3 February 1658, less than four months after giving birth to her daughter Katherine, who also died. Milton married for a third time on 24 February 1663 to Elizabeth Mynshull or Minshull (1638–1728), the niece of Thomas Mynshull, a wealthy apothecary and philanthropist in Manchester . The marriage took place at St Mary Aldermary in
1258-487: A well established poet, was banished from Rome by the first Augustus for one of his poems. During the High Middle Ages , troubadors were an important class of poets. They came from a variety of backgrounds, often living and traveling in many different places and were looked upon as actors or musicians as much as poets. Some were under patronage, but many traveled extensively. The Renaissance period saw
1332-485: Is Brief Lives of John Aubrey , an uneven compilation including first-hand reports. In the work, Aubrey quotes Christopher, Milton's younger brother: "When he was young, he studied very hard and sat up very late, commonly till twelve or one o'clock at night". Aubrey adds, "His complexion exceeding faire—he was so faire that they called him the Lady of Christ's College." In 1625, Milton gained entry to Christ's College at
1406-528: Is Spent ," titled by a later editor, John Newton , "On His Blindness," is presumed to date from this period. Cromwell's death in 1658 caused the English Republic to collapse into feuding military and political factions. Milton, however, stubbornly clung to the beliefs that had originally inspired him to write for the Commonwealth. In 1659, he published A Treatise of Civil Power , attacking
1480-693: Is also possible that, like Isaac Newton four decades later, Milton was sent home from Cambridge because of the plague , which afflicted Cambridge in 1625. At Cambridge, Milton was on good terms with Edward King ; he later dedicated " Lycidas " to him. Milton also befriended theologian Roger Williams , tutoring Williams in Hebrew in exchange for lessons in Dutch . Despite developing a reputation for poetic skill and general erudition, Milton suffered from alienation among his peers during his time at Cambridge. Having once watched his fellow students attempting comedy upon
1554-470: Is among history's most influential and impassioned defences of freedom of speech and freedom of the press . His desire for freedom extended beyond his philosophy and was reflected in his style, which included his introduction of new words (coined from Latin and Ancient Greek ) to the English language . He was the first modern writer to employ unrhymed verse outside of the theatre or translations. Milton
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#17328016752501628-445: Is described as the "greatest English author" by his biographer William Hayley , and he remains generally regarded "as one of the preeminent writers in the English language ", 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,
1702-403: Is widely regarded as one of the greatest poets in English literature, though his oeuvre has drawn criticism from notable figures, including T. S. Eliot and Joseph Addison . According to some scholars, Milton was second in influence to none but William Shakespeare . In one of his books, Samuel Johnson praised him for having the power of "displaying the vast, illuminating the splendid, enforcing
1776-575: The Aeneid and John Milton in Paradise Lost invoked the aid of a Muse . Poets held an important position in pre-Islamic Arabic society with the poet or sha'ir filling the role of historian, soothsayer and propagandist. Words in praise of the tribe ( qit'ah ) and lampoons denigrating other tribes ( hija' ) seem to have been some of the most popular forms of early poetry. The sha'ir represented an individual tribe's prestige and importance in
1850-1008: The Arabian Peninsula , and mock battles in poetry or zajal would stand in lieu of real wars. 'Ukaz, a market town not far from Mecca , would play host to a regular poetry festival where the craft of the sha'irs would be exhibited. Poets of earlier times were often well read and highly educated people while others were to a large extent self-educated. A few poets such as John Gower and John Milton were able to write poetry in more than one language. Some Portuguese poets, as Francisco de Sá de Miranda , wrote not only in Portuguese but also in Spanish. Jan Kochanowski wrote in Polish and in Latin, France Prešeren and Karel Hynek Mácha wrote some poems in German, although they were poets of Slovenian and Czech respectively. Adam Mickiewicz ,
1924-514: The Bishops' Wars presaged further armed conflict, Milton began to write prose tracts against episcopacy , in the service of the Puritan and Parliamentary cause. Milton's first foray into polemics was Of Reformation touching Church Discipline in England (1641), followed by Of Prelatical Episcopacy , the two defences of Smectymnuus (a group of Presbyterian divines named from their initials;
1998-523: The De Doctrina , where he denies the dual natures of man and argues for a theory of Creation ex Deo . Milton was a "passionately individual Christian Humanist poet." He appears on the pages of seventeenth century English Puritanism, an age characterized as "the world turned upside down." He was a Puritan and yet was unwilling to surrender conscience to party positions on public policy. Thus, Milton's political thought, driven by competing convictions,
2072-659: The Exclusion debate, the attempt to exclude the heir presumptive from the throne of England— James, Duke of York —because he was Roman Catholic. That debate preoccupied politics in the 1670s and 1680s and precipitated the formation of the Whig party and the Glorious Revolution . Milton died on 8 November 1674, just a month before his 66th birthday. He was buried in the church of St Giles-without-Cripplegate , Fore Street , London. However, sources differ as to whether
2146-479: The University of Cambridge , where he graduated with a BA in 1629, ranking fourth of 24 honours graduates that year in the University of Cambridge. Preparing, at that time, to become an Anglican priest, he stayed on at Cambridge where he received his MA on 3 July 1632. Milton may have been rusticated (suspended) in his first year at Cambridge for quarrelling with his tutor, Bishop William Chappell . He
2220-469: The literature that (since the advent of writing systems) they have produced. The civilization of Sumer figures prominently in the history of early poetry, and The Epic of Gilgamesh , a widely read epic poem, was written in the Third Dynasty of Ur c. 2100 BC; copies of the poem continued to be published and written until c. 600 to 150 BC. However, as it arises from an oral tradition ,
2294-464: The parliamentary cause , and he also begins to synthesize the ideal of neo-Roman liberty with that of Christian liberty. Milton also courted another woman during this time; we know nothing of her except that her name was Davis and she turned him down. However, it was enough to induce Mary Powell into returning to him which she did unexpectedly by begging him to take her back. They had two daughters in quick succession following their reconciliation. With
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2368-560: The " Good Old Cause ". On 27 April 1667, Milton sold the publication rights for Paradise Lost to publisher Samuel Simmons for £5 (equivalent to approximately £770 in 2015 purchasing power), with a further £5 to be paid if and when each print run sold out of between 1,300 and 1,500 copies. The first run was a quarto edition priced at three shillings per copy (about £23 in 2015 purchasing power equivalent), published in August 1667, and it sold out in eighteen months. Milton followed up
2442-514: The "TY" belonged to Milton's old tutor Thomas Young), and The Reason of Church-Government Urged against Prelaty . He vigorously attacked the High-church party of the Church of England and their leader William Laud , Archbishop of Canterbury , with frequent passages of real eloquence lighting up the rough controversial style of the period, and deploying a wide knowledge of church history. He
2516-419: The 17-year-old Mary Powell. The marriage got off to a poor start as Mary did not adapt to Milton's austere lifestyle or get along with his nephews. Milton found her intellectually unsatisfying and disliked the royalist views she had absorbed from her family. It is also speculated that she refused to consummate the marriage. Mary soon returned home to her parents and did not come back until 1645, partly because of
2590-661: The Cardinal. Around March, Milton travelled once again to Florence, staying there for two months, attending further meetings of the academies, and spending time with friends. After leaving Florence, he travelled through Lucca, Bologna, and Ferrara before coming to Venice . In Venice, Milton was exposed to a model of Republicanism, later important in his political writings, but he soon found another model when he travelled to Geneva. From Switzerland, Milton travelled to Paris and then to Calais before finally arriving back in England in either July or August 1639. On returning to England where
2664-739: The City of London. Despite a 31-year age gap, the marriage seemed happy, according to John Aubrey , and lasted more than 12 years until Milton's death. (A plaque on the wall of Mynshull's House in Manchester describes Elizabeth as Milton's "3rd and Best wife".) Samuel Johnson, however, claims that Mynshull was "a domestic companion and attendant" and Milton's nephew Edward Phillips relates that Mynshull "oppressed his children in his lifetime, and cheated them at his death". His nephews, Edward and John Phillips (sons of Milton's sister Anne), were educated by Milton and became writers themselves. John acted as
2738-533: The Egerton family, and performed in 1632 and 1634 respectively. Comus argues for the virtuousness of temperance and chastity . He contributed his pastoral elegy Lycidas to a memorial collection for one of his fellow-students at Cambridge. Drafts of these poems are preserved in Milton's poetry notebook, known as the Trinity Manuscript, because it is now kept at Trinity College , Cambridge. It
2812-474: The Morning of Christ's Nativity", "Epitaph on the admirable Dramaticke Poet, W. Shakespeare" (his first poem to appear in print), L'Allegro , and Il Penseroso . It appears in all his writings that he had the usual concomitant of great abilities, a lofty and steady confidence in himself, perhaps not without some contempt of others; for scarcely any man ever wrote so much, and praised so few. Of his praise he
2886-661: The Parliamentary victory in the Civil War, Milton used his pen in defence of the republican principles represented by the Commonwealth. The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649) defended the right of the people to hold their rulers to account, and implicitly sanctioned the regicide ; Milton's political reputation got him appointed Secretary for Foreign Tongues by the Council of State in March 1649. His main job description
2960-594: The awful, darkening the gloomy and aggravating the dreadful." John Milton was born in Bread Street , London, on 9 December 1608, the son of composer John Milton and his wife Sarah Jeffrey. The senior John Milton (1562–1647) moved to London around 1583 after being disinherited by his devout Catholic father Richard "the Ranger" Milton for embracing Protestantism . In London, the senior John Milton married Sarah Jeffrey (1572–1637) and found lasting financial success as
3034-416: The bulk of the information about the tour comes from a work that, according to Barbara Lewalski , "was not intended as autobiography but as rhetoric, designed to emphasise his sterling reputation with the learned of Europe." He first went to Calais and then on to Paris, riding horseback, with a letter from diplomat Henry Wotton to ambassador John Scudamore . Through Scudamore, Milton met Hugo Grotius ,
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3108-585: The cause of death was consumption or gout . According to an early biographer, his funeral was attended by "his learned and great Friends in London, not without a friendly concourse of the Vulgar." A monument was added in 1793, sculpted by John Bacon the Elder . Milton and his first wife Mary Powell (1625–1652) had four children: Mary Powell died on 5 May 1652 from complications following Deborah's birth. Milton's daughters survived to adulthood, but he always had
3182-453: The college stage, he later observed, "they thought themselves gallant men, and I thought them fools". Milton also was disdainful of the university curriculum, which consisted of stilted formal debates conducted in Latin on abstruse topics. His own corpus is not devoid of humour, notably his sixth prolusion and his epitaphs on the death of Thomas Hobson . While at Cambridge, he wrote some of his well-known shorter English poems, including "On
3256-626: The concept of a state-dominated church (the position known as Erastianism ), as well as Considerations touching the likeliest means to remove hirelings , denouncing corrupt practises in church governance. As the Republic disintegrated, Milton wrote several proposals to retain a non-monarchical government against the wishes of parliament, soldiers, and the people. Upon the Restoration in May 1660, Milton, fearing for his life, went into hiding, while
3330-473: The continent and spent time at Geneva with Diodati's uncle after he returned to Rome. In Defensio Secunda , Milton proclaimed that he was warned against a return to Rome because of his frankness about religion, but he stayed in the city for two months and was able to experience Carnival and meet Lukas Holste , a Vatican librarian who guided Milton through its collection. He was introduced to Cardinal Francesco Barberini who invited Milton to an opera hosted by
3404-635: The creator ( thinker , songwriter , writer , or author ) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or written ), or they may also perform their art to an audience . The work of a poet is essentially one of communication, expressing ideas either in a literal sense (such as communicating about a specific event or place) or metaphorically . Poets have existed since prehistory , in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary greatly in different cultures and periods. Throughout each civilization and language, poets have used various styles that have changed over time, resulting in countless poets as diverse as
3478-550: The exiled Charles II and his party published the defence of monarchy Defensio Regia pro Carolo Primo , written by leading humanist Claudius Salmasius . By January of the following year, Milton was ordered to write a defence of the English people by the Council of State . Milton worked more slowly than usual, given the European audience and the English Republic's desire to establish diplomatic and cultural legitimacy, as he drew on
3552-709: The friend of many gentlemen eminent in rank and learning, whose private academies I frequented—a Florentine institution which deserves great praise not only for promoting humane studies but also for encouraging friendly intercourse. — Milton's account of Florence in Defensio Secunda He left Florence in September to continue to Rome. With the connections from Florence, Milton was able to have easy access to Rome's intellectual society. His poetic abilities impressed those like Giovanni Salzilli, who praised Milton within an epigram. In late October, Milton attended
3626-445: The greatest poet of Polish language, wrote a Latin ode for emperor Napoleon III . Another example is Jerzy Pietrkiewicz , a Polish poet. When he moved to Great Britain, he ceased to write poetry in Polish, but started writing a novel in English. He also translated poetry into English. Many universities offer degrees in creative writing though these only came into existence in the 20th century. While these courses are not necessary for
3700-575: The learning marshalled by his years of study to compose a riposte. On 24 February 1652, Milton published his Latin defence of the English people Defensio pro Populo Anglicano , also known as the First Defence . Milton's pure Latin prose and evident learning exemplified in the First Defence quickly made him a European reputation, and the work ran to numerous editions. He addressed his Sonnet 16 to 'The Lord Generall Cromwell in May 1652' beginning "Cromwell, our chief of men ...", although it
3774-515: The midst of the excitement attending the possibility of establishing a new English government. The anonymous edition of Comus was published in 1637, and the publication of Lycidas in 1638 in Justa Edouardo King Naufrago was signed J. M. Otherwise. The 1645 collection was the only poetry of his to see print until Paradise Lost appeared in 1667. Milton's magnum opus , the blank-verse epic poem Paradise Lost ,
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#17328016752503848-533: The notion that a single material substance which is "animate, self-active, and free" composes everything in the universe: from stones and trees and bodies to minds, souls, angels, and God. Fallon claims that Milton devised this position to avoid the mind-body dualism of Plato and Descartes as well as the mechanistic determinism of Hobbes . According to Fallon, Milton's monism is most notably reflected in Paradise Lost when he has angels eat (5.433–439) and apparently engage in sexual intercourse (8.622–629) and
3922-466: The outbreak of the Civil War . In the meantime, her desertion prompted Milton to publish a series of pamphlets over the next three years arguing for the legality and morality of divorce beyond grounds of adultery. ( Anna Beer , author of a 2008 biography of Milton, points to a lack of evidence and the dangers of cynicism in urging that it was not necessarily the case that the private life so animated
3996-586: The period to develop many of his major works. Milton's views developed from extensive reading, travel, and experience that began with his days as a student at Cambridge in the 1620s and continued through the English Civil War , which started in 1642 and continued until 1651. By the time of his death in 1674, Milton was impoverished and on the margins of English intellectual life but famous throughout Europe and unrepentant for political choices that placed him at odds with governing authorities. John Milton
4070-535: The poet is unknown. The Story of Sinuhe was a popular narrative poem from the Middle Kingdom of Egypt , written c. 1750 BC, about an ancient Egyptian man named Sinuhe , who flees his country and lives in a foreign land until his return, shortly before his death. The Story of Sinuhe was one of several popular narrative poems in Ancient Egyptian . Scholars have conjectured that Story of Sinuhe
4144-593: The principles of the Revolution. Alexander Morus , to whom Milton wrongly attributed the Clamor (in fact by Peter du Moulin ), published an attack on Milton, in response to which Milton published the autobiographical Defensio pro se in 1655. Milton held the appointment of Secretary for Foreign Tongues to the Commonwealth Council of State until 1660, although after he had become totally blind, most of
4218-564: The public polemicising.) In 1643, Milton had a brush with the authorities over these writings, in parallel with Hezekiah Woodward , who had more trouble. It was the hostile response accorded the divorce tracts that spurred Milton to write Areopagitica; A speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc'd Printing, to the Parlament of England , his celebrated attack on pre-printing censorship. In Areopagitica , Milton aligns himself with
4292-467: The publication Paradise Lost with its sequel Paradise Regained , which was published alongside the tragedy Samson Agonistes in 1671. Both of these works also reflect Milton's post-Restoration political situation. Just before his death in 1674, Milton supervised a second edition of Paradise Lost , accompanied by an explanation of "why the poem rhymes not", and prefatory verses by Andrew Marvell . In 1673, Milton republished his 1645 Poems , as well as
4366-572: The second, among the productions of the human mind", though he (a Tory ) described Milton's politics as those of an "acrimonious and surly republican". Milton was revered by poets such as William Blake , William Wordsworth , and Thomas Hardy . Phases of Milton's life parallel the major historical and political divisions in Stuart England at the time. In his early years, Milton studied at Christ's College, Cambridge , and then travelled, wrote poetry mostly for private circulation, and launched
4440-486: The term "artistic kenosis" is sometimes used to describe the hymnographer's success in "emptying out" the instinct to succeed as a poet. A singer in the pew might have several of Watts's stanzas memorized, without ever knowing his name or thinking of him as a poet. John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet, polemicist, and civil servant . His 1667 epic poem Paradise Lost , written in blank verse and including twelve books,
4514-538: The time. Their tone, however, stemmed from the Puritan emphasis on the centrality and inviolability of conscience. He was his own man, but he was anticipated by Henry Robinson in Areopagitica . While Milton's beliefs are generally considered to be consistent with Protestant Christianity, Stephen Fallon argues that by the late 1650s, Milton may have at least toyed with the idea of monism or animist materialism,
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#17328016752504588-476: The work was done by his deputies, Georg Rudolph Wecklein , then Philip Meadows , and from 1657 by the poet Andrew Marvell . By 1652, Milton had become totally blind; the cause of his blindness is debated but bilateral retinal detachment or glaucoma are most likely. His blindness forced him to dictate his verse and prose to amanuenses who copied them out for him; one of these was Andrew Marvell. One of his best-known sonnets, " When I Consider How My Light
4662-457: Was Charles Mason who made the extraordinary discovery, in the library of Trinity College, of a packet of thirty loose and tattered folio leaves, almost covered with the handwriting of Milton . It is thought that Mason recognised the nature of this material around 1735 and the loose-leaf sheets were bound for the first time in 1736; the Trinity Manuscript has been described as “the chief treasure of Trinity Library” . In May 1638, accompanied by
4736-492: Was actually written by an Ancient Egyptian man named Sinuhe, describing his life in the poem; therefore, Sinuhe is conjectured to be a real person. In Ancient Rome , professional poets were generally sponsored by patrons , including nobility and military officials. For instance, Gaius Cilnius Maecenas , friend to Caesar Augustus , was an important patron for the Augustan poets, including both Horace and Virgil . Ovid ,
4810-520: Was certainly at home in London in the Lent Term 1626; there he wrote Elegia Prima , his first Latin elegy , to Charles Diodati, a friend from St Paul's. Based on remarks of John Aubrey , Chappell "whipt" Milton. This story is now disputed, though certainly Milton disliked Chappell. Historian Christopher Hill notes that Milton was apparently rusticated, and that the differences between Chappell and Milton may have been either religious or personal. It
4884-545: Was composed by the blind and impoverished Milton from 1658 to 1664 (first edition), with small but significant revisions published in 1674 (second edition). As a blind poet, Milton dictated his verse to a series of aides in his employ. It has been argued that the poem reflects his personal despair at the failure of the Revolution yet affirms an ultimate optimism in human potential. Some literary critics have argued that Milton encoded many references to his unyielding support for
4958-567: Was introduced to Giovanni Battista Manso , patron to both Torquato Tasso and to Giambattista Marino . Originally, Milton wanted to leave Naples in order to travel to Sicily and then on to Greece, but he returned to England during the summer of 1639 because of what he claimed in Defensio Secunda were "sad tidings of civil war in England." Matters became more complicated when Milton received word that his childhood friend Diodati had died. Milton in fact stayed another seven months on
5032-584: Was not published until 1654. In 1654, Milton completed the second defence of the English nation Defensio secunda in response to an anonymous Royalist tract "Regii Sanguinis Clamor ad Coelum Adversus Parricidas Anglicanos" [The Cry of the Royal Blood to Heaven Against the English Parricides], a work that made many personal attacks on Milton. The second defence praised Oliver Cromwell , now Lord Protector, while exhorting him to remain true to
5106-431: Was not retreat into a rural idyll; Hammersmith was then a "suburban village" falling into the orbit of London, and even Horton was becoming deforested and suffered from the plague. He read both ancient and modern works of theology, philosophy, history, politics, literature, and science in preparation for a prospective poetical career. Milton's intellectual development can be charted via entries in his commonplace book (like
5180-445: Was supported by his father's investments, but Milton became a private schoolmaster at this time, educating his nephews and other children of the well-to-do. This experience and discussions with educational reformer Samuel Hartlib led him to write his short tract Of Education in 1644, urging a reform of the national universities. In June 1642, Milton paid a visit to the manor house at Forest Hill, Oxfordshire , and, aged 34, married
5254-607: Was to compose the English Republic's foreign correspondence in Latin and other languages, but he also was called upon to produce propaganda for the regime and to serve as a censor. In October 1649, he published Eikonoklastes , an explicit defence of the regicide, in response to the Eikon Basilike , a phenomenal best-seller popularly attributed to Charles I that portrayed the King as an innocent Christian martyr . A month later
5328-650: Was under house arrest at Arcetri , as well as others. Milton probably visited the Florentine Academy and the Accademia della Crusca along with smaller academies in the area, including the Apatisti and the Svogliati . In [Florence], which I have always admired above all others because of the elegance, not just of its tongue, but also of its wit, I lingered for about two months. There I at once became
5402-551: Was very frugal; as he set its value high, and considered his mention of a name as a security against the waste of time, and a certain preservative from oblivion. — Samuel Johnson , Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets After receiving his MA, Milton moved to Hammersmith , his father's new home since the previous year. He also lived at Horton , Berkshire, from 1635 and undertook six years of self-directed private study. Hill argues that this
5476-717: Was written in a time of immense religious flux and political upheaval. It addressed the fall of man , including the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and God 's expulsion of them from the Garden of Eden . Paradise Lost elevated Milton's reputation as one of history's greatest poets. He also served as a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under its Council of State and later under Oliver Cromwell . Milton achieved fame and recognition during his lifetime; his celebrated Areopagitica (1644), written in condemnation of pre-publication censorship ,
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