John Milton: The Complete Poems

Somewhat pretentiously, I decided to read some of 'The Classics' in order to inflate an already bloated ego. This was one of those classics. Now I don't doubt Milton's skill, or that some people find it fascinating, but, having been a huge fan of The Secret 7 as a boy, I'm sorry to say that the rather protracted and verbose text left me cold. Perhaps I'm simply not ready for 'The Classics' after all.

I chose this for the prompt "a book on someone else's bookshelf" and the someone else is my daughter. For some reason, she picked this up last year during quarantine and became obsessed with it. She spends lots of her free time researching it, reading critical analysis of it and so she wanted me to read it so we could discuss it. Although I know I studied it at some point in school, I have to say that I didn't remember much of it. It was much more dense in its writing than I remembered and am still confused by my daughter's passion for it. Of course, the most interesting character is the devil since he is written with complexity and all the other characters are pretty one dimensional. We are meant to be taken in by him and feel sympathy show more for him which is quite a blasphemous approach. This is just one of the many issues that I'm sure I will be discussing and debating with my daughter until she's onto her next kick...which hopefully won't be another 500 page epic poem (as I quickly hide The Illiad and The Odyssey...maybe Beowulf is short enough to leave out - lol). I have also just read a lot books on racism, discrimination, civil rights, LGBT rights, and lots of other heavy subjects so my brain needs a few dumb thrillers now. show less

The proto-Whig mind always somewhat gross. Milton has some striking lines--I was surprised how many have become almost proverbial, suggesting a wider readership in times past--but overall he is just tiresome.

One of our university lecturers spent a lot of time trying to convince us that “Milton was better than Shakespeare” because he chose his words more carefully for their exact effect and placing, often with deliberate reference to the Latin derivation. I remained unconvinced. Favourite: the sonnet “On Shakespeare”! I quite enjoy “Hymn on the Morning of Christ’s Nativity” ("the star-led Wizards haste with odours sweet"!) and “Lycidas”, but they are a bit long to be favourites. And I do like “Sabrina fair, listen where thou art sitting”, from “Comus”.

John Milton deserves to be read by everyone - Not only did I enjoy the classic Paradise Lost, but I also found solace in Samson Agonistes and courage in Paradise Regained. The older style of English might take some time to acclimate to, but once done so the reading has a natural flow and beauty to it.

John Milton is a poet who wrote in the 17th century. It was a time of great upheavel in England, and Milton was in the thick of it. I started this book in January read up to Paradise Lost and put it down again and just lately I read that and the last two poems Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes. I'll review these poems as these are epic works.
Paradise Lost- traces the beginnings of the fall of man in creation. From the moment Satan was cast out of heaven till Adam's expulsion from the garden. I don't know where Milton got all his ideas but it is a very well written poem that manages to capture the tragedy of Adam's sin.
Paradise Regained- Poem about the temptation of Christ in the desert. Connects to Paradise Lost in Jesus' show more substitution of Adam in being tempted by the Devil. I often wonder about Jesus' unique combination of humanity and divinity and while this poem doesn't solve that it provides some idea of the degree of Satan's challenge.
Samson Agonistes- This poem takes place in the jail after Samson's arrest and betrayal by Delilah and ends with his death and the resulting death of the Philistines and the destruction of Dagon's palace. show less

I am exceedingly grateful to the media for their interest in Milton's 400th anniversary which, encouraged me to revisit the works of one of England's greatest authors.
I find poetry quite difficult to read: it does not take well to speed reading techniques, as every word is significant but, I am willing to struggle with quality such as this. Paradise Lost is unlike anything else I have ever read and, apparently Milton added more new words to the English language than did Shakespeare!