John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth (republic) 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.
Milton's 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, and Italian, he achieved international renown within his lifetime, and his celebrated Areopagitica, (written in condemnation of pre-publication censorship) is among history's most influential and impassioned defenses of free ... more »
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John Milton Poems
On His Blindness
When I consider how my light is spent Ere half my days in this dark world and wide, And that one talent which is death to hide Lodg'd with me useless, though my soul more bent
How Soon Hath Time
How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, Stoln on his wing my three and twentieth year! My hasting days fly on wtih full career, But my late spring no bud or blossom shew'th.
Paradise Lost: Book 01
Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste Brought death into the World, and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
HAIL holy light, ofspring of Heav'n first-born, Or of th' Eternal Coeternal beam May I express thee unblam'd? since God is light, And never but in unapproached light
Hymn on the Morning of Christ's Nativity
IT was the Winter wilde, While the Heav'n-born-childe, All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies; Nature in aw to him
At a Solemn Music
Blest pair of Sirens, pledges of Heav'n's joy, Sphere-born harmonious Sisters, Voice and Verse, Wed your divine sounds, and mixt power employ Dead things with inbreath'd sense able to pierce,
What needs my Shakespear for his honour'd Bones, The labour of an age in piled Stones, Or that his hallow'd reliques should be hid Under a Star-ypointing Pyramid?
In this Monody the author bewails a learned Friend, unfortunately drowned in his passage from Chester on the Irish Seas, 1637; and, by occasion, foretells the ruin of our corrupted Clergy, then in
HENCE, vain deluding Joys, ............The brood of Folly without father bred! How little you bested
HENCE, loathed Melancholy, ............Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born In Stygian cave forlorn
Fly, envious Time, till thou run out thy race, Call on the lazy leaden-stepping hours, Whose speed is but the heavy plummet's pace; And glut thyself with what thy womb devours,
Another On The Same
Here lieth one who did most truly prove, That he could never die while he could move, So hung his destiny never to rot While he might still jogg on, and keep his trot,
On His Deceased Wife
METHOUGHT I saw my late espoused Saint Brought to me like Alcestis from the grave, Whom Joves great Son to her glad Husband gave, Rescu'd from death by force though pale and faint.
An Epitaph on the Admirable Dramatic Poe...
What needs my Shakespeare for his honored bones The labor of an age in piled stones? Or that his hallowed reliques should be hid Under a star-ypointing pyramid?
Quotationsmore quotations »
''None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but licence.''John Milton (1608-1674), British poet. repr. In Complete Prose Works of Milton, ed. Ernest Sirluck (1959). The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649)....
''No man who knows aught, can be so stupid to deny that all men naturally were born free.''John Milton (1608-1674), British poet. repr. In Complete Prose Works of Milton, ed. Ernest Sirluck (1959). The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649)....
A man may be a heretic in the truth; and if he believe things only because his pastor says so, or the assembly so determines, without knowing other reason, though his belief be true, yet the very trut...John Milton (1608-1674), British poet. Areopagitica: a Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England (1644).
I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, no...John Milton (1608-1674), British poet. Areopagitica: a Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England (1644).
''Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.''John Milton (1608-1674), British poet. Areopagitica: a Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England (1644).
(4 April 1928 - 28 May 2014)
(March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963)
(10 December 1830 – 15 May 1886)
(26 April 1564 - 23 April 1616)
(12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973)
Edgar Allan Poe
(19 January 1809 - 7 October 1849)
(1 February 1902 – 22 May 1967)
(31 May 1819 - 26 March 1892)
(31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821)
On His Blindness
When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodg'd with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide,
"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies: "God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts: who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed
And post o'er land and ocean without ...