poetry online poetry
 
online poetry in English and foreign languages poetry readings, events and conferences poetry styles and movements poetry courses and workshops poetry publishing and publishers
Beginners Section
SELECT
 
Advanced Section
SELECT
 
 
poetry online

poetry archives
canonical verse
american poetry
poetry archives
academy of am. poets
american verse project
bartleby
poemhunter
kline translations
the poetry house
the poem
contemporary poets
pinko
european poetry
russian literature
non-european poetry
latin american poetry
arabic poetry
modern greek poetry
persian poetry
hindi poetry
chinese poetry
japanese poetry
world languages

 
poetry ezines and webrings

poetry machine
every poet
find poetry
web del sol
contributors list
poetry today webring
poetry pages
cont. am. poetry archive
poem online
textetc
a little poetry
tim love's litrefs
patrick martin
hypertexts
email submitted poetry
uk poetry soc. mags.
writersartists
poetry international web
writeword
haiku

 
literary criticism and theory

voice of the shuttle
am. lit. perspectives
new literary history
library spot
literary history
constant critic
pop matters
introduction to poetry
post-colonial studies
literature & cognition
online literary criticism
dada
english lit on the web
reading poetry

 
 
John Milton
John Milton

John Milton was born in 1608 and educated at St. Paul's School in London, where he learned Latin, Greek and Hebrew. In 1625 he enrolled at Christ's College, Cambridge, graduating successfully though clashing with his tutors. Milton senior hoped the son would make a lawyer, but duly supported him when Milton spent six years at Horton studying the classics, and then toured Italy. In 1629 Milton wrote On the Morning of Christ's Nativity, and in 1634 the masque Comus, which was performed at Ludlow Castle. The death of a classmate Edward King in 1639 caused Milton to write Lycidas, but from 1641 to 1660 he wrote almost no poetry, turning instead to political tracts. At the age of 33, the studious Milton married the 16 year old daughter of a sociable royalist family, and the girl soon returned to her parents. Friends effected a reconciliation in 1645, and Mary Powell bore him three children, dying in 1652. Milton remarried, twice, but the marriages were not wholly successful. He acted as Cromwell's Latin Secretary but found the Commonwealth as intolerant as previous governments under Charles I. His services to the Cromwell placed him in some danger when the monarchy returned in 1660, but, by now blind and ostensibly harmless, Milton was eventually allowed to return to his first vocation. He wrote some of the greatest of English poetry in Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes, and died on 8 November 1674.


Milton's poetry
Charles I


Leaving aside the shorter poems, translations, and prose works (see below), Milton's fame rests on a masque, two epic poems and a tragedy. Comus is elaborate court entertainment. The son of Bacchus and Circe appears as a shepherd and tries to tempt a young lady (chastity: played by the Earl of Bridgewater's daughter) with a magic potion, but she is rescued by her brothers and led to safety. Paradise Lost is an epic in manner of Virgil: its twelve books recount the fall of Lucifer and the expulsion of mankind's first parents from the Garden of Eden. Paradise Regained is much plainer, depicting the temptation of Christ in the wilderness. In Samson Agonistes, the blind Samson moves from self-pity to faith, using his renewed strength to bring down the temple of the Philistines and triumph over Israel's enemies: a Old Testament tragedy built on the Greek model.


Milton's other works.
Cromwell


Milton was possibly the best educated Englishman of his time, equally proficient as musician and writer. The earlier poetry was enormously varied and accomplished. Written when he was 21, the Morning of Christ's Nativity ode sounds a tender adoration not heard later. Arcades, L'Allegro and Il Penseroso were apprentice work but contain some of most exquisite lines in English, endlessly anthologised. Then there were the sonnets in Latin, Italian and English, all occasional pieces but matchless at their best, reviving a form that had dropped from fashion. From 1639, Milton threw himself into the Protestant struggle, and the impassioned prose of The Doctrine & Discipline of Divorce, Areopagitica, Of Education, The Reason of Church-government , The Reason of Church-government, The Readie & Easie Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth is not to all tastes. In 1641 Milton made notes on 98 possible subjects for an epic, thereafter sketching out sections of Paradise Lost before settling down to write in earnest when the Protestant cause was lost. The humanist mood hardened to rebellion in Paradise Regained, and to faith again in Samson Agonistes.


Appreciating Milton
Milton's cottage

Like Shakespeare, Milton is the focus of an academic industry, now rather specialised, with work not generally available on the Internet. But Milton is worth studying for two reasons: to appreciate some of the greatest poetry in English, and to learn from a master craftsman. Both will take prolonged effort. To understand Milton's times and Protestant beliefs, the epic tradition in its various forms and Milton's rendering of blank verse try: siemens, luminarium, milton reading room, and milton homepage. Bibliographies are found at the milton reading room, and book reviews at the milton homepage. The craftsmanship is more difficult, but (besides appreciating blank verse, which requires continual reading) you may find C. Rick's Milton's Grand Style (1989) useful, and possibly older works such as A. Burnett's Milton's Style (1981), S. Sprott's Milton's Art of Prosody (1953), and R. Bridges' Milton's Prosody (1921), which generally have good bibliographies.


Dante Du Fu Kalidasa
Hafez Basho Racine
Pushkin Lope de Vega Virgil
Shakespeare Goethe al-Mutanabbi
Hugo Camões Ghalib
Sophocles Rilke Ronsard
Halevi Mickiewicz Fuzuli
Pound Leopardi Tegner
Cavafy Ady Darío
Eminescu Petrarch Homer
Milton Saint John Perse Carducci
Wang Wei Bécquer Chaucer
Jami Heine Baudelaire
Byron Blok Rumi
Celan Li Bai Bhartrihari
Valéry Kabir Pope
Ovid Krasicki Rustaveli
Nezami Toumania  
 
book news
bookpage
bookspot
new pages
brickbooks
bloodaxe books
atlantic online
internet book info center
league of canadian poets
new york times reviews
shearsman
poetrybooks
drowning man
guardian book reviews
times literary supplement
contemporary poetry review
 
poetry competitions
the poetry kit
poetry today online
yahoo's list
poetry machine
winning writers
atlanta review
griffin trust
voices net
wannabee publishing
history poetry
strokestown
reuben rose
poetry.com
i love poetry
illinois state
slipstream press
troubadors
vermont slam
academi
holocaust memorial
pitshanger poets
partners writing
sol magazine
lexikon publishing
folk and boat
famous poetry
defined providence press
library of poetry
xyzmultimedia press
ledbury festival
poetry zone
poetry business
crabbe memorial
salmon poetry
3words
anhinga press
supermarket shopper
rexdale publishing
crab orchard
park publications
indiana review
bmreview
fairtrade
dream quest one
koret foundation
calyx
chrishigh
mizzmouse
sonnet competition
smartish place
best poems
wick poetry