John Milton
John Milton
John Miltonwas an English poet, polemicist, and man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth 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, written in blank verse...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth9 December 1608
love obey whom
Be strong, live happy, and love, but first of all Him whom to love is to obey
heaven hell rule serve
Better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven
blest pair voice
Blest pair of Sirens, pledges of Heav'n's joy,/ Sphere-born harmonious sisters, voice and verse.
black dreadful fierce shook stood ten terrible
Black it stood as night, / Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell, / And shook a dreadful dart.
side wild
Dingle, or bushy dell of this wild wood, / And every bosky bourn from side to side.
contagion flashy foul hungry lean mist pipes rank rot sheep songs wretched
And when they list, their lean and flashy songs / Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw, / The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed, / But swoln with wind, and the rank mist they draw, / Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread.
embryos
Embryos and idiots, eremites and friars / White, black, and grey, with all their trumpery.
astray behold head highest led near riding wandering wide
To behold the wandering moon, / Riding near her highest noon, / Like one that had been led astray / Through the heav'n's wide pathless way; / And oft, as if her head she bowed, / Stooping through a fleecy cloud.
busy cities hum please
Towered cities please us then / And the busy hum of men.
gaza mill
Eyeless in Gaza at the mill with slaves.
belated dreams fairy forest midnight moon overhead peasant side whose
Fairy elves, / Whose midnight revels, by a forest side / Or fountain, some belated peasant sees, / Or dreams he sees, while overhead the moon / Sits arbitress.
art heavy thou
But O the heavy change, now thou art gone, / Now thou art gone, and never must return!
brought embrace
But O as to embrace me she inclined, / I waked, she fled, and day brought back my night.
ambition reign serve though worth
To reign is worth ambition though in hell: Better to reign in hell, than serve in heav'n