The Works of John Milton: With an Introduction and BibliographyWordsworth Editions, 1994 - 486 pages With an Introduction and Notes by Laurence Lerner, formerly Professor of English at the University of Sussex. John Milton (1608-74) has a strong claim to be considered the greatest English poet after Skakespeare. His early poems, collected and published in 1645, include the much loved pair L'Allegro and Il Penseroso ('the cheerful man and the thoughtful man'), Lycidas (his great elegy on a fellow poet) and Comus (the one masque which is still read today). When the Civil War began Milton abandoned poetry for politics and wrote a series of pamphlets in defence of the Parliamentary party, then in defence of the execution of Charles I: these include his great defence of the freedom of the press, Areopagitica. In the course of this work he lost his sight, and was blind for the last twenty years of his life. During this time he wrote his two great epics, Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, and his retelling of the story of Samson as a Greek tragedy. |
Contents
A Paraphrase on Psalm 114 | 11 |
Lycidas | 41 |
COMUS | 49 |
POEMS ADDED IN THE 1673 EDITION | 86 |
The Fifth Ode of Horace | 92 |
at the Siege of Colchester | 98 |
Psalm 8 | 108 |
Psalm 1 | 114 |
The Eleventh Book | 373 |
The Twelfth Book | 396 |
PARADISE REGAINED | 413 |
The First Book | 419 |
The Second Book | 432 |
The Third Book | 445 |
The Fourth Book | 457 |
SAMSON AGONISTES | 473 |
Psalm 87 | 121 |
Psalm | 136 |
The Second Book | 157 |
The Third Book | 184 |
The Fourth Book | 204 |
The Fifth Book | 231 |
The Sixth Book | 255 |
The Seventh Book | 279 |
The Eighth Book | 296 |
The Ninth Book | 313 |
The Tenth Book | 344 |