Milton

John Milton (1608-1674)Introduction to John MiltonJohn Milton was born in London. The family was wealthy enough to afford a second house in the country. At the age of twelve Milton was admitted to St Paul's School near his home and five years later he entered Christ's College, Cambridge. During this period, while considering himself destined for the ministry, he began to write poetry in Latin, Italian, and English. One of Milton's earliest works, “On the Death of a Fair Infant” (1626), was written after his sister Anne Phillips has suffered from a miscarriage. Milton did not adjust to university life. He was called, half in scorn, "The Lady of Christ's", and after starting a fist fight with his tutor, he was expelled for a term. On leaving Cambridge Milton had given up his original plan to become a priest.In 1651 Milton became blind, but blindness helped him to stimulate his verbal richness. Milton paid a massive fine for his opposition. He escaped from more punishment after Restoration, but he became a relatively poor man. The manuscript of Paradise Lost he sold for £5, and was promised another £5 if the first edition of 1,300 copies sold out.Milton died on November 8, 1674. He was buried beside his father in the church of St Giles, Cripplegate.AchievementMilton's achievement in the field of poetry was recognized after the appearance of Paradise Lost.Before it the writer himself had showed some doubt of the worth of his work: Milton's cosmic vision has occasionally provoked critical discussion. Even T.S. Eliot has attacked the author and described him as one whose sensuousness had been "withered by book-learning." Eliot claimed that Milton's poetry '"could only be an influence for the worse."The theme of fall and expulsion from Eden in Paradise Lost had been in Milton's mind from the 1640s. His ambition was to compose an epicpoem to rival the ancient writers, such as Homer and Virgil, whose grand vision in Aeneid left traces in his poem. It was originally issued in 10 books in 1667, and in 12 books in the second edition of 1674. Milton, who wanted to be a great poet, had also cope with the towering figure of Shakespeare.Paradise Lost is not easy to read with its odd syntax, difficult vocabulary, and complex, but noble style. Moreover, its cosmic vision is not actually based on the Copernican system,but more in the traditional Christian cosmology of its day, where the Earth (and man) is the center of the universe, not the sun. The poem tells a biblical story of Adam and Eve, with God, and Lucifer (Satan), who is thrown out of Heaven to corrupt humankind. Satan, the most beautiful of the angels, is at his most impressive: he wakes up, on a burning lake in Hell, to find himself surrounded by his stunned followers. He has been defeated in the War of Heaven. Milton created a powerful and sympathetic portrait of Lucifer. His character bears similarities with Shakespeare's hero-villains Iago and Macbeth, whose personal ambition is transformed into metaphysical nihilism.Milton's view influenced deeply such Romantic poets as William Blake and Percy Bysshe Shelley, who regarded Satan as the real hero of the poem - a rebel against the tyranny of Heaven. In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Blake stated that Milton is "a true Poet, and of the Devil's party without knowing it."Select ReadingParadise LostNine times the Space that measures Day and50 NightTo mortal men, he with his horrid crewLay vanquisht, rolling in the fiery gulfConfounded though immortal: But his doomReserved him to more wrath; for now the thoughtBoth of lost happiness and lasting painTorments him; round he throws his baleful eyesThat witnessed huge affliction and dismayMixed with obdurate pride and steadfast hate:At once as far as Angels ken he viewsDefine the following terms1.Elegy: Poems that lament the loss of something or someone, or lossor death more generally.2.Stanza: A grouping of the verse lines in a poem set off by a space inthe printed text. Stanzas are marked by a recurrent pattern of rhyme and are also uniform in the number and length of the component lines.3.Spenserian Stanza (斯宾塞诗体): A nine line stanza with thefollowing rhyme scheme ababbcbcc.4.Hyperbole: Bold overstatement, or the exaggeration of fact orpossibility.5.Pastoral: Conventional poem expressing an urban poet’s nostalgicimage of the peace and simplicity of the life of shepherds and other rural folk in an idealized natural world.田园诗：一种用理想的手法来体现牧羊人的乡村生活的诗歌。