ENGLISH POEMS OF JOHN MILTON

John Milton (1608-74) has a strong claim to be considered the greatestEnglish poet after Skakespeare. His early poems, collected and publishedin 1645, include the much loved pair L'Allegro and Il Penseroso ('thecheerful man and the thoughtful man'), Lycidas (his great elegy on afellow poet) and Comus (the one masque which is still read today). When the Civil War began Milton abandoned poetry for politics and wrote aseries of pamphlets in defence of the Parliamentary party, then in defenceof the execution of Charles I: these include his great defence of thefreedom of the press, Areopagitica. In the course of this work he lost his sight, and was blind for the lasttwenty years of his life. During this time he wrote his two great epics,Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, and his retelling of the story ofSamson as a Greek tragedy. This edition contains all his poems in English, with introduction andnotes by Laurence Lerner (formerly Professor of English, University ofSussex)