John Milton (1608–74) was an English poet and writer; he was the chief literary spokesman for the Puritan revolution. An intensely religious Protestant, Milton's most famous work is the epic poem Paradise Lost. Many experts consider it the greatest epic poem in the English language. The poem was written in "blank verse" (meaning without rhyme, but often in rhythmic iambic pentameter) in 1658–63, when Milton was totally blind.
He was a graduate of Christ's College, Cambridge.
He was an opponent of King Charles I and a leading spokesman for Oliver Cromwell. In politics he advocated republicanism and a form of Libertarianism. Kings were not needed to make a nation, he argued, because it was the virtue of the people that mattered:
Milton's Areopagitica (1644) strongly condemned the censorship of ideas and has become a canonical work regarding freedom of speech. In 1651 he became the chief of censorship for the new government, but used a light hand, suppressing only hose publications which directly incited the overthrow of the government. The Cromwellian system collapsed in 1660 with the Restoration of King Charles II, and Milton went into retirement to write his poem.
Categories: [British Poets] [English Civil War] [Libertarians] [Puritans] [British Authors]