John Milton's Poetry

John Milton's poetry joins classical literary forms with Christian subjects and a sustained concern for moral freedom. Paradise Lost retells the Fall through an expansive epic narrative, while Paradise Regained concentrates on Christ's resistance to temptation. Shorter poems such as Lycidas and the Nativity Ode bring mourning and worship into carefully shaped lyric forms. His sonnets make public events and personal difficulty occasions for reflection on duty and patient service. The movement between large narrative and concentrated meditation gives Milton's verse a range of scales without separating poetic form from spiritual purpose.