JOHN MILTON

His Life 
John Milton, who occupies the greatest place among such poets as an influence and model, was Londoner by birth, and was born in Bread Street on 9th December 1608; but his family belong Oxfordshire. Milton entered St.Paul's school in 1620, and went thence five years later to Christ college, Cambridge,becoming M.A in 163.

 During the twenty years  of civil commotion he wrote, except a few sonnets, no poetry, but was fertile in controversial prose, which will be dealt with in another chapter. he married in 1643; and she died in 1652, leaving him three daughters. Meanwhile his tract writing, now devoted to purely political matters, and especially the defense of the execution of the king, he also lost his eyesight in 1652,and married a second in 1656, she also died in 1658. At the restoration he hid himself married third time in 1663, this time more successfully in comfort and permanence.The publication of his great epics followed at no long intervals, and he died on November 1674, and was buried at St. Giles's, Cripplegate. 

His Works
His works fall under three unusually well marked periods; the first including all early poems up to Lycidas; the second fertile in prose, but yielding no poetry except most of the sonnets; the third giving two Paradises and Samson Agonistes. 
Before Lycidas ,he wrote such remarkable poems like The Ode on the Nativity;, as the hearald's cry of a new great poet, is a test of the  reader's power to appreciate poetry.For the famous pair L'Allegro and Il Penseroso, no one has ever had anything but praise. Even Dr. Johnson could feel their universal charm. Comus was written in 1634 John Milton is best known for Paradise Lost, widely regarded as the greatest epic poem in English. Together with Paradise Regained, it formed his reputation as one of the greatest English poets. In his prose works he advocated the abolition of the Church of England. His influence extended not only through the civil wars and interregnum but also to the American and French revolutions
Paradise Lost
By far his best-known poem is Paradise Lost, an epic in twelve books in the tradition of Virgil's Aeneid, recounting the story of Satan's rebellion against God, and of the disobedience and fall of Adam and Eve, led astray by Satan's lies. The story of Satan's rebellion is not found in the Bible, except in passing allusions capable of more than one interpretation. I will therefore pause to sketch the story as it was generally accepted in Milton's day..

Lycidas
Edward King was a fellow student of Milton's, a Puritan youth who had written some poetry and was intending to become a preacher. He was on a ship in the Irish Sea when it sank, and he was drowned. Several of his friends decided to write poems in his memory and publish the collection. Milton's contribution, Lycidas, belongs to a tradition going back to the ancient Greeks and Romans. It is a pastoral. That is, the poet and the persons he writes about are all treated as shepherds (or shepherdesses) living in the hillsides and pastures of ancient Greece. Edward King is renamed Lycidas, and Milton mourns his death.