How nature paints her colors, how the bee What drops the myrrh, and what the balmy reed, Our tender plants, how blows the citron grove, Heaven's last best gift, my ever new delight!Īwake: The morning shines, and the fresh fieldĬalls us we lose the prime, to mark how spring My fairest, my espoused, my latest found, Mild, as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes, Shot forth peculiar graces then with voice Leaning half raised, with looks of cordial love With tresses discomposed, and glowing cheek, Lightly dispersed, and the shrill matin song

Of leaves and fuming rills, Aurora's fan, Was aerie-light, from pure digestion bred,Īnd temperate vapors bland, which the only sound When Adam waked, so customed for his sleep “Now Morn, her rosy steps in the eastern climeĪdvancing, sowed the earth with orient pearl, Eliot’s belief that “of no other poet is it so difficult to consider the poetry simply as poetry, without our theological and political dispositions…making unlawful entry.” Milton’s radical, republican politics and heretical religious views, coupled with the perceived artificiality of his complicated Latinate verse, alienated Eliot and other readers yet by dint of the overriding influence of his poetry and personality on subsequent generations-particularly the Romantic movement-the man whom Samuel Johnson disparaged as “an acrimonious and surly republican” must be counted one of the most significant writers and thinkers of all time.

Very soon after his death – and continuing to the present day – Milton became the subject of partisan biographies, confirming T.S. Leavis in the mid 20th century but with multiple societies and scholarly journals devoted to his study, Milton’s reputation remains as strong as ever in the 21st century. Long considered the supreme English poet, Milton experienced a dip in popularity after attacks by T.S. Myself and all th’ angelic host that stand In sight of God entrhon’d, our happy state Hold, as you yours, while our obedience hold On other surety none freely we serve, Because we freely love, as in our will To love or not in this we stand or fall: And some are fallen, to disobedience fallen, And so from heaven to deepest. Most famed for his epic poem Paradise Lost, Milton is celebrated as well for his eloquent treatise condemning censorship, Areopagitica. “John Milton (Decem– November 8, 1674) was an English poet, prose polemicist, and civil servant for the English Commonwealth.

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