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Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University Unit 19: John Milton—Paradise Lost

Unit 19: John Milton—Paradise Lost Notes

CONTENTS
Objectives

Introduction
19.1 Paradise Lost-I: Introduction to the Author and the Text

19.1.1 Introduction to the Text

19.1.2 Introduction to the Author
19.2 Paradise Lost-I: Importance of Prologue

19.2.1 Prologue and Invocation
19.3 Summary

19.4 Keywords
19.5 Review Questions

19.6 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to:
• Know about the text and author of Paradise Lost
• Explain the prologue and invocation of Paradise Lost.

Introduction

Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was
originally published in 1667 (though written nearly ten years earlier) in ten books, with a total of
over ten thousand individual lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674, redivided into twelve
books (in the manner of the division of Virgil’s Aeneid) with minor revisions throughout and a note
on the versification; most of the poem was written while Milton was blind, and was transcribed for
him.
The poem concerns the Christian story of the Fall of Man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the
fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Milton’s purpose, stated in Book I,
is to “justify the ways of God to men” and elucidate the conflict between God’s eternal foresight
and free will. Although the primary event in the epic is about the Fall of Man, the character Satan
serves as an anti-hero and as a prominent driving force in the plot.

Milton depiction has fascinated critics, some of which have interpreted Paradise Lost
as a poem questioning the church’s power rather than only a description of the fall of
Adam and Eve.

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