Jhon Milton (1608-1674)

Jhon Milton

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John Milton (1608-1674) was born in London into a middle-class family. He started his studies at St. Paul’s school and then, continued at Christ’s College, Cambridge, however, sometime after he decided to abandon the degree; his efficiency with language and his great abilities as a poet soon introduced him into poet was a poet who studied at Cambridge. After having travelled through France and Italy and having met Galileo, returned to his homeland where defended the puritanism. In 1642 he married Mary Powell which divorced after a short period of time publishing Areopagítica in defense of freedom of expresion. Then he put aside the poetry for the position of Secretary of Committé of foreign affairs of Cromwell's Government. After having got completely blind, returned to poetry world. Finally, published his best work named Paradise Lost. Hence, he managed to conciliate on his compositions the vital experiences with reflection and moral and artistic discipline. He reached his fame not as a poet but as servant of Oliver Cromwell, the ¨Lord Protector¨ of England in the period that took place between the reign of Charles I and Charles II. It must be pointed out the fact that Charles was beheaded and the country turned into a republic. Cromwell leaded the republic, the Commonwealth.

Both, Milton and Cromwell were Puritans, and they belived that the Church of England must be reformed in order to be separted from the power structures of Catholicism an the Pope. Their aim was to focus Christianity on the basic of ¨pure¨ piety and moralty. As a great supporter of this gouvernment and by using his power of persuasion, Milton behalf of Puritans rule in essays published in pamphlets. After the Puritans have gained power, Milton turn into a completely blindness. This did not ocurred after he wrote his best works, the most recognizable one is Pradise Lost.

In order to anlyze this poem we have to take into account the fact of Milton´s blindness. He dedicated his whole life to the purpose of serving God. As we have already saw, he was a helper of the Puritans. The way in which he contribute to achive their goals is by means of using his talent. This talent is writing, a task which is difficult to fulfill if you can not see. Therefore, what we find in this poem is a preocupation, a question, the poet is wondering if he could be able to carry out his mission now that he had lost his eyesight.

This poem is a sonnet, and as a sonnet is composed by fourteen lines. Is a Petrarchan Sonnet. The poem have an octave rhyming a bb aa bb a and a sestet rhyming either cde cde. All the lines in the poem are iambic pentameters. In this metric pattern, a line has five pairs of unstressed and stessed syllables, for a total of ten syllables.

When we read through the poem, the first impression we get is that the poem deals with Milton’s blindness even though the poem never directly refers to it; the poem refers