John Milton has caused more controversy than any other writer, past or present. The controversy centers on Milton's passionate desire to elevate literature--stripped of its ornaments--to greater heights, and to create art not just for art's sake, but for God's sake. Milton has the ability to confront readers with moral and spiritual issues that require a definite decision. Readers of Milton are never neutral towards the "blind poet."

    Milton lived no ordinary life. Born in London in 1608, Milton belonged to a prosperous family who embraced Puritanism. Milton's father was a scrivener who enjoyed the arts and classical literature. When he was a boy, Milton had excellent tutors and at the age of sixteen, entered Cambridge. While at Cambridge, Milton had strong Christian devotion and chastity in that Milton was known by the rowdy students as "The Lady of Christ's."

    However, neither divinity nor law interested the young scholar. Milton's father allowed his son a time of seclusion at the country estate in Horton. During this period, Milton was an Elizabethan in tastes. Milton's world was one of books which included the Authorized Version of the Bible, Spenser's Faerie Queene, and as many texts in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek that he was able to find. Milton also meditated on the legends of King Arthur extensively. While enjoying his literary seclusion, Milton writes perhaps the last of the true Elizabethan poetry: L'Allegro and Il Penseroso.

    Around 1625, civil and religious differences were beginning to surface. Of course, even as a young man, Milton was exposed to the conflict. In the greatest of the English masques, Comus, Milton expresses his allegiance to Puritanism and reveals his ideal of uprightness: "Mortals that would follow me / Love virtue; she alone is free." In Lycidas, written as an elegy for Edward King (many argue that this poem is the most perfect of English poetry), Milton attacks the Anglican Church and announces that open revolt will come. In 1638, Milton left England to finish his education. But while in Italy, Milton learned about the civil war between the Puritans and Charles I with his loyalists, and decided to come home to join the revolt against the monarchy.

    With the execution of Charles I, the Puritan Commonwealth was created. Milton shifted from writing poetry to writing prose. Appointed by Oliver Cromwell as the Secretary for Foreign Tongues (or Latin Secretary), Milton wrote several pamphlets defending the English republic to the world and the individuality of every man to enjoy liberty--social, civil,  and religious. One of these works was Eikonoklastes, justifying the execution of Charles I. For Milton, the success of the republic was important since the government represented the ideal of liberty and freedom. But personal tragedy strikes when, in 1652, Milton becomes completely blind. In addition to this, Cromwell dies in 1658 and his son Richard is unable to maintain order in the republic. The English people became dissatisfied with the Puritan experiment and ask Charles II, who was in France, to become the king of England. In 1660, Milton was arrested and was to be executed. However, Andrew Marvell protected Milton, arguing that the blind old man, whose property was taken away, could no longer be a threat to the restoration of the king. Thus, Milton was released only to know that many of his friends of the last twenty years were in exile or met death with an executioner's axe. Had Milton died in 1660, the world would never have had Paradise Lost.

    Early in his childhood, Milton desired to write an English epic in the English language. At first, Milton believed that his creation would center on King Arthur, the Arthureid. However, Milton abandons the idea because the legends were untruthful and often immoral. Therefore, Milton turns to the greatest work of the English language, the Authorized Version of the Holy Bible. In the Bible, Milton found the grand scope and setting for a true epic. Milton's personal danger and the vivid intensity of the civil war give Paradise Lost a vitality unequalled in any mortal work of literature. Even Milton's blindness helped sharpen the poet's sense of hearing to contribute to the superior use of sounds throughout the masterpiece. Although he scoffed at his classical education with its emphasis on the trivium, Milton was a product of scholasticism, apart from which he could never have achieved the majesty of his epic. Arguably, the creation of Paradise Lost was precisely at the right time by the right man. As Fred Pattee states, Paradise Lost "stands like a vast mountain peak, lonely and sublime, the supreme achievement of English literature."
   
    In 1667, the first of edition of Paradise Lost was published in ten books. Milton later writes two other excellent works, though inferior to his epic: Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes. Paradise Regained centers on the temptation of Christ in the wilderness and Samson Agonistes recalls the last moments of blind Samson before he dies. The latter work has strong autobiographical material that is difficult to overlook. Finally, in 1674, the blind poet publishes his second edition of Paradise Lost, which this time is in twelve books. After this, in the same year, John Milton--classical scholar, Puritan statesman, and gifted poet--died in London.