We know more about Milton's poetic career than that of any poet before him and many after him. As well as two lives by those who knew him well (one by his nephew Edward.Phillips, the other anonymous) we have a number of autobiographical passages inserted into his political writings and his Latin poems, from which we can deduce an intense concern with his own career.

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John Milton (1608-74) has a strong claim to be considered the greatest English poet after Shakespeare.His early poems, collected and published in 1645,include the much-loved pair L'Allegro and II Penseroso ('the cheerful man and the thoughtful man'), Lycidas (his great elegy on a fellow poet) and Comus (the one masque which is still read today).

When the Civil War began Milton abandoned poetry for politics and wrote a series of pamphlets in defence of the Parliamentary party, then in defence of the execution of Charles I: these include his great defence of the freedom of the press, Areopagitica.

In the course of this work he lost his sight, and was blind for the last twenty years of his life. During this time he wrote his two great epics, Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, and his retelling of the story of Samson as a Greek tragedy.

This edition contains all his poems in English, with introduction and notes by Laurence Lerner (formerly Professor of English, University of Sussex).

General Introduction

Further Reading

     MISCELLANEOUS POEMS

On the Morning of Christ's Nativity

A Paraphrase on Psa/m 114

Psalm 136

The Passion

on Time

Upon the Circumcision

At a Solemn Music

An Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester

Song on May Morning

On Shakespeare

On the University Carrier

Another on the Same

L 'Allegro

I1 Penseroso

          SONNETS

Sonnet

Sonnet

When the Assault was Intended to the City

Sonnet

To the lady Margaret Ley

           ARCADES

Arcades

            LYCIDAS

Introduction

Lyc/das

             COMUS

Introduction

Comus

  POEMS ADDED IN THE 1673 EDITION

On the Death of a Fair Infant Dying of a Cough

At a Vacation Exercise in the College

The Fifth Ode of Horace

            SONNETS

On the Detract/on wh/ch Followed

    upon My Writing Certain Treatises

On the Same

To Mr H. Lawes an his Airs

On the Reli~ous Memory of Mrs Catherine Thomson

On the Late Massacre in Piedmont

Sonnet

Sonnet

Sonnet

Sonnet

On the New Forcers of Conscience

    under the Long Parliament

On the Lord General Fairfax,

    at the Siege of Colchester

To the Lard General Cromwell, May 1652

To Sir Henry Vane the Yaunger

To Mr Cyriack Skinner Upon His Blindness

             PSALMS

Psalm 1

Psalm 2

Psalm 3

Psalm 4

Psalm 5

Psalm 6

Psalm 7

Psa/m 8

Psa/m 80

Psa/m 81

Psa/m 82

Psa/m 83

Psa/m 84

Psalm 85

Psa/m 86

Psalm 87

Psalm88

         PARADISE LOST

Introduction

The First Book

.The Second Book

The Third Book

The Fourth Book

The F/fib Book

The Sixth Book

The Seventh Book

The Eighth Book

The Ninth Book

The Tenth Book

The Eleventh Book

The Twelfth Book

       PARADISE REGAINED

Introduction

The First Book

The Second Book

The Third Book

The Fourth Book

       SAMSON AGONISTES

Introduction

Samson Agonistes

Notes

Index of Tides

Index of First Lines