Balti state university a. Russo chair of english philology

Paradise Lost
  is Milton‟s greatest work. It is an epic that presents the author‟s views 
in an allegoric religious form but its basic idea is easily discerned, i.e. the exposure of 
reactionary forces of his time and a passionate appeal for freedom. 
The poem consists of 12 books. It‟s based on the biblical legend of Adam and Eve, and 
involves God and his eternal enemy, satan. The revolutionary spirit is shown in satan, who 
revolts against God, drawing to his side many rebel-angels. Being driven out of Heaven and 
falling on Earth possessing humane qualities. Satan is determined to go on with his war against 
God and uses Eve as an innocent creature in his plans. Choosing sin Eve and Adam are deprived 
of immortality and driven away form Paradise. They are taken to the gates of Paradise by 
Archangel Michael, who showed them pictures of future of the Earth. Those were scenes form 
the history of the human race, that involved wars, strenuous labour, joys and endless sorrows. 
Michael prophesies that only by hard toil they could achieve moral perfection and regain 
eternal bliss. 
Paradise Lost was a deeper, larger, more evangelical work, than anything he might have 
written. It was well suited to appeal to a nation, which had just passed through a massive 
spiritual crisis. It is a major monument, one of the last and most impressive of the Renaissance 
tradition of Christian humanism‟. Milton forged a poem of epic dimensions that would remain 
for centuries to become a supreme literary achievement./4 The way of life that Adam and Eve 
take up by the end of the poem ( they have to face the burdens of humanity, seeking blessings, 
striving for purity, suffering inevitable defeats. This is a triumphant balancing of this conclusion 
which completes the noble architecture of Milton‟s poem. 
Milton‟s works form a bridge between the poetry of the Renaissance and the poetry of the 
Classicists of the later period. He was attracted by the poetry of ancient mythology and drama 
because of the free thought they expressed. He chose his themes from the Bible but in his 
allegorical epic poem they became revolutionary in spirit, which bring J. Milton to great hights. 
In his poetic art Milton blends the traditions of the Renaissance with the spirit of 
revolutionary struggle and the ideas of Puritanism, love for art and nature. The belief in the 
power of science and the profound humanism are blended with a puritan rigidity of morals. 
That‟s why Milton‟s poetry is in many respects so contradictory and complex. But his 
revolutionary feelings raised him to high spirits of creation. 

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Conclusions: 
1. The turbulent spirit of the age of Revolution was broadly reflected in literature, giving 
birth to new forms, values and morals.
2. The Revolution gave a heavy moral pressure on Literature, excluding some literary 
forms and introducing new ones. 
3. The poets of the age are divided into two groups: metaphysical and cavalier poets, who 
though having a different approach to literature and literary forms, borrowed the styles 
from each other. 
4. John Donne‟s poetry appears to be an absolutely new style, refreshing the Petrachan 
tradition. 
5. Ben Jonson created the first” Literary school” in Britain. 
6. John Milton blended the traditions of Renaissance with the revolutionary spirit of the 
age. 

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