Thought I'd take the John Milton biography and try to extract the important terms from it. He was born in December 1608 in London , his family was somewhat wealthy (enough to own two homes). Was a good student at St. Paul's School starting when 12, and learned latin, greek, and hebrew. In 1625 Milton went to Christ's College of Cambridge University where he was called "Lady of Christ's". Graduated on time in 1629, despite being suspended for a year due to fighting his tutor. "On the morning of Christ's nativity" was written that same year. Got his masters degree in 1632 and decided he'd write poetry for a living while educating himself at home while living with his rents.
Wrote a masque, Comus, in 1634 at Ludlow Castle, in honor of Earl of Bridgewater. 1635 he moved to Horton, Buckinghamshire, where he also learned Italian. Milton's classmate drowned in Irish Sea in 1637 so he wrote Lycidas in memory of him. 1638 he toured continent to further his education, met Galileo and Grotius. Between 1641 and 1660 wrote no poetry because of Puritans, he took Parliaments side and wrote pamphlets for them. He married Mary Powell in 1642, she was of royalist family. In 1644 published two famous pamphlets: Areopagetica and "Of Education".
Mary returned to John in 1645, had three daughters for John before death in 1652.
1649 pamphlet "The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates" was written after Charles I death. His second wife (Woodstock) died in 1656 and Cromwell died in 1658 forcing him to hide before being imprisoned and executed upon Charles II return. He was saved by Marvell and after 1660 he retired from Public life due to oldness and blindness. Paradise Lost came out in 1667, died in 1674.
This does not include the Epics or the poem, but really depicts the important things out of the bio, hope it helps.
3 comments:
It is not surprising that John Milton was educated at such a high level and became a very well known poet. After learing about the previous four poets this seems to be the trend/requirment that sets them apart from everyone else. The only exception to this "rule" would be herrick who was just plain lazy. It's amazing to me the magnitude of influence the Puritan's had on British culture that it forced this man from writing and publishing his poetry. It is also remarkable how much stuff happened in his life and how much change he had to endure to keep his work alive. His poem paradise lost seems to be something that maybe stemed from the collapse of the Puritan's in government which marked the end of his political dreams. This is only a thought though. Overall I think that Milton is a very interesting person who drew heavily off of his experience as an adult rather than a child to inspire his poetry.
I agree with Andrew. The fact that Milton composed an entire 12 volume epic poem in his head, and then spoke it to the person who was writing for him is incredible. His adult life must have been difficult due to the fact that he became blind and could not personally write anymore, but I do agree that his poetry is heavily influenced by his adult life, as he seemed to experience more at this point and that it had a bigger influence on him than his childhood.
I know it must have been tough for him when he became blind, even to have enough ambition to want to write a book. But atleast it wasn't his whole life it was 1660-1665 when the blindness happened. He died in 1674 so he only had it for 10-15 not that they were important by any means, but by 1660 he was already 52 so he wasn't exactly young especially since life expectancy was't very long back then. What Milton accomplished in writing "Paradise Lost" while being blind is extra-ordinary, a 12 volume epic is something unbelievable, even more unbelievable when thinking how he just said what he was thinking to secretaries who wrote it down. This above anything else should show everyone today how brilliant of a person Milton was.
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