English Honours Semester- 1 DSC Paper-1

Introduction to English Literature (Poetry)

Q.) Write a short note on the Contribution of John Milton in the history of English Literature. 15

Ans.) John Milton is doubtless one of the most important and influential poets in English language and literature. He
is the second poet of England who stands next to William Shakespeare. Milton has always been a great influence in
literature both during his lifetime and after his death.

The most part of Milton's fame is due to his poetry. As a poet Milton forms a class all by himself. According to W.J.
Long, “Milton is the poet of steadfast will and purpose who moves like a god amid the fears and hopes and changing
impulses of the world, regarding them as trivial and momentary things that can never swerve a great soul from its
course." The supreme quality of Milton's poetry is its sublimity. His poetry elevates and uplifts us and it is also a mirror
in which the writer's character is reflected. His various poems expresses his deep veneration for religion and morality
which formed the chief element in his character. Milton's subject matter as well as his treatment of it is equally noble.
Voltaire is of the view that Milton's poetry is the greatest thing in the English language.

Milton was the poet who altered the epic genre and wrote Paradise Lost in blank verse. Most of the writers who
tended to imitate Milton's art were affected by his use of blank verse, the language, style and the sublime ideas. Not
only Paradise Lost was the factor to make Milton such an influential poet and bring him a reputation but also his
minor poems like L’Allegro and Il Penseroso played an essential role in Milton's influence.

In Milton's blank verse there is overflow of sense from line to line. Milton has complete command over the language
he uses. He selects words, sound expresses their sense and, by doing so, he ensures that the rhythmic movement of
the lines will correspond to the sense. This makes Milton's poetry very musical. William Hazlitt remarks, Milton's
blank verse is the only blank verse in the language that deserves the name of verse.

Milton is the last and the greatest figure in the English Renaissance. The Renaissance passion for the classical art
which is seen in its fumbling beginnings in the poetry of Surrey and Sackville reaches its full and splendid and perfect
end in Milton's poetry. He was the child both of the Renaissance and the Reformation. In his works the moral and
religious influences of Puritanism were blended with the generous culture of the Renaissance. He began to write
chiefly under the inspiration of the learning and art of the Renaissance.

The theme of his first poem, the Ode on the Morning of Christ's Nativity is a Christian one. It describes the flight of
pagan gods at the advent of Christ. But it uses classical mythology and pagan imagery. In its imaginative brilliance
and its occasional tenderness it reveals the Renaissance influence. The Renaissance spirit is also to be seen at its
height in L'Allegro and Il Penseroso.

Paradise Lost, the greatest English poem, shows a perfect blending of Hellenism and Hebraism. The inspiration and
the subject-matter of the epic alike come from Milton’s Puritanism. In it Milton undertakes to assert Eternal
Providence and justifies the ways of God to men. But its form and style, its machinery and method are all taken from
the great epics of classical antiquity. The epic amply demonstrates that the puritan in Milton had not killed the
humanist. Milton’s Satan embodies the Renaissance love for romance, chivalry and adventure and above all, the
humanist ideal of individualism. In Paradise Regained Milton set aside the claims of beauty, wealth and learning
bequeathed by the Renaissance and stresses the cultivation of the Christian virtues. In this poem Milton’s humanism
appears totally eclipsed by Puritanism. His Samson Agonistes is a venture in a new field of poetry and shows Milton’s
genius at its mature level. In it he uses all his strength and all the accumulated wisdom of a lifetime and at long last
he came back to his old project of a sacred tragedy. The poetry of Milton is thus a harmonious bled of the elements
of the Renaissance and Reformation.

Apart from these works of Milton his sonnets were also used as a model especially for their form and subject matter.
Several sonnets were produced in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries following the model of Milton’s sonnets.
Milton’s whole body of works was considered to be an example of excellence so that his position as a literary figure
had been risen so high in the literary world.
Milton’s style has been called grand style for the reason that it has always an unmistakable stamp of sublimity and
majesty. Milton’s language and diction are not the language of ordinary life. Milton uses Latin words, and Latin
constructions and inversions. Milton’s grand style admirably suits the lofty, sublime theme of Paradise Lost. It is with
the grand style in his mind that William Wordsworth says that Milton had a voice whose sound was like the sea.

As a poet Milton was not an innovator. Rather he performed the function which was to refine and perfect the poetical
forms. Every form he touched acquired a finality of grace and dignity. He occupies a transitional position in the history
of English literature. W.J. Long wonderfully writes, Milton is like an ideal in the soul like a lofty mountain on the
horizon. We never attain the ideal; we never climb the mountain; but life would be inexpressibly poorer either to be
taken away.

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