John Milton

Name: John Milton

     Birth: December 9, 1608 Place: London

     Death: November 8, 1674 Place: London

Best Known Works: Paradise Lost, Lycidas, Comus, “On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity”, “On Shakespeare”.

Brief Biography

     As inspiration for his writing, Milton drew largely from his own experiences. After each of the deaths of his second wife, two friends, and his sister’s unborn baby, Milton penned poignant poems of grief. Involved with the politics of his day, Milton wrote many pamphlets by order of the Cromwellian government, for which he worked from 1649 until Oliver Cromwell’s death (Luminarium). He also wrote two treatises on divorce after his first wife left him for several years in the beginning of their marriage. Having had the opportunity to meet Galileo earlier in his life, Milton alluded to the genius from Italy many years later in the composition of Paradise Lost . Living during the Renaissance, Milton was exposed to the increased interest in the Renaissance of classical culture. Accordingly, Milton included references in much of his poetry to mythological figures and stories of both Greek and Roman origin. Milton was also influenced by the Protestant Reformation, and he wrote several religious pamphlets along with his political works. Milton’s legacy lives on as a result of the scope and breadth of his work due to its universal and timeless themes as he experienced them in his own life.

Jokinen, Anniina. "Life of John Milton." Luminarium. 21 June 2006. 30 October 2014. http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/milton/miltonbio.htm

Petri Liukkonen. Pegasos. n.p., 2008. Web. 31 October 2014. http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/jmilton.htm

Ruth Rushworth. “Milton’s language”. darkness visible. Christ’s College. n.p., n.d. 30 October, 2014 http://darknessvisible.christs.cam.ac.uk/language.html

-Using a format from the textbook, this is an author profile I wrote for my British Literature course. It's only the second time I've used citations, so I'm still working on that.