write essay about john milton

Biography of John Milton

John Milton was born in London in 1608 at the height of the Protestant Reformation in England. His father was a law writer who had achieved some success by the time Milton was born. This prosperity allowed him to provide the young Milton with an excellent education, first with private tutoring, then a private school, and finally Cambridge. Milton, a studious boy, excelled in languages and classical studies.

His father had left Roman Catholicism and Milton was raised Protestant, with a heavy tendency toward Puritanism. As a student, he wanted to go into the ministry, but was disillusioned with the scholastic tendency of the clergy at Cambridge. Cambridge, however, afforded him time to write poetry. After Cambridge, he continued his studies for seven years in a leisurely life at his father's house. It was here that he wrote some of his first published poems, including "Comus" (1634) and "Lycidas" (1638), both of which he published in 1645.

Milton toured the European continent in 1638-1639 and met many of the great Renaissance minds, including Galileo and Grotius. The beginning of the Puritan Revolution found Milton back in England, fighting for a more humanist and reformed church. For more than twenty years, Milton set aside poetry to write political and religious pamphlets for the cause of Puritanism. For a time, he served as Secretary for Foreign Tongues under Cromwell.

Milton was a mixed product of his time. On the one hand, as a humanist, he fought for religious tolerance and believed that there was something inherently valuable in man. As a Puritan, however, he believed that the Bible was the answer and the guide to all, even if it curbed man's freedom. Where the Bible didn't afford an answer, Milton would turn to reason.

Milton himself was married three times, and all of his marriages were rather unhappy affairs. He defended divorce in "The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce" in 1643. With this and other treatises, Milton often came in conflict with the Puritanism he otherwise advocated.

At the end of the war, Milton was imprisoned for a short time for his views. In 1660, he emerged blind and disillusioned with the England he saw around him.

Nevertheless, he was yet to write his greatest work. Paradise Lost was published in 1667, followed by Paradise Regained in 1671. Milton's ability to combine his poetry with his polemics in these and other works was the key to his genius.

The classical influences in his work can be clearly delineated: Homer, Ovid, and especially Virgil. Shakespeare was the leading playwright of his day, and there are some references to his works in Milton's own poetry. The style and structure of the Spencer's The Faerie Queen was another influence on Paradise Lost . It was one of only a few books that were owned by the Miltons during John's upbringing.

Milton died from gout in 1674 and was buried in the Church of St. Giles in London.

Study Guides on Works by John Milton

Areopagitica and other prose works john milton.

John Milton was an English poet and political thinker. Best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost , a retelling of the story of creation and Adam and Eve’s expulsion from paradise, he was also a political revolutionary. His life spanned an...

• Study Guide

Comus John Milton

A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle is a masque written by English poet John Milton and performed in 1634. Now known simply as Comus after the play's antagonist, the masque was originally performed on Michaelmas—a feast celebrating the archangel...

Il Penseroso John Milton

In 1645, John Milton published “Il Penseroso” in a collection of poetry alongside another poem entitled “L’Allegro.” The poems take opposite sides in a debate about whether it is better to live a carefree life or a contemplative life. The speaker...

L'Allegro John Milton

In 1645 Milton published “L’Allegro” in a collection of poetry alongside another poem entitled “Il Penseroso.” The poems take opposite sides in a debate about whether it is better to live a carefree life or a contemplative life. The speaker in “L’...

Lycidas John Milton

Milton wrote “Lycidas” a few months after his friend, Edward King, died in a shipwreck in 1637. The poem is a pastoral elegy—a form of poetry used to memorialize the dead—and has become one of the most famous reflections on loss in the English...

On the Morning of Christ's Nativity John Milton

John Milton’s “On The Morning of Christ's Nativity,” also known as the "Nativity Ode," is a poem about the birth of Christ, and also a poem about the birth of a poet. When Milton wrote the poem in 1629, he was 21 and had not yet published a...

Paradise Lost John Milton

John Milton was born on December 9, 1608. Milton's father was a scrivener and, perhaps more importantly, a devout Puritan, who had been disinherited by his Roman Catholic family when he turned Protestant. In April 1625, just after the accession of...

• Lesson Plan

Samson Agonistes John Milton

Samson Agonistes is a closet drama published in 1671 by English poet and political activist John Milton. It appeared alongside Milton's Paradise Regained, a poem that follows his most famous work, the epic Paradise Lost . Milton declared Samson...

The Sonnets of John Milton John Milton

John Milton was an English writer born on December 9, 1608. As a child and young adult, Milton was an avid reader and traveled often, which played a great role in shaping his beliefs and political ideologies. He is known for capitalizing on the...

John Milton visiting Galileo Galilei

Solomon alexander hart, private collection.

John Milton

John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth (republic) of England under Oliver Cromwell. He wrote at a time of religious flux and political upheaval, and is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost. Milton's poetry and prose reflect deep personal convictions, a passion for freedom and self determination, and the urgent issues and political turbulence of his day. Writing in English, Latin, and Italian, he achieved international renown within his lifetime, and his celebrated Areopagitica, (written in condemnation of pre-publication censorship) is among history’s most influential and impassioned defenses of free speech and freedom of the press.

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