iend who might assist him. The manuscript
accordingly shows a variety of handwriting. The work was published in
1667, after some trouble with a narrow-minded censor who had doubts
about granting a license.

The subject matter can be best given in Milton's own lines at the
beginning of the poem:--

"Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,
Sing, Heavenly Muse..."

The poem treats of Satan's revolt in heaven, of his conflict with the
Almighty, and banishment with all the rebellious angels. Their new
home in the land of fire and endless pain is described with such a
gigantic grasp of the imagination, that the conception has colored all
succeeding theology.

The action proceeds with a council of the fallen angels to devise
means for alleviating their condition and annoying the Almighty. They
decide to strike him through his child, and they plot the fall of man.
In short, _Paradise Lost_ is an intensely dramatic story of the loss
of Eden. The greatest actors that ever sprang from a poet's brain
appear before us on the stage, which is at one time the sulphurous pit
of hell, at another the bright plains of heaven, and at another the
Elysium of our first parents.

In form the poem is an epic in twelve books, containing a total of
10,565 lines. It is written in blank verse of wonderful melody and
variety.

Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes.--After finishing _Paradise
Lost_, Milton wrote two more poems, which he published in 1671.
_Paradise Regained_ is in great part a paraphrase of the first eleven
verses of the fourth chapters of _St. Matthew_. The poem is in four
books of blank verse and contains 2070 lines. Although it is written
with great art and finish, _Paradise Regained_ shows a falling off in
Milton's genius. There is less ornament and less to arouse human
interest.

_Samson Agonistes_ (Samson the Struggler) is a tragedy containing 1758
lines, based on the sixteenth chapter of _Judges_. This poem, modeled
after the Greek drama, is hampered by a strict observance of the
dramatic unities. It is vastly inferior to the _Paradise Lost. Samson
Agonistes_ contains scarcely any of the glorious imagery of Milton's
earlier poems. It has been called "the most unadorned poem that can be
found."

CHARACTERISTICS OF MILTON'S POETRY