Paradise Lost

Milton’s towering epic recounts the fall of humanity: Satan’s rebellion and expulsion from Heaven, his journey to the newly created Earth, and his temptation of Adam and Eve that costs them Paradise. Written in majestic blank verse when the poet was blind, it aims to ‘justify the ways of God to men’ while giving Satan some of the most magnificent and troubling speeches in all of literature. Vast in scope and sublime in language, Paradise Lost is the greatest epic poem in English and a profound meditation on free will, pride, obedience, and loss. Its influence on poetry and thought is immeasurable.