The author is a professor of English at Harvard. This work for the literary layman presents both the life and the works of Milton, showing a man devoted to trying to resolve the pressing problems of his day.

Milton began

Careful but very summary reviews of the minor writings. Includes a review of the elegy on Diodati, Milton's intimate "friend" who died while JM was in Italy. It notes the "concluding vision of Diodati's virgin soul recieved into heaven" in a blend of Christian and pagan images. Does not deal with the homosexual issue.

Samson Agoniste - provides scans of selected verses, choric odes and short lines, to emphasize movement of thought and feeling. "The epic simplicity of form, the predominance of the protagonist, and the author's passionate concern with righteousness may be called Aeschylean. The repeated testing of the protagonist's will and integrity, the pervasive irony, and the function of the chorus recall Sophocles. The strain of intellectualism and the self-defensive prominence given to a "bad" woman suggest Euripedes."[196] Milton' topical theme - that nations grown corrupt fall readily into bondage. The author notes that one does not need any religious beliefs to be greatly moved by Milton's picture of pride, guilt, suffering, despair, and recovery. [200] The figure of blind Samson is autobiographical--the blind Milton alludes to the Restoration government's treatment of the regicides.