John Milton was an English poet, who wrote throughout the 1600s during a time of religious change and political disruption. Due to these issues, much of his poetry and prose reflects deep personal convictions, a passion for freedom and self-determination, and the urgent issues and political turbulence of his day. His epic poem, Paradise Lost, especially touches on this determination and yearning for freedom, in both form and content. While the story itself revolves around Satan and his rebellion against servitude beneath God, on another level, Milton risks rebellion as well with this new take on interpreting the Bible through poetry, especially during a time of religious flux. The meter which Milton chooses to use also breaks all traditional conventions and restraints of poetry. He writes in “blank verse,” employing enjambment, inserting pauses in the middle of lines, omitting words deemed unnecessary, using one part of speech for another (i.e. adjectives as verbs, verbs as nouns, etc.), applying the inversion of stresses and natural word order, inserting unusual vocabulary from Greek or Latin, the list goes on and on. In breaking all norms of traditional writing, he essentially creates his own style of poetry, now known as “Miltonic verse.” So, while Milton creates his own writing style and suggests freedom from religious standards during an age where there was much doubt revolving around religion (the so-called Age of Reason), he also may be commenting on the Restoration in England, a return to monarchy. This is suggested in the way he presents God and his angels and Satan and his fallen comrades, the former being the power of the monarchy and the latter being the uprising of a disgruntled lower class. Thus, Milton makes very bold moves by encompassing in Paradise Lost several delicate subjects, breaching tradition, religion, and politics.
I really admire Milton for his independent spirit, confidence in commenting on subjects of conflict, and ability to use words in such a passionate way. His descriptions in Paradise Lost evoke a range of emotions and capture imagery so vividly that I actually feel empowered upon each reading. His words incite feelings of sympathy, vengeance, rage, and perseverance, to an extent where Milton is able to humanize Satan to a point where the reader actually feels compelled to side with Satan, the iconic “bad guy.” In my sculpture, I hope to communicate the power of Milton’s words in his epic poem, as well as the sense of rebellion and freedom which is embraced on two levels, one through Milton himself and his commentary on the world, and the other through the portrayal his characters in Paradise Lost.