Three-hundred and fifty-six years ago, Paradise Lost was published. The poem was John Milton's masterpiece, an epic-staging of the temptation of Adam and Eve by Satan. It is a difficult poem of more than 11,500 lines, with layers of classical and biblical allusions, and sentences in labyrinthine syntax. It is still being read, studied, and analyzed by scholars, but less so by those who pursue a degree in English. Decades ago, many colleges and universities, demoted Milton from a required course to an elective one for English majors. Perhaps Milton would have been pleased that those pursuing degrees in literature no longer have to study him; after all, he did prefer that a "fit audience..., though few," read his work. All the same, it's too bad, because students who aren't exposed to Paradise Lost don't know what they are missing. Of course, everyone who reads it for the first time struggles intensely to understand what is on the page. Even Dr. Johnson expressed similar reservations about Milton's poem: "We read Milton for instruction, retire harassed and overburdened, and look elsewhere for recreation." But Johnson also recognized something else about the poem:
"The characteristic quality of his poem is sublimity. He sometimes descends to the elegant, but his element is the great. He can occasionally invest himself with grace; but his natural port is gigantic loftiness. He can please when pleasure is required; but it is his peculiar power to astonish."
Though Paradise Lost is one of the most difficult poems to read, it is also one of the greatest poetic achievements in the English language. To read it is to enter an imaginative world that abounds with spectacular sights and sounds. The best way to begin this journey is to read aloud the first book of the poem. Listen to the sounds of Milton's words and the flow of his language. Move slowly. In our era of texting and twitter, that suggestion may be hard to follow. And even though technology, and those who create it, want to abridge our attention spans and subjugate our imaginations, we all still possess the power to resist, to swim against the current of Silicon Valley, and soar like Satan to higher realms.
Read On!