John Milton (1608-74) poet and polemicist, is best remembered for its monumental work Paradise Lost (1667 and 1674) which marks the apogee of the poet` s religious and political convictions. However, Milton` s earlier poems had already marked him for greatness, and include On the Morning of Christ` s Nativity, L` Allegro, Il penseroso, Lycidas and the two masques Arcades and Comus.
The second period of Milton` s life was absorbed in his support for political liberty espoused by the Parliamentarian Party during the Civil War, and saw the composition of poetry largely overtaken by a series of brilliant and fierce pamphlets which include the famous defence of literature in Areopagitica (1644).
Milton` s final period was one of great unhappiness during which his young wife abandoned him and his eyesight failed. He died from gout and is buried in St Giles, Cripplegate in london.