John Milton wrote at a time of religious flux and political upheaval, and is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost (1667). Written in blank verse, Paradise Lost is widely considered to be one of the greatest works of literature ever written.He achieved international renown within his lifetime; his celebrated Areopagitica (1644), written in condemnation of pre-publication censorship, is among history's most influential and impassioned defences of freedom of speech and freedom of the press.Milton was a "passionately individual Christian Humanist poet." He appears on the pages of seventeenth century English Puritanism, an age characterized as "the world turned upside down." He was a Puritan and yet was unwilling to surrender conscience to party positions on public policy. Poets such as William Blake, William Wordsworth and Thomas Hardy revered him.Contents:The Poetry CollectionsPOEMS, 1645PARADISE LOSTPARADISE REGAINEDSAMSON AGONISTESPOEMS, 1673VERSES FROM MILTON'S COMMONPLACE BOOKThe Prose WorksAREOPAGITICATHE DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE OF DIVORCEON EDUCATIONCOLASTERIONTHE TENURE OF KINGS AND MAGISTRATESA TREATISE OF CIVIL POWERDE DOCTRINA CHRISTIANA

John Milton (9 December 1608 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual who served as a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under its Council of State and later under Oliver Cromwell.