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Happy 400th Birthday, John Milton!

Today marks the 400th birthday of the English poet and rhetorician John Milton. Milton, of course, is not still alive-he died blind (from Glaucoma) and penniless (consequent of his involvement in the English Revolution) in 1674. So while he may have obsessed over the notion of immortality in poems like..

Patrick James
By Patrick JamesDec 11, 2008
Patrick James
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Today marks the 400th birthday of the English poet and rhetorician John Milton.Milton, of course, is not still alive-he died blind (from Glaucoma) and penniless (consequent of his involvement in the English Revolution) in 1674. So while he may have obsessed over the notion of immortality in poems like Lycidas (and On Shakespeare), he never achieved it in the literal sense.However, as the author of those and many other towering works-among them Paradise Lost (and Regained), Samson Agonistes, and my personal favorite, the anti-censorship behemoth Aeropagitica-he left behind a literary legacy that will remain relevant as long as people read in English.Newsweek has a nice appraisal of his work (especially as it relates to immortality and influence) here. He also boasts a seriously comprehensive Wikipedia page.

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