Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained (Collins Classics) (2011. Auflage)

Thou Spirit who ledd'st this glorious Eremite
Into the Desert...
inspire,
As thou art wont, my prompted Song else mute...
to tell of deeds
Above Heroic, though in secret done...

The Tempter who once deceived humankind in the Garden of Eden is back, generations later, to tempt the Son of God in the wilderness in Paradise Regained by John Milton.

I read the preceding epic poem, Paradise Lost, some years ago and finally read its coda here for the first time. That is, I initially didn't know it was more of a coda and was thus surprised to find it so much shorter than the first poem, which is, of course, the length of a novel.

I now have a better idea of why Paradise Lost so often stands alone. It involves more characters and does tell more of an epic story, sweeping between heaven and earth with terrestrial business and celestial war.

Still, the poetess in me was again absorbed in Milton's way with verse.

"Yet he who reigns within himself, and rules
Passions, Desires, and Fears, is more a King;
Which every wise and virtuous man attains:
And who attains not, ill aspires to rule
Cities of men...
Subject himself to Anarchy within..."

Though I'll admit I got more of a thrill watching the Son as the dominant warrior in the first poem, it was also great listening to him outwit his artful adversary here. Then, after his deeds Above Heroic done before none but an audience of praising angels, what else does the Son do but have a meal, leave the site of triumph, and privately head back to his mother's house?

Hm. What else indeed.

"...and now thou hast aveng'd
Supplanted Adam, and by vanquishing
Temptation, hast regain'd lost Paradise...
on thy glorious work
Now enter, and begin to save mankind." ( )

struggle to try to read this. It is a hard style. It might be better to listen to, or read slowly out loud (which doesn't work while eating). ( )

Milton's poems describe, respectively, The Fall of Man and The Temptation of Christ. I first read them when I was a very young man and got little out of them. Re-reading and hearing them in my late middle age, I loved and revered them. I admired Milton's art both as a poet and a dramatist. His version of the The Fall is a tragedy as much as an epic, with scenes of high drama and psychological insight as well as of poetry and theology. I saw the personal as well as the spiritual damage that the heroes, Adam and Eve, sustained, and was glad that they and their kindred were given their hope of redemption. I did find Milton's Satan an excellent villain, nothing more, despite claims by those who apparently only read the first half of the story.

I was surprised that I was more than half convinced by Milton's justification of the works of God. I accepted, during the reading, at least, the Father's reasons for not doing more to protect his special creation. In the sequel, I agree with the Son's refusal to be impressed by what the Tempter had made of the world and his promise to reclaim it and rebuild it.

As for the narrator, Griffin has made a specialty of the classical and the epic, and his reading of this English epic is as good as anything he has done. ( )

Truly inspiring. If you told me 10 years ago that I would love teaching these poems, I'd have laughed in your face. But Milton has a beautiful way of taking a few, sparse Bible verses and turning them into a human narrative that you can understand and relate to. Book Three of Paradise Lost is, in my opinion, nothing short of inspired genius. ( )

Paradise Lost is an epic poem in the same tradition of Homer, Virgil, Dante and Shakespeare. Milton, like many of his time, wrote about (or against) religion, thus incurring the wrath of the church. It doesn't matter, though, for Milton's account of the fall of man is far better than Gensis. Although it may be hard to read, it should be read-- especially because it sparked Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. I read Paradise Lost alongside His Dark Materials in order to get a clear picture of the main story and the deviations each author took. ( )