G-HELP SURATGARH
ON HIS TWENTY THIRD BIRTHDAY BY JOHN MILTON
JOHN MILTON ( A Caroline poet)
Born on 9 December 1608 in Bread Street, London
Privately tutored, then attended St Paul’s School, London
Studied at Christ’s College, Cambridge (BA 1629, MA 1632)
Roundheads
v/s
Cavaliers
INTELLECTUAL FORMATION
Influenced by classical languages (Latin, Greek, Hebrew)
Early poems: “On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity,” “L'Allegro,” “Il Penseroso”
Six years of self-directed study and reading after Cambridge
MILTON AS PAMPHLETEER AND PUBLICIST
Major works: Of Reformation (1641), Areopagitica (1644, defense of free speech)
Advocated for religious toleration and education reform
PERSONAL AND FAMILY LIFE
Three marriages, four children
Here are the names of his three wives:
Mary Powell: Married in 1642; died in 1652.
Katherine Woodcock: Married in 1656; died in 1658 after giving birth to a daughter.
Elizabeth Minshull: Married in 1663 and remained with him until his death.
MILTON AND THE ENGLISH COMMONWEALTH
Secretary for Foreign Tongues for the Council of State (from 1649)
Composed propaganda and official correspondence in Latin
Defended the regicide of Charles I, supported republican values
Blindness and Later Years
Became completely blind by 1652
Dictated major works to assistants (including Andrew Marvell)
Faced persecution after Restoration, briefly imprisoned
Major Works—Poetry
Paradise Lost (1667), blank-verse epic on the Fall of Man
Paradise Regained (1671), Samson Agonistes (1671)
Earlier works: “Lycidas," "Comus,” numerous sonnets and elegies
Literary Style and Innovations
Pioneered unrhymed (blank) verse for poetry
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Known for grandiloquent style, Latinate diction, inventive language
G-HELP SURATGARH
Influenced English poetic tradition and vocabulary
ON HIS TWENTY THIRD BIRTHDAY
Central idea
Poet is doubtful and contemplative on his not achieving success in poetry writing
although physically he has matured but it seems his mental faculties have not developed
enough yet. But these doubts are subsided when he surrenders himself to vigilance of
God. He says he will get only that much which his task master has decided and if he
honestly tries to achieve that much it will still make God happy.
How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,
Stol'n on his wing my three-and-twentieth year!
My hasting days fly on with full career,
But my late spring no bud or blossom shew'th.
Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth
That I to manhood am arriv'd so near;
And inward ripeness doth much less appear,
That some more timely-happy spirits endu'th.
Yet be it less or more, or soon or slow,
It shall be still in strictest measure ev'n
To that same lot, however mean or high,
Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heav'n:
All is, if I have grace to use it so
As ever in my great Task-Master's eye.
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