Paradise Lost | |
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by John Milton | |
![]() Title page of the first edition (1667) | |
Country | England |
Language | English |
Genre(s) | |
Form | Epic in blank verse |
Meter | Iambic pentameter |
Publisher | Samuel Simmons (1667 edition) |
Publication date | 1667 |
Followed by | Paradise Regained |
Full text | |
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Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674, arranged into twelve books (in the manner of Virgil's Aeneid) with minor revisions throughout.[1][2] It is considered to be Milton's masterpiece, and it helped solidify his reputation as one of the greatest English poets of all time.[3] The poem concerns the biblical story of the fall of man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden.