The Complete Poetry of John Milton

From a very young age, John Milton declared to friends and family that his ambition was to become the greatest English poet who ever lived (Christian modesty not being particularly high among his qualities), and a great many people are of the opinion that he succeeded; with this collection, modern readers have the chance to determine for themselves whether or not he managed it. Certainly, from my perspective, he reached the upper echelons, an area occupied also by the likes of Shakespeare (to whom Milton writes a poem), Tennyson, and Browning. The book first covers Milton's large body of individual poems (running from a couple of lines to a couple of pages each), many of which were originally written in Latin, in which case both the untranslated and translated versions are included. There is a wide range of subjects covered, including many on religious matters, to dedications to friends or icons (such as the aforementioned Shakespeare), to sonnets. The poems are collected in three groups, chronologically: the years of his formal education, the years of his private life, and the years of his public career. The real prizes, however, come after this: Milton's three major long works: "Paradise Lost", "Paradise Regained", and "Samson Agonistes". The first of these, obviously, is his magnum opus, often considered the greatest single poetic work ever written (which was Milton's ambition when writing it), detailing the story of the Fall of Man and Satan's rebellion against God. Done in the style of an epic (since, to be the greatest poet, one must write an epic, in the thinking of Milton's era), it is a classic. "Paradise Regained" is a (much shorter) follow-up that documents Christ's temptation by Satan; for all that "Paradise Lost" is a superior Milton, "Regained" is much more successful in communicating Milton's theology (no one reading it would theorize Milton is unknowingly sympathetic to the Devil). Finally, "Samson Agonistes", another Scripture-based work, is modelled not on the epic, but on the structure of a Greek tragedy, including a Chorus and the major action taking place off-screen, given to the audience via description. "Samson" dramatizes the final day of Samson's life, before his great feat of pulling down the Philistine temple, and sees Milton further examine themes relating to destiny and the proper way to carry out God's will. Unlike many collections, the language of this collection has not been modernized, so all the original spelling is in tact. The footnoting is comprehensive, although occasionally the practice of merely citing the Scriptural passages Milton refers to without further illumination becomes wearisome. If you are looking for a good collection of Milton's poetry, look no further than this book.

This is a superbly affordable one volume scholarly edition of John Milton's poetical works. As some of the reviewers have already pointed out, its great virtue lies in the preservation of the original spelling as Milton wrote. That aside, it also contains Milton's minor poems in Latin, Italian and Greek in the original with English translations. The endnotes contain detailed technical matters such as dating, editions and other textual miscellany. The footnotes serve as reference to the poetry itself, clarifying uncommon words, classical allusions, etc. Lastly, I must qualify that this book is not meant for the beginner trying to appreciate Milton's poetic genius. It doesn't pretend to be. Many other fine editions exist for that purpose, but for the one volume scholarly edition of Milton's complete poetical works, Professor Shawcross's work is of the highest calibre.

This edition is the best simply because it's the only one I've found that actually prints the texts as written, without modernizing the language or spelling. You get to read Milton as Milton wrote, not as he has been edited and modernized. (Just as an example, you get to read "mortal tast" in line 2 of Paradise Lost, instead of "mortal taste") If only they would come out with a Complete Shakespeare in the original text, without the modernization.

Milton is justly acclaimed as one of the greatest of all poets in the English language. His work has inspired many great artists in poetry, literature, religious exegesis, painting, sculpture, music, and drama. There is a reason William Blake, himself a great poet, called him the Divine Milton. This great volume brings together all of Milton's poetry at a very affordable price. It is a volume you will want to have on your shelf and spend many hours reading and re-reading. You will find his language easy to read, but to pull the meaning out of the words will require close attention. There are many great works in this volume, but half of the volume consists of three major works: "Paradise Lost" (a favorite for so many for the past three centuries), "Paradise Regained", and "Samson Agonistes". People were most passionate about these poems when religion was more a part of daily life and was present in all aspects of our culture. Even today, critics as sophisticated as Harold Bloom find the Satan of "Paradise Lost" one of the great literary achievements of all time. Reading these fabulous stories as poems energizes the appetite for more epic poetry. That is a great additional reward after receiving the gift of Milton's powerful images and beautiful language.

I recently sat in on a faculty seminar, where we're talking Paradise Lost and what to do with it in a humanities class, and was a bit surprised to find professors from all over the humanities department--a medieval prof, one who specializes in gender studies and 20th century lit, a classicist--who all still liked and read Milton, when I always thought I was a freak for really digging him. And they didn't just read him cause he's part of the canon, no, they truly enjoyed reading his poetry.Anyway, there were lots of different editions laying around on the table, and I brought my brand new Riverside Milton, edited by Roy Flannagan, which, for all intents and purposes, is a wonderful book, but very expensive, and very, well, heavy. And I miss my old Shawcross, that I must have loaned to someone--with five years' worth of notes in there. I don't think you can beat good old Shawcroww--all of Milton's English poetry, in a good edition, with good apparatus, for under 15 bucks. Any reader, teacher, student of Milton: I highly recommend this edition, and guarantee you you will probably never need another.