It was interesting to read a book that has been so influential to the western canon and has inspired so many of the writers and poets that I have loved.  The writing was overall beautiful, I especially loved the creation scene, but as an atheist, I did struggle to connect to this book in a meaningful way.

 So here’s a poem of ten thousand lines of unrhymed blank verse, retelling the oldest story in Western literature.  We're thrown right into the middle of things: Satan and the rebel Spirits awakening after a nine day-long fall from Heaven’s grace, through the confusion of Chaos and Night, all the way to this new fiery realm called Hell.  The non-rhyming verses, the complex language and the in media res start make for a bewildering and challenging beginning.  But if one can endure a demanding first dozen or so pages, and start to find grounding with either the strange but beautiful language or more familiar elements of the story of Genesis’ Garden of Eden, you find yourself with an absolutely fascinating reading experience. 

 

With sentences that go on for half a page, strung and re-strung by loose scaffolding of phrases and line-broken clauses (even by poetry standards this feels unusually stretched), and without rhyming lines, it’s more important than ever to read this giant epic aloud, not only for comprehensibility but for an appreciation of the writing.  The non-standard accented English, elisions of vowels and the sheer number of pages of poetry flow better and feel less discombobulating when spoken and/or read slowly.  It will get less challenging the further into the twelve books you get and towards the end, what was originally archaic and abstruse becomes unbelievably sublime poetry.  It’s less accessible than Shakespearean verse, and isn’t as punchy, but it’s an undeniably beautiful and unique use of language. 

 

I think a general knowledge of at least the Book of Genesis (1, 2, 3) is mandatory to appreciate Paradise Lost.  It’s a retelling of a creation myth but so clearly belonging to its own time.  Many interesting elements of the enlightened English age find their way here: a modern understanding of cosmology, predestination, heliocentric vs. geocentric models, modern warfare and strifes of succession.  One of the more fascinating inventions in Paradise Lost is the description of the original celestial war which saw Satan and his allies fall from Heaven.  It should not be understated how radical it is that Milton not only introduces Jesus as a fully-fledge character from the beginning, but that he assumes a militant role - more like Henry V than the carpenter’s son so familiar to us.  Nor should we fail to notice that Satan’s original enmity to Heaven comes only when God introduces his Son as sovereign over all angelic powers; the ensuing civil war should bring to mind many contests over the English crown, which are to the author Milton, intimate and lived history.  Beyond this, Paradise Lost is clearly and intentionally competing with the grandeur of Homer and Virgil.  Milton works tirelessly to reconcile Greek and Christian mythology and to reference those characters - seemingly trying to subsume the Aeneid and the Iliad under his own unifying tale.  I can’t imagine any without some heavy classics background will catch a majority of the references of Greek, Mesopotamian and Egyptian origin. 

 

Satan is by far the best part of the epic.  He’s the most interesting character, what depth and doubt he possesses!  His self-loathing and animus to God are surprisingly original compared to what I was expecting (having myself a long but not deep relationship with the Christian text),  His lonely journey from Hell through Chaos to Paradise reminds so heavily of Odysseus’ misadventures at sea, but even more strange and nefarious.  Adam is bland in comparison and Eve…well Eve brings us to the worst part of this epic.  I feel fairly desensitized to poor portrayals of women in literature but the sheer unapologetic misogyny dripping from every line involving Eve is so distracting I almost thought it was initially some sort of satire.  But nope!  There is no mention of Eve here without unironic unrelenting condescension of her inferior, baser nature and wherever she isn’t being actively tempted and blamed for following the temptation that has been preordained, she’s so deferential and self-disparaging to Adam and the angelic spirits, she might as well be worm.  I don’t think even the Bible was this blatantly patriarchal.  It makes an otherwise interestingly written story about the fall of man distracting with Milton’s insistence on Man’s dominance, superiority and purity over Woman. 

 

Beyond Eve, not all the books of this giant epic work for me: the six days of creation are a relatively safe and unoriginal rehashing, and some verses will be filled with nothing but dozens upon dozens of allusions to events, places and people of esoteric early antiquity.  I find the more original sections of the epic, detailing Satan’s pre-adventures before becoming the serpent in the garden to be more compelling and richly written than Adam and Eve’s temptation and fall, but the whole epic is superbly written and will surprise the reader in its deviations from biblical canon.  A challenging but highly rewarding read if one has the time to work their way through this epic poem. 

There’s better Bible fanfic out there tbh