John Milton

John Milton was born to John Sr. and Sara Milton on December 9th, 1608 in Cheapside, England. His father’s job was a scrivener; this basically meant that he was a glorified secretary. John Milton Sr. also composed church music, this led to John Milton Jr. enjoying music for the rest of his life.
His family was pretty well off so they were able to afford him tutors to teach him at home. At the age of twelve he entered St. Paul’s School. Just 5 years later he was he was admitted into Christ’s College in Cambridge. However one year later he was suspended from school for getting in an aggressive argument with his tutor. After the suspension John left Cambridge for London. While he was in London he acquired an interest for poetry. Time passed and he returned to Christ’s College, this time he was given a new tutor. He was not happy at Christ’s College, he felt as if none of the fellow students liked him and he was also dissatisfied with the curriculum. John graduated with honors from Christ’s College in 1632. After his graduation he left Cambridge and went to London, this was so he could do some private study and literature composition. During this time he wrote many literary works one of his more famous works that came out during this time period was the poem “On Shakespeare”. In 1637 his mother died and then months later his good friend died, Edward King. Shortly after the deaths of his two loved one he composed a remarkable elegy, titled, “Lycidas”.
Milton set out for a tour around Europe. This tour was to include many famous sites in Europe. Some of the sites Mr. Milton visited included Paris, Florence, Rome, Naples, and Geneva. In Milton found out that he had lost another good friend. His childhood friend, Charles Diodati, was the victim of death. John had to end his tour of Europe because there were many rumors that civil war was brewing in England. Shortly after he ended his tour he wrote a poem “Epitaphium Damonis”. This was a Latin poem he wrote in memory of his good friend.
In 1642 John married Mary Powell. She was 17 years old while he was 34. This relationship did not work out too well, the two were often very unhappy. Mary ended up leaving to visit the family home and did not return. Milton wanted to divorce on the grounds of incompatibility. Through all of this Milton planned to remarry Mary on her return. When she returned they seemed to have fixed the problems in their relationship. In 1646 their first child, Anna was born. In 1651 his first son was born. The year 1652 was a horrible year for Milton. He lost his sight and this event prompted him to write the sonnet “When I Consider How My Light is Spent”. Mary gave birth to their 4 child Deborah but Mary died just a few days later and his son John died a month later.
In 1663 John spent his time tutoring students. He also worked on his life’s work the epic Paradise Lost. It is considered as one of the greatest pieces of English literature. The crazy thing is that he did all of this while he was blind he basically wrote it in his head and told his aides what to write down. In 1667 the epic was published in ten books. The book met instant success. In 1674 Milton met his end. He was buried at a church in St. Giles.