Meeting on Friday, Milton by Lorna Challand

Lorna is a retired teacher of English and has taught “Paradise Lost” by John Milton many times for A Level English. She kindly provided the following introduction:

"Milton  lived from 1608 to 1674, a turbulent time in English history, and was both a poet and  revolutionary. He was a Parliamentarian and a Puritan who supported Cromwell. He wrote a pamphlet “The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates”, after the execution of Charles I, which argued that a king was as much subject to the law of the land as any of his subjects. He became a member of Cromwell's government during The Commonwealth and continued his work even after losing his sight.

Although disillusioned after the Reformation he began writing “Paradise Lost”, his greatest work, an epic poem about the fall of man which was published in 1667."

Thanks to Cindi Cogswell for the following, which appeared in the Rye Observer's Winchelsea "Village Voice" column:

"Milton’s epic:  The Literary Society met last Friday evening to
hear Lorna Challand’s talk on Paradise Lost, the epic poem which dramatised the fall of man and the removal of Satan from Heaven. Lorna introduced Milton’s work as, in the genre of an epic poem having many of the components such as the influence of the gods, fate of mortals and visits to theunderworld and likened it to Homer’s Iliad and Virgil’s Aeneid.  Milton was also a person
of his time and his epic style was unique in its combination of the poetic, political and biblical contexts.  He wrote in the 17th century at a time of social and political turmoil during the English Civil War.  In 1649 King Charles I, who believed in the: ‘divine right of kings’ was executed for treason by Parliament.  Milton’s political writings favoured Puritan reformation in the church and the replacement of the monarchy with a free commonwealth. His support for Cromwell led to his appointment in 1649 as Secretary for Foreign Languages and in that time he wrote with great passion and dispute.   Although Paradise Lost can be read as a political allegory the basis of this writing overshadows the fleeting events of the time.   The substance of this poem begins with man’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden through Satan’s deception, who with his rebel angels was cast by God into Hell.  It is a remarkable and familiar account in highly descriptivelanguage but the poem can be challenging.  Before her retirement Lornadescribed a situation when she was teaching Paradise Lost to her A Level students.  It became clear that their difficulty with the poem was due to agreat lack of knowledge of the Bible.  Despite having been taught otherreligions in the past, most of which they had forgotten, they had notreceived a sufficient grounding in their Christian heritage.  In response tothis Lorna gave them a detailed explanation of the events of Creation in thebook of Genesis which clarified the matter and proved beneficial in their exams."