BRAVE HEARTS-John Milton

John Milton (9 December, 1608 – 8November,1674) was an English poet, prose, polemicist and civil servant for the Commonwealth of England. He is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost. Milton was writing at a time of religious and political flux in England. His poetry and prose reflect deep convictions.After Milton was born, on 9 December 1608, his father's prosperity provided his eldest son with a private tutor, Thomas Young, and then a place at St Paul's School in London. There he began the study of Latin and Greek, and the classical languages left an imprint on his poetry in English (he wrote also in Italian and Latin). His first datable compositions are two psalms done at age 15 at Long Bennington.At Cambridge he developed a reputation for poetic skill and general erudition, but experienced alienation from his peers and university life as a whole. He read both ancient and modern works of theology, philosophy, history, politics, literature and science, in preparation for a prospective poetical career Milton had command of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, Spanish, and Italian from his school and undergraduate days; he also added Old English to his linguistic repertoire. The probable onset of glaucoma finally resulted in total blindness by 1654, forcing him to dictate his verse and prose to amanuenses, one of whom was the poet Andrew Marvell. He was impoverished and yet unrepentant for his political choices. he died in 1674