Paradise Lost temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Milton's purpose, stated in Book I, is to "justify the ways of God to men". In his introduction to the Penguin edition of "Paradise Lost", the Milton scholar John Leonard notes, "John Milton was nearly sixty when he published Paradise Lost in 1667. The biographer John Aubrey (1626–97) tells us that the poem was begun in about 1658 and finished in about 1663. However, parts were almost certainly written earlier, and its roots lie in Milton's earliest youth." Leonard speculates that the
The Fall of Saul sing, as fits my lofty theme, How the first monarch of the chosen race (Crushed by a load of soul-corroding crime, And tortured by the storm of hate unslaked And impotent remorse,) at length was hurled By Heaven's high justice, down to death and shame. —Book I, lines 1-10 </poem> The Fall of Saul The Fall of Saul is an epic poem by John Gunning Seymer. It was first published in London in 1839 by Stewart and Murray. The story is based on the Bible. The main hero is the king of Israel, Saul. The poem is written in blank