The State of Innocence The State of Innocence The State of Innocence was intended to be performed as an opera, with the libretto written in 1674, (first published in 1677) by John Dryden. It is basically a musical stage adaptation of John Milton's epic poem "Paradise Lost", a tribute to Milton rather than a satire of the poem. That Dryden was an admirer of Milton's is surprising as the two men were politically opposed. Milton was against the restoration of the British monarchy, while the royalist Dryden was created England’s first Poet Laureate by the restored Charles II. So great an admirer of Milton
The Ray of the Microcosm humankind on Earth. The third part comprises the remaining four cantos which describe Satan’s mutiny against God and fall of Adam and his legion from Heaven. The Ray of the Microcosm “The Ray of the Microcosm” () is a romantic, cosmic-religious poem, written in 1845 by Prince-Bishop and poet Petar II Petrović-Njegoš. It is written in the decasyllabic meter of Serbian epic poetry. Njegoš’s religious poetic thought achieved its highest artistic shape in this work. The poem contains three main thematic parts. The first is the Dedication which introduces some of the most important philosophical and religious premises of the