John Milton

John Milton, born on 9 December 1608 in London, England, is an English poet, essayist and historian, considered widely as the most significant English author after William Shakespeare. He died on 8 November 1674. Milton is best known for Paradise Lost, considered as the greatest epic poem in English. Together with Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes, it sets Milton’s reputation in stone as one of the best English poets throughout history. The greatest poets that followed him such as Alexander Pope, Voltaire, William Blake and P.B. Shelley took inspiration from Paradise Lost, borrowing artistic style and imagery for their own major works.