
The Devil's Party: On Milton's Lucifer - pepys
https://theamericanscholar.org/the-devils-party/
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KineticLensman
I'm guessing that Paradise Lost [0] isn't standard reading for HN'ers, but I
have to say that when I read it for an exam when I was 17, I loved it
(compared with the Shakespeare that was also on the syllabus). The article
reminded me why:

Lucifer being cast out of heaven...

    
    
      Him the Almighty Power
      Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky
      With hideous ruin and combustion down
      To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
      In adamantine chains and penal fire...
    

On seeing Eve for the first time:

    
    
      That space the Evil One abstracted stood
      From his own evil, and for the time remained
      Stupidly good of enmity disarmed,
      Of guile, of hate, of envy, of revenge,
      But the hot Hell that always in him burns...
    

Superbly visual writing, for a book published in 1667.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost)

~~~
krutulis
I agree. It is one of my favorite poems. There are also very good audio book
recordings avaialable.

