John Milton lost his sight, his political cause, his first wife, and nearly his life—yet from these losses emerged "Paradise Lost," the greatest religious epic in the English language. His faith was tested by blindness and defeat but emerged triumphant in verse that still moves readers centuries later.
Early Calling to God's Service
Born in 1608 to a prosperous London family, Milton showed early dedication to both poetry and Protestant Christianity. His father, a scrivener who had been disinherited for converting from Catholicism, ensured his son received the finest education. Milton determined to prepare himself for great work in God's service—he would become the poet-prophet of English Protestantism.
His early poetry combined classical learning with Christian devotion. "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity," written at twenty-one, announced his ambition. But Milton's path would lead through political engagement, not pastoral retreat.
Faith Through Blindness and Political Defeat
When civil war erupted, Milton threw himself into the Parliamentary cause, writing powerful defenses of religious liberty and republican government. He served as Latin Secretary to Cromwell's Council of State. His eyesight, already weakened, failed entirely by 1652. He dictated his state papers and continued serving, accepting blindness as the price of his calling.
The Restoration of 1660 brought catastrophe. Milton's books were burned by the public hangman. He was imprisoned, briefly. Friends who had signed Charles I's death warrant were executed. Everything he had worked for seemed destroyed.
God Using Suffering for Purpose
It was in this darkness—physical and political—that Milton's greatest work emerged. Blind, defeated, aging, he began dictating "Paradise Lost" to his daughters and amanuenses. The epic retold humanity's fall and glimpsed its redemption, transforming personal suffering into cosmic vision.
Milton's faith sustained him. In "Paradise Lost," he dared to "justify the ways of God to men." His Satan is magnificent in rebellion but ultimately self-defeating. His Adam and Eve are recognizably human, their fall both tragic and redeemable. The poem concludes not with paradise lost but with providence guiding fallen humanity toward "a paradise within thee, happier far."
Legacy of Faith Through Loss
"Paradise Regained" and "Samson Agonistes" followed—the latter especially personal, as the blind hero destroys his enemies at the cost of his own life. Milton died in 1674, having transformed defeat into victory through faith and verse.
His epitaph on Shakespeare could serve as his own: "Thou in our wonder and astonishment / Hast built thyself a live-long monument." Through blindness, Milton saw more clearly than most who have eyes.