Say First, What Cause?

Abstract

This article examines John Milton's Paradise Lost. It describes the poem as it appears to us today; delineates its great and obvious subjects; recognizes how Milton's idea of his project had grown since he made youthful plans for an epic based on ancient British history, and, a little later, actually sketched a drama based on the first book of Genesis; considers what the experiences of 1640 to 1660 might have contributed to that growth; and also considers also other input that might equally help to account for the difference between his original sketches and the finished product.