Paradise Lost by John Milton

After reading Dante's epic trilogy, The Divine Comedy, I was intrigued to read what is perhaps the English equivalent of the Christian epic poem, Paradise Lost. The poem itself is arranged into twelve books and chronicles the creation and eventual expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden. Milton's retelling of the book of Genesis is so captivating in its heroic narrative that the reader may liken it to the very Scriptures themselves.
Milton's archaic language is similar to that of Shakespeare, yet in Paradise Lost there are a myriad religious references which the modern reader may have to look up in the footnotes. Similarly to Dante, Milton is keen to illustrate how Christian justice is meted out. However, Milton's impersonal narrative does not question religious doctrine in the same way that Dante as narrator of The Divine Comedy was oft to do, instead Milton uses Adam as an interlocutor to the Archangel to question whether man has ultimate responsibility over his actions. The crux of the poem revolves around the concept of 'felix culpa' or 'happy fault', meaning that Eve and Adam's tasting of the forbidden fruit may have led to man's exile from Eden but as a result man is given the chance to redeem himself and thus find a place in Heaven.
Each book of Paradise Lost begins with an argument, this is essentially a synopsis of the book and here Milton writes straightforward prose summaries that are then elaborated through the proceeding verse. The startling imagery at the beginning of the poem describes the battle between Heaven and Hell and the reader can enjoy a dramatic chain of events in which 'war open or understood must be resolved' (Book I i 661).
Although the story of the fall of man has been told ad infinitum, Milton's retelling of this Biblical tale is easily the most captivating and acutely allegorical of man's follies. This text serves as a standard for which all epic poems should be judged, and this is no exaggeration as Milton's flawlessly consistent tone is unmatched in its poetic beauty and narrative strength.