Reading 1

Milton is calling upon the Muse to help him write of humankind’s beginning, such as man’s first sin in the Garden of Eden. Milton seeks to surpass the epic poems of all before him, and he calls on the Muse to help him, like the Muse helped the shepherd teach “…the chosen Seed/ In the Beginning how the Heav’ns and Earth/ Rose out of Chaos” (book 1, line 8-9). The Muse is able to tell him the story of what the beginning was like, as the Muse was there to witness it, and Milton is only calling upon the Muse to help him write the book so as he may show the ways of God to humankind. Milton introduces Satan by blaming him for Adam and Eve’s temptation to disobey the Creator in the Garden of Eve. Therefore starts an account of how Satan is cast out of heaven and attempts to go to war with God. Though he has lost, he only begins to feel the pain of having lost the goodness of heaven and the forever lasting pain that is to stay with him in the place he must dwell, which is so unlike heaven.