Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. Get all the details, meaning, context, and even a pretentious factor for good measure. read more
About Paradise Lost . A poem which, considered with respect to design, may claim the first place, and with respect to performance the second, among the productions of the human mind. Samuel Johnson,"The Life of Milton" in Lives of the English Poets (1781) The characteristic quality of [Milton's] poem is sublimity. read more