William Poole recounts Milton's life as England’s self-elected national poet and explains how the greatest poem of the English language came to be written. How did a blind man compose this staggeringly complex, intensely visual work? Poole explores how Milton’s life and preoccupations inform the poem itself—its structure, content, and meaning.

Noam Reisner leads readers through the complexities of Milton's celebrated and challenging narrative poem as well as introducing them to the key critical views. The guide combines an introduction to the poem's main thematic and stylistic concerns together with discussion of important selected passages (substantial extracts from the text are included) and provides readers with a basic set of critical tools with which to interpret the text.