John Milton

John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, and civil servant, best known for his 1667 epic poem Paradise Lost, a twelve book work in blank verse addressing the fall of man, which elevated his reputation as one of history's greatest poets. His 1644 tract Areopagitica, condemning pre-publication censorship, is among history's most influential defences of freedom of speech and the press, and his coinages from Latin and Greek expanded the English language. He served as a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under its Council of State and later under Oliver Cromwell, having studied at Christ's College, Cambridge before the English Civil War. Though he lost his sight and much of his public platform after the Restoration of 1660, he used the period to complete many of his major works and is widely regarded as one of the greatest poets in English literature.