“Paradise Lost” was finished in 1665, after seven years’ labor
in darkness. With great difficulty Milton found a publisher, and
for the great work, now the most honored poem in our literature,
he received less than certain verse-makers of our day receive
for a little song in one of our popular magazines. Its success
was immediate, tho, like all his work, it met with venomous
criticism.
The work stamped him as one of the world’s great writers, and
from England and the Continent pilgrims came in increasing
numbers to speak their gratitude.--WILLIAM J. LONG,
“English Literature.”
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