Books Eleven and Twelve of Paradise Lost and their radical departure from the poem's previous style are discussed. The transformation of Milton's famously sonorous verse into a more didactic mode is closely documented, and the poem's increasing emphasis on visual instruction is underscored in a study of the Archangel Michael's lesson on the history of the post-fallen world. Considerable time is devoted to both a consideration of Milton's late politics and Book Eleven's depiction of the destruction of paradise.

1. Introduction: Milton, Power, and the Power of Milton
2. The Infant Cry of God
3. Credible Employment
4. Poetry and Virginity
5. Poetry and Marriage
6. Lycidas
7. Lycidas (cont.)
8. Areopagitica
9. Paradise Lost, Book I
10. God and Mammon: The Wealth of Literary Memory
11. The Miltonic Smile
12. The Blind Prophet
13. Paradise Lost, Book III
14. Paradise Lost, Book IV
15. Paradise Lost, Books V-VI
16. Paradise Lost, Books VII-VIII
17. Paradise Lost, Book IX
18. Paradise Lost, Books IX-X
19. Paradise Lost, Books XI-XII
20. Paradise Lost, Books XI-XII (cont.)
21. Paradise Regained, Books I-II
22. Paradise Regained, Books III-IV
23. Samson Agonistes
24. Samson Agonistes (cont.)

A study of Milton's poetry, with some attention to his literary sources, his contemporaries, his controversial prose, and his decisive influence on the course of English poetry.