Milton

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Milton,

town (1990 pop. 25,725), Norfolk co., E Mass., a residential suburb of Boston, on the Neponset River; settled 1636, set off from Dorchester and inc. 1662. Granite quarries are nearby. Milton is the seat of Curry College and several preparatory schools, including Milton Academy (1798). Harvard's meteorological observatory is on Blue Hill.

Milton

John. 1608--74, English poet. His early works, notably L'Allegro and Il Penseroso (1632), the masque Comus (1634), and the elegy Lycidas (1637), show the influence of his Christian humanist education and his love of Italian Renaissance poetry. A staunch Parliamentarian and opponent of episcopacy, he published many pamphlets during the Civil War period, including Areopagitica (1644), which advocated freedom of the press. His greatest works were the epic poems Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), and Paradise Regained (1671) and the verse drama Samson Agonistes (1671)

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

References in classic literature ?

Milton went home to his father's house without any settled plan of life.

But these years were not altogether lost, for if both day and night Milton roamed the meadows about his home in seeming idleness, he was drinking in all the beauty of earth and sky, flower and field, storing his memory with sights and sounds that were to be a treasure to him in after days.

In Lycidas Milton mourns the death of a friend who was drowned while crossing the Irish Channel.

It was during these early years spent at Horton, too, that Milton wrote his masque of Comus.

All these poems of which I have told you, Milton wrote during the quiet years spent at Horton.

When Milton returned home he did not go back to Horton, but set up house in London.

Then after Milton had been leading this severe quiet life for about four years, a strange thing happened.

Milton let he go on the understanding that she should return to him in a month or two.

Many a cavalier had lost all in his defense, among them those of Mary Milton's family.

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Arnold rose to put Milton away, with the composure of sheer despair.

"Can you condescend so far, after reading Milton all the morning, as to help me with the invitations for the dinner next week?"

"If you can condescend, Lady Lundie, after feeding the poultry all the morning, I must be humility itself after only reading Milton!"