Paradise Regained
Christ's temptation in the wilderness, in four books of blank verse.
What this poem is
Paradise Regained is an epic poem by English poet John Milton, first published in 1671. The volume in which it appeared also contained the poet's closet drama Samson Agonistes. Paradise Regained is connected by name to his earlier and more famous epic poem Paradise Lost, with which it shares similar theological themes; indeed, its title, its use of blank verse, and its progression through Christian history recall the earlier work. However, this effort deals primarily with the temptation of Christ as recounted in the Gospel of Luke.
Milton composed Paradise Regained at his cottage in Chalfont St Giles in Buckinghamshire. Paradise Regained is four books long and comprises 2,068 lines; in contrast, Paradise Lost is twelve books long and comprises 10,565 lines. As such, Barbara K. Lewalski has labelled the work a "brief epic".
Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist. Satan schemes with the demons against Jesus after witnessing the baptism.
In Heaven, God tells the angels of Satan's arrogance, and He is praised.
Adapted from the Wikipedia article “Paradise Regained” (revision 1349925741), used under CC BY-SA 4.0. Laurel's own notes and measurements are not from Wikipedia.
Measured across the book
Across its 2,070 lines, 92% of stressed syllables fall on the beat (95% interval 92% to 93%). Alliteration runs at 1.07 times what shuffling the words would give (0.31 observed against 0.29 expected). 13% of the lines have a feminine ending.
Baselines and intervals are described in the methods.
Contents
About this text
Public domain. Text from Paradise Regained, Project Gutenberg ebook #58. Free to read, print, copy and reuse.