Abstract
John Milton is outlier among poets of the seventeenth century in his extensive recourse to details of his personal life, which are made integral part, covertly or explicitly, of his many works. From the early “Nativity Ode” onwards we can identify confessional passages in many of his poems that can be read autobiographically. What draws our attention to Milton’s case is that it also prefigures a major cultural and political revolution, in which the legitimacy of the individual consciousness was revalued. The main aim of this article is to explore specific moments in Milton’s oeuvre in which the autobiographical vein comes into sharp focus. Differently from his more mature work, in which he does not waver in confidence, in the earlier writings we can spot the doubts and anxieties of an apprentice poet of unbounded aspiration.
Highlights
He irst question that is posed to any study which deals with the inluence of a writer’s life in his literary production is the extent to which the latter can be approached autobiographically. his is by no means a simple question, as the deinition of autobiography is not a matter of consensus; this ield of studies, reinvigorated theoretically since the 1960s, is heterogeneous in form
We start discussing the confessional character of the tension between “paganism” and Christianity in the “Nativity Ode,” the poem that marks Milton’s birth, as the confession has oten been seen as a forerunner of autobiography
The discussion turns to his more “youthful” concerns, as the poet confronts his fear of poetical failure in the pastoral “Lycidas.” the article concludes with an analysis of the invocation to light in book III of Paradise Lost, given that the subject of the loss of the eyesight therein dealt with in it is especially important from the perspective of autobiography
Summary
He irst question that is posed to any study which deals with the inluence of a writer’s life in his literary production is the extent to which the latter can be approached autobiographically. his is by no means a simple question, as the deinition of autobiography is not a matter of consensus; this ield of studies, reinvigorated theoretically since the 1960s, is heterogeneous in form.
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