Description and Objectives

This class will focus on the poetic structures and moral and spiritual vision of John Milton’s Paradise Lost. We will read approximately three books (chapters) a month. Each book will have a blue book examination after we finish reading and discussing it in class. The blue book will be in-class, without notes. Close attention to both Milton’s text and the characteristics of a competent essay examining that text is at the core of the class’s purpose and requirements. We will be paying particular attention to Milton’s view of education, his cosmology, and his characteristic style of poetry.

 

Textbooks

Paradise Lost, edited by David Scott Kastan

A Preface to Paradise Lost, by C. S. Lewis

Course Requirements

*Blue Book Examinations (bi-weekly)

*Quizzes

*Class Discussion

Successful Students

*Read the text each night–ACTIVELY.

*Come to class with intelligent questions.