John Milton lived from 1608 to 1674 and was thus an important part of the Neoclassical period. John Milton's Paradise Lost was and still is an extremely controversial piece of literature. I've found that the more controversial and controversial a topic is, the more interesting it is to read about. Christianity is a notoriously sensitive subject, so naturally I was drawn to Paradise Lost. When I began my research into this “lost” treasure, I discovered that the recently blinded Milton focused on the tragedy of Adam and Eve. Milton intended to show men the right path that God took by rewriting and explaining original sin (Luxon, “Milton Reading Room”). John Milton had long thought about publishing Paradise Lost due to the controversial nature of the epic. Milton knew that releasing his work to the public would most likely cause a riot or two, but ultimately decided to do it anyway. Little did Milton know that Paradise Lost would become known as "the greatest epic poem in the English language" (Paradise Lost: A Brief Overview). The first copy of Paradise Lost was published in 1667 in the form of ten books. After the initial publication, Milton split two of the longer books in half to reorganize the series into twelve books. In addition to rearranging the poem, Milton added an introductory "argument" that explained the contents of each individual book to prepare readers for the intricate analogies and deviations. into the ancient history that poetry consisted of (Paradise Lost: A Brief Overview). However, if a reader is so dedicated to working through the poem's elaborate descriptions, comparisons, and references, the reward can be great I had to go to many different websites and read many summaries to clean......the summary of book that offered a new perspective. Luxon, Thomas H., ed. "Milton Reading Room." : Paradise Lost. Np, nd Web. November 29, 2013. Dartmouth College has made reading Paradise Lost enjoyable and easy (copyright of The John Milton Reading Room database is owned by the administrators of Dartmouth College). This website published the poem line by line and book by book. The website provided everything I needed to read Milton's original work. Luxon also explained why Milton wrote the poem. Peck, H. W. "The Theme of Paradise Lost." JSTOR. ITACA, n.d. Web. November 29, 2013. Reading Peck's article on the themes of Paradise Lost helped me better understand the points Milton was trying to convey. Intricate poetry can often be difficult to decode, but Peck underlined and elaborated the main motifs of John Milton's famous epic poem.