Of Man's First Disobedience

OF MAN’S FIRST DISOBEDIENCE            

John Milton

     John Milton is one of the greatest poets in English.  He has written many well-known poems like Lycidas, L’Allegro and Ilpenseroso. But he is remembered even today for his great epic Paradise Lost.

      ‘Of Man’s First Disobedience’ is the first twenty six lines of Paradise Lost Book I. In these lines, Milton states the theme of his epic.  He also invokes the heavenly muses to help him in accomplishing the task of writing the epic.

       Milton begins his poem by declaring the theme of his epic- man’s first act of disobedience to God and the sorrowful consequences that followed from it.  This has a biblical reference.  God instructs Adam and Eve not to eat the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.  But disobeying God, Adam anad Eve eat the fruit and earn the displeasure of God.  Milton says that this sin of disobedience brought death to human beings and the loss of Paradise.

      Milton then invokes the Heavenly Muse, the goddess of poetry to sing about the subject through him. He makes it very clear that this muse is greater than the classical muse.  He associates his muse with the Holy Spirit which is a part in the creation of the Universe.  Hence, the poet hopes that his poem will be a pioneering one. Eventually, he requests the muses to inspire him to tell the human kind the greatness of God and his ways.

      The beginning lines from Paradise Lost is the befitting one for the great epic. It exhibits Milton’s use of grand style and his wide scholarship in biblical knowledge.