Paradise Regained

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Paradise Regain'd is a poem by the 17th century English poet John Milton, published in 1671. It is connected by name to his earlier and more famous epic poem Paradise Lost, with which it shares similar theological themes. The writing style, however, is more thoughtful and thrives upon the imagery of Jesus' perfection in contrast to the shame of Satan, making it less epic than that of Paradise Lost, and accounting for why some consider this later work inferior.

Based on the Gospel of Luke's version of the Temptation of Christ, Paradise Regained is four books in length, in contrast with Paradise Lost's twelve. In it Milton uses parody to show Satan's folly in stark contrast with Jesus, the epitome of perfect heroism.

One of the major concepts emphasized throughout Paradise Regained is the use of reversals. As implied by its title, Milton sets out to reverse the 'loss' of Paradise. Thus, antonyms are often found next to each other throughout the story, reinforcing the idea that everything that was lost in the first epic is going to be regained by the end of the mini-epic.

Additionally, this work focuses on the idea of 'hunger', but in a literal and in a spiritual sense. After wandering in the wilderness for forty days Jesus is starved of both food and the Word of God. Satan, too blind to see any non-literal meanings of the term, offers Christ food and infinite power in order to satiate his hunger, but Jesus, 'hungering' for the Word of God, continually denies him. This creates an interesting connection between Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, where in one the heroes fall victim to their hunger while in the other the hero resists the temptation and thus effectively reverses the fall of mankind from the first epic.

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External links

• "Typology in Paradise Regained" by Gilbert McInnis
• E-text from the John Milton Reading Room
• Project Gutenberg text
• (Recording) 'The Pilgrim and the Liar', A Narrative Song by Edward Waters (Grateful Acknowledgement to John Milton's Paradise Regained)
• (Lyrics) 'The Pilgrim and the Liar', A Narrative Song by Edward Waters (Grateful Acknowledgement to John Milton's Paradise Regained)