What is the author's style in Samson Agonistes, and Shorter Poems by John Milton?

Most of this volume is written in the third person, through which the poet assumes the role of an omniscient storyteller. Even when he writes about personal matters, such as his attraction to joyfulness in "L'Allegro" and to melancholy in "Il Pensoroso," he addresses these moods directly for the most part, rather than using first person to discuss their impact on him. In both those poems, he finally breaks from this declamatory tone into first person at the very end, achieving the dramatic impact of turning what seemed to be a philosophical rumination into a personal conviction. The most consistent use of first person in the book is in "Lycidas," when Milton writes about the death of a close friend. In this case, it seems he cannot avoid bringing himself into the poem, because the impact of the death of Lycidas was too personal to address in a storytelling or philosophical voice. Aside from the dramatic power of third person, which allows the reader to forget the poet in favor the storyline, Milton's use of that point of view has the advantage of lifting him above the fray, as it were. Given that his themes are lofty and religious, third person allows him to speak for goodness and propriety without seeming to preach. These fundamentally Christian poems regard God as an absolute, and their use of third person helps to emphasize the universality of God, which embraces the individual even while extending far beyond him.