Book I

Book I introduces the main subject matter of the poem: the creation, fall, and redemption of the world and humankind. Milton invokes the aid of the muse and the Holy Spirit as he sets out to perform "Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhyme," and, through the medium of the epic, to "justify the ways of God to men." In true epic style, Milton begins his story in mid-action (in medias res), after the great battle in Heaven and the fall of the rebel angels. The poem thus introduces its readers first to Satan, the cause of the fall of humankind, at the moment following his own first fall into Hell. Satan and his angels are described lying on a lake of fire in a place where flames cast no light, but only "darkness visible." Satan is the first to rise and, using his great spear...