The poems of John Milton (1608-74) have inspired readers for generations and the selection in this new edition spans his entire career, from his earliest works to the magnificent epics of his later life. The devotional �On the Morning of Christ�s Nativity�, his first great poem, anticipates the probing religious questions of Paradise Lost. Works such as �L�Allegro� and �Il Penseroso� consider divisions of loyalties, while �A Masque� (�Comus�) explores Milton�s great theme of temptation, and the pastoral elegy �Lycidas� contemplates mortality and the meaning of human life. This volume includes considerable selections from Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained - Milton�s late epics on the Fall of Man and Christ�s temptation in the wilderness - and the complete Samson Agonistes, in which the great hero undergoes a profound crisis of faith in his final hours.