If you know anything about John Milton, you probably think of him as some blind guy who wrote a really long poem about the Bible. It's hard to shake the feeling that Milton is the fustiest of English poets-dull, pious, brilliant and all, but nobody you would read if you didn't have to. But then what are we to make of the following? The first piece that Milton wrote that was read widely throughout Europe was a boisterous defense of the English Revolution. Milton was most famous in his lifetime as the poet who went to bat for the Puritan rebels, who came right out and said that the king looked better without his head. Of all the major English poets, Milton is the revolutionary. So a course on Milton is by necessity a course on literature and revolution. We will read most of Milton's major works, poetry and prose, and we will look, too, at the writings of Milton's allies and his opponents: poets, pamphleteers, and news-writers. And we will ask some big questions as we go: How did the mid-seventeenth century, probably the most tumultuous decades in the history of modern Britain, transform the culture of the English-speaking world? What is the relationship between literature and the state or between literature and radical politics? Is there a poetics of revolution? How can a poet who seems to be writing for Sunday school-about God and Adam and Eve and the serpent-really have been writing about rebellion all along? Format: discussion. Requirements: class discussion, two long essays. Prerequisite: 100-level English course except for 150. Enrollment limit: 25 (expected: 25). Preference given to English majors.

Hour: THORNE