Wieder, Laurance. "Happy Birthday Milton: the Poet-Prophet Turns 500." WEEKLY STANDARD December 1, 2008.

I wouldn't recommend John Milton's sacred epics, or even his short poems, to a newcomer to the English language. The poetry of Andrew Marvell, John Donne, William Blake, and Emily Dickinson share his themes, is good to learn by heart, and can enter through many gates. It is written in the vernacular, maybe encrusted by the fashions of their times, but still alluring. Adamantine, hard from the start, Milton's English poetry aspires to biblical Hebrew and, for good or ill, succeeds. John Milton (1608-1674) is read mostly in university courses (that's by the priestly caste) and by novelists and poets. Unlike the Bible, or Blake, or Dickinson, Paradise Lost is not amenable to paraphrase. There's no graphic novelization, no stage or movie treatment even of his life, much less of the (relatively) simple Paradise Regain'd. The greatness of his art is its difficulty, its intransigence, its irreducible material. All Milton's settings and actions occur in the mind. Even Samson Agonistes, patterned on Greek tragedy, was not intended for performance. Whatever the virtues of the Handel oratorio based on Milton's text, it is something other (and less) than the original. Paradise Lost, Paradise Regain'd, and Samson Agonistes were dictated by a blind poet; they were not written. When Milton says "Sing," he's invoking more than literary convention. He couldn't proof his last works, never saw the books in print or read them to himself. Unless the epics are read aloud, it's impossible to hear them, no matter how developed the inward ear. This presents a daunting task for a generation taught to read to itself without moving the lips. But it's the basic requirement for a reader (or at least for me) to discover what one thought one knew but does not know. . . . Read the rest here: http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=15837&R=13CE43DF0.