Milton’s Paradise Lost Read-a-Thon
Get to know your enemy during Lent this year!
Get savvy about the devil and his wiles by joining Martin Saints faculty and friends as we read Milton's Paradise Lost in its entirety, in a one-day marathon.
Paradise Lost is a 17th century epic poem about Satan tempting Adam and Eve, and the drama of being expelled from Eden.
Often at Martin Saints, we'll hear a parent or a friend say "I wish I'd had a classical education when I was young." Or a keen student will say "there's this great book I keep hearing about, but it didn't quite fit in the syllabus, and now it's on my bucket list!"
This is your chance to fill one of those gaps in your education.
We'll start at 9am on Saturday, 18th March, at the Roberts' home in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia (address given upon RSVP). Limited seating, so please RSVP (and any other questions) to Mrs. Hannah Roberts. We'll save a few spots for those who can only come for part of the day, but please let us know your plans. Bring food and drink to share for lunch and dinner.
Our friend and colleague Mr. Michael Nevadomski - legendary eighth grade teacher at Regina Coeli Academy, and a Milton enthusiast - will be joining us for context and help with any opaque passages.
Bring your own book, but we'll have a few available to borrow too. The Penguin Classics hardcover edition looks nice. Here's a part of their blurb: "In Paradise Lost, John Milton produced a poem of epic scale, conjuring up a vast, awe-inspiring cosmos and ranging across huge tracts of space and time, populated by a memorable gallery of grotesques. And yet, in putting a charismatic Satan and naked, innocent Adam and Eve at the centre of this story, he also created an intensely human tragedy on the Fall of Man. Written when Milton was in his fifties - blind, bitterly disappointed by the Restoration (of Charles II to the English throne following a brief Republic) and in danger of execution - Paradise Lost's apparent ambivalence towards authority has led to intense debate about whether it manages to 'justify the ways of God to men', or not."
Here's another reason to read Milton. The great romantic poet William Wordsworth proposes that we need Milton's vision and moral compass. In 1802, Wordsworth wrote this sonnet:
Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour:
England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;
Oh! raise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.
Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart:
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.
Final thought: Martin Saints is a school. Academic classes, five days a week, students and teachers together - that's our bread and butter. But Martin Saints is more than a school. We're also a community of Christians trying to be faithful together in this day and age, praying to renew the Church and pass the faith onwards to the next generation. Hanging out together, enjoying epic poetry and each other's company - that's also the kind of thing we do. At this event, because our text is Milton'sParadise Lost, we'll give the devil his due. But the devil isn't going to win, because God is sovereign, the Church is alive, and Christians are still being friends with each other and building community. Hope to see you there on March 18th.
