John Milton’s Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost in Slow Motion

Adam Walker (walker@g.harvard.edu)

Antrim Literature Project

Spring 2024

Description. This beginner-friendly course encourages slow, careful, deliberate readings of John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Reading one book per week, we’ll complete Milton’s epic in one semester. Weekly meetings will consist of a lecture (30 minutes), Q&A (15 minutes), and discussion and reflection on key passages (30 minutes). Students will be encouraged to keep a reading journal, to memorize and copy out favorite passages, to read aloud, and to share thoughts and ask questions. Without an overarching focus (such as politics, history, theology, etc.), this course invites students to come with their own interests and questions and to use this as an opportunity to encounter Paradise Lost through close reading, community, and conversation. 

Outcomes. As a student of this course, you will:

• develop confidence in reading Paradise Lost and other great works of poetry;
• acquire the skills of close reading;
• gain insights into the literary contexts of the seventeenth century;
• learn some of the major genres of English poetry;
• discover your own literary tastes;
• and enhance your sensitivity to beauty in language.

Schedule. Meetings occur every Wednesday at 6pm EST from February 7 to May 1st.