John Milton (1608-1674) was a major English poet and writer of
the Commonwealth period. He is guaranteed to show up on the GRE
Literature exam. His two most important works are also his
longest & most famous: 1. Paradise Lost -Distinctive style:
Latinate, syntactically-complex, heavily-enjambed blank verse 2.
Areopagitica (treatise against censorship) If you're doing any
heavy reading to prepare for the GRE, and you haven't read them
before, these should be on your list. You can get both in one
volume if you buy the Norton Critical Edition. Otherwise, you
can rely on summaries and a sense of the styles of the works.
One or two of the following works may also appear on the exam.
The poems listed in bold are particularly likely to show up.
Read the short works at least once. For the long ones, simply
read the summaries. 1. "On Shakespeare" 2. "When I Consider How
My Life Is Spent" -On Milton's blindness 3. "How Soon Hath Time"
4. "On the Late Massacre in Piedmont" (sonnet) -An early masque;
young girl seduced b