John Milton (1608-74) lived through civil war, plague and fire, enduring loss, persecution, imprisonment and blindness, and his poetry is rich with drama and incident. Throughout his life he mastered almost every kind of verse; political, satirical, dramatic, elegiac, lyrical and epic, and filled his poems with gods, angels, nymphs, wizards and other mythical beings, all set in vivid imaginary landscapes.

This new selection of his poems, sorted and introduced by Claire Tomalin, explores Milton's verse against the arc of his extraordinary life- from early schoolboy writings and the verse of the university wit at Cambridge to his masterly sonnets, ranging across subjects such as the natural world, a defence of Oliver Cromwell and a dream of his dead and much loved second wife. Extracts From Milton's epic Paradise Lostconcentrate on the dramatization of its chief characters- the hero-villain Satan, the archangel Raphael, and Adam and Eve, shown discovering the joys and problems of marriage. There are also lines from the late, dark verse drama Samson Agonistes.

Celebrating Milton's verse in all its grandeur, energy, subtlety and humour, this selection sheds a refreshing light on England's great seventeenth-century poet.