To Milton there remains a higher theme (argument) sufficient in itself to raise to its true level that (debased) name of heroic, unless what he elsewhere calls 'answerable style' should fail him through the advanced age and decrepitude of the whole world (an age too late) a recurrent fear in Milton's day or the cold northern climate, so unlike that of the Mediterranean cradle of culture, where, as Milton said, the sun 'ripens wits as well as fruits' or, finally his own advancing years: all of which might well frustrate his intended flight if indeed he relied solely on himself, and not, as he does, on the Heavenly Muse. Then, mingling epic and romance in a common condemnation he specifies epic games (like those attending the obsequies of Patroclus in the Iliad and Anchises in the Aeneid) and the description of the equipment (furniture) of the knights armed for tournaments, their shields emblazon'd with odd or ingenious devices ( Impreses quaint) or of the steeds and their trappings, the long cloths thrown over them ( Bases), often of material interwoven with gold or silver thread ( tinsel) or, finally, of the ceremonious feast served in the castle hall, with due attendance of household officers, sewer (chief server) and seneschal (steward of the household) all this dwelling on the skill and artifice of menials, not on anything that can be justly called heroic in person or poem. The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse. 27] Though he has actually, in Books V and VI, supposed the element of martial prowess expected of the epic, Milton protests that he is averse to such matter, hitherto deemed the only fit subject for epic and romance, which deal at tedious length with the ruin wrought by fabulous warriors in fictitious battles, neglecting the while the true heroism of saints and martyrs. Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (16081674).

Paradise lost book 9