Which English poet wrote the epic "Paradise Lost"?

John Milton wrote Paradise Lost, the landmark English epic poem about humanity’s fall from grace.

Milton’s poem retells the biblical story of Satan’s rebellion, the temptation of Adam and Eve, and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. It was first published in 1667 in ten books and written in blank verse—unrhymed iambic pentameter—rather than rhyming couplets.

A revised edition appeared in 1674, reorganized into twelve books in a structure that echoed Virgil’s Aeneid. Milton deliberately adapted classical epic conventions, including an invocation, an opening in the middle of the action, supernatural battles, and journeys through the underworld, to create a Christian epic in English.

The title is sometimes confused with Paradise Regained, Milton’s shorter sequel, which focuses on Christ’s temptation in the wilderness. Geoffrey Chaucer and Edmund Spenser were also major English poets, but neither wrote Paradise Lost.