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The calamity was precipitated by his persistence in writing his Defension pro populo Anglicano contra Salmasium, though warned by his physician of the consequences. The blindness had become total probably about March 1652, in which month Weckherlin was appointed by the Council of State to assist Milton as secretary. In a letter to the Greek Philaras, the agent in London of the Duke of Parma, dated September 1654, Milton says it was ten years, more or less, since he had first found his eyes failing. Milton’s sight had been long threatened before it was finally extinguished. Milton devoted his poetry to explain to man the ways of God. He was the first notable English writer to discuss topics other than love in his sonnets. Milton wrote 19 sonnets in English, some of them personal, some of them political.
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Milton ‘s ideas have deeply inspired Romantic poets in particular, William Blake and P.B. In addition to poetry, Milton wrote pamphlets promoting civil and religious rights. Milton ‘s strong, rhetorical prose and the eloquence of his poetry had an immense influence, particularly on the verse of the 18th century. His father, John Milton, the elder, rose to prosperity as a scrivener or law writer, and his mother, Sarah Jeffrey, was a deeply religious person. John Milton (1608-1674), one of the greatest authors of the English language, is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost (1667).