Alan Jacobs Writes a Biography of “Paradise Lost”

We were in London in 2024, and I signed up for a London Open House tour that was right by our hotel. London Open House was a two-weekend event in which buildings not normally available to the public (or tourists) were open. Most, like this walking tour, required pre-registration.

 

The tour was fascinating. I had walked around these streets scores of times and never knew what had happened here. That rather ornate building around the corner – where Winston Churchill recorded all of his wartime addresses. That townhouse on a side street – the original building for the British Museum. That large stone mansion that backed to St. James’s Park – built by John D. Rockefeller as his London home. The rather nondescript office building across from the tube station – where Ian Fleming worked for MI-6 before he wrote the James Bond stories.

 

And right there, on a street named Petty France, was a Brutalist building housing the Ministry of Justice (it’s an ugly edifice; we call it the “Darth Vader Building”). At one corner is a small courtyard-like area. And right here, on this site, stood the house where then-blind poet John Milton (1608-1674) lived with his daughters and dictated the entirety of Paradise Lost. The only hint of this is the pub across the street, the one named the Adam and Eve. 

 

Paradise Lost is one of the works that everyone wants to say they’ve read but hope no one asks for details. The fact is that it is one of the great works of English literature, cited by many as equal to or greater than Shakespeare and Chaucer. It’s also one of the greatest poems written in any language.

 

But as Alan Jacobs points out in Paradise Lost: A Biography, the work is also something else, a kind of cultural bellwether. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Thursday Readings

 

“Sugaring,” poem by Raymond Holden and “Lay of the Trilobite,” poem by May Kendall – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Henry Hart’s Seamus Heaney’s Gifts – Matthew Ryan at Literary Matters.

 

Missing You – poem by Maureen Doallas at Writing Without Paper.

 

Flannery’s Music – poem by Angela Alaimo O’Donnell at Rabbit Room Poetry.

Some Wednesday Readings

Leaving Home to Save It – Michael Toscano at Mere Orthodoxy. 

What Happens When You Pay Ex-Gang Members to Stop Crime? Ask Chicago – Olivia Rheingold at The Free Press.

 

Eavesdropping on Tolkien – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

The model writer – Gary Saul Morson at The New Criterion reviews Pushkin: A Writer’s Biography by Yuri Lotman.

 

Tolkien, Technology, Ideology, and Love: A Lecture at Hope College – Bradley Birzer.

 

Cuba’s Useless Idiots – James Kirchick at The Free Press.

On Tolkien Reading Day - Kelly Heller at Story Warren.

Photograph: Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837).

Poets and Poems: Marjorie Maddox and "Hover Here"

Watching kites in the sky. Bounding on a bed. A boy goes fishing. Washing clothes. A housemaid makes beds at a motel. Mowing a lawn. Adopting kittens. Veterans march in a Memorial Day parade.  

Common, familiar activities and events. These are the kinds of things we do in our lives and work that become part of the background of daily life. We take them for granted. We smile at the memory. But politics and foreign policy and newspaper headlines and online viral sensations soon crowd them out. We pay more attention to our smart phones than to the real life happening around us. If we happen to look up and notice, we immediately start to think about new content for Instagram or TikTok. 

 

In a very quiet and gentle way, poet Marjorie Maddox says look around. Her latest collection, Hover Here: Poems, should probably bear that as a subtitle. She doesn’t speak with loud or demanding images and words. That’s not her style, not to mention that loud and demanding soon crowds out understanding and reflection. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Tuesday Readings

Uninhabited – poem by Emily Patterson at Every Day Poems.

 

“Dear March – Come in,” poem by Emily Dickinson – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

Three Lenten Sonnets – Andrew Peterson at The Rabbit Room.

Some Monday Readings

Publishing’s Little Secret: It’s All Gambling – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

Nothing is more practical than falling in love – Joy Clarkson (Hat tip: Amelia Friedline). 

 

John Dempsey’s Street Portraits – Spitalfields Life.

 

Everyone Gets Rejected – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

 

The View from the Garden at 120 – A London Inheritance.

 

The Good Shepherd – short story by Jason Clark at This Is the Day.

 

Paul Kingsnorth’s Against the Machine – Churck Chalberg at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Top: The cover of Against the Machine by Paul Kingsnorth.

When the bad times come

After James 1:1-4 

When the bad times come,

and they will come, as night

follows day, don’t quake,

don’t t collapse, don’t withdraw

into yourself. Instead, consider

the joy of the bad times,

for they serve a purpose.

 

The bad times are a test,

a test of faith. Don’t be

surprise at the idea

of a test, because a test

serves to strengthen,

forcing us to use muscles

and resources previously

ignored or discounted.

 

The testing of bad times

produces steadfastness,

perfecting and completing

your faith. You will learn

that you lack nothing.

 

Photograph by Anthony Tran via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

Preach Like a Poet – Stephen Witmer at Desiring God.

 

The Abuja Affirmation: A Global Definition of Anglican Identity – Adam Carrington at Mere Orthodoxy.

Saturday Good Reads – March 14, 2026

This past week marked the 250^th anniversary of how the occupying British army suddenly evacuated Boston. On March 13, 1776, after having awakened to the shocking site of American cannon overlooking the city, The British started moving 9,000 troops, and a considerable number of Loyalists, to ships in the harbor.  Kevin Pawlak at Emerging Revolutionary War Era, and Jonathan Horn at the Free Press, describe what happened. 

It’s almost bewildering, and painful, for me to watch some of the craziness going on in Britain right no. Police officers arresting people for tweets. Grandmothers sent to prison for defending their country. A government packing the House of Lords with handpicked supporters. A church that seems in the final stages of disintegration. A prime minister whose answer to dissent and opposition is canceling elections. It’s a classic case of “gradually, then suddenly.” Lou Aguilar at The American Spectator discusses the fall of Britain – and the warning for America.

 

On March 12, I reviewed Call Out Coyote, the new poetry collection by Seth Wieck. It’s a wonderful collection. This week, Wieck was interviewed by writer Elizabeth Stice at Orange Blossom Ordinary (which I wonder if it’s a take-off on the old fiddler’s song, “Orange Blossom Special”).

 

More Good Reads

 

America 250

 

A Republic, NOT a Democracy – Bradley Birzer at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

The Boston Massacre – Keli Holt at Just Enough History.

 

A Venezuelan Connection – Nathan Provost at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

Coup D’oeil: William Washington at the Battle of Cowpens – Lee McGee at Journal of the American Revolution.

 

The Boston Tea Party – Keli Holt at Just Enough History.

 

Life and Culture

 

I Regret Having Children vs. “I love being your mom” – Yuri Bezmenov at How to Subvert Subversion.

 

Writing and Literature

 

Selling Books During War – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

 

Literary Tools – Micah Mattix at Portico.

 

Iran

 

Beware the Dangerous Bedtime Story – Clarity with Michael Oren.

 

Poetry

 

“A Psalm of Life,” poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

“In the Seven Woods,” poem by William Butler Yeats – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

Afterwords – Benjamin Myers at Plough.

 

Requiem, too – Sonja Benskin Mesher.

 

Operative words: On the career of Henri Coulette – Boris Dralyuk & Michael Caines at The New Criterion. 

 

The Poet’s Vision – Ryan Wilson at New Verse Review.

 

Faith

 

Legacy Over Platform: Six Things That Will Outlast Your Sermons – John Kelly at New Churches.

 

Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet – Joslin & Henry Mancini

Painting: A man reading a letter, oil on canvas by Adriaen Van Ostade (1610-1685).

He provides

After Leviticus 26:1-11 

He blesses you

in faithfulness,

he blesses you

with the fruit

of the land

he gave to you.

You respond by

giving back to him.

You give him 

an offering of

your work,

the first fruits

of your work,

to be used

for your house,

for your priests,

for the sojourners

among you.

 

Photograph by Guillaume de Germain via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

“The Raising of Lazarus,” poem by Franz Wright – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

 

A Legacy Better Than the Hall of Fame – Ryan Currie at Gospel-Centered Discipleship.

 

Breakfast with Brother Dave: The Blessing of Intergenerational Friendship – Jacob Adkins at Front Porch Republic.

 

“As You Came from the Holy Land,” poem attributed to Sir Walter Raleigh – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.