The last and greatest of the classical epics in English. Milton set out to "justify the ways of God to men" and instead created the most compelling villain in literature. Satan's speeches are the poetry of rebellion and wounded pride; the Fall itself is rendered with such empathy that Blake famously declared Milton was "of the Devil's party without knowing it." The poem's blank verse shaped English poetry for two centuries.

The case for it, the case against, and the rest of the canon open with Pro.