Milton
Milton is a great revolutionary poet of the 17th century. He is also an outstanding political pamphleteer of the Revolution period. He dedicated himself to the revolutionary cause. He made a strong influence on the later English poetry. Every progressive English poet since Milton has drawn inspiration from him.
Milton is a great stylist. His poetry has a grand style. That is because he made a life-long study of classical and Biblical literature. His poetry is noted for sublimity of thought and majesty of expression.
Milton is a great master of blank verse. He is the glorious pioneer to introduce blank verse into non-dramatic poetry. He has used it as the main tool in his masterpiece Paradise Lost. His blank verse is rich in every poetic quality and never monotonous.
John Donne
John Donne (1573--1631) is the founder of the Metaphysical school in England at about the beginning of the 17th century. The works of these poets are characterized by mysticism in content and fantasticality in form. In all of his poems there is a mystery. They are uneven, startling and fantastic. He threw style and all literary standards to the winds. His poems are included into two collections, Songs and Sonnets, which consists of his love poems, and Devotion Upon Emergent Occasions, which consists of his sacred verses. Donne\'s poetry had great influence on the poets of his times and the poets of later times .He is still the object of study for scholars up to this day.