English department celebrates poet John Milton’s birthday

The birthday celebration was a quiet gathering, with Diet Coke and Sierra Mist, popcorn, alien napkins and a cake that read "Happy 400th, John Milton."

To celebrate English poet John Milton's 400th birthday, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln English department, along with the Sigma Tau Delta, the English honorary society, sponsored a marathon reading of his masterwork epic, "Paradise Lost."

The marathon began Tuesday morning at 8 a.m. in the Dudley Bailey Library in Andrews Hall and progressed one book an hour, except for a brief sprint of two books at 2 p.m., and concluded at 7.

"The main reason we did this is a poet only turns 400 once," said Stephen Buhler, professor of English. "We wanted to do something to honor his contribution to literature. His epic poem, ‘Paradise Lost,' was composed through dictation, so we wanted to read it aloud, returning it to its original form."

Buhler said he started the morning but encouraged silent readers following along in provided copies to orate.

"Paradise Lost" is blank verse poem, divided into 12 books and details the Biblical story of the fall of man. Satan, defeated in a cosmic war, leaves Hell to go to Earth and tries to tempt Adam and Eve. He is banished from the Garden of Eden but re-enters as a serpent, convincing Eve and then Adam to eat the fruit – an apple – of the forbidden tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Ron Reece, a senior English major, read book IX, the devil's conversation with Eve, at 3:40 p.m.

"But of this tree we may not taste nor touch; God so commanded," he said from the podium. And later: "She plucked, she eat! Earth felt the wound; and Nature from her seat, sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe, that all was lost."

A handful of readers sat in chairs and couches gathered around the podium; behind the podium, there was a group of chairs denoted as "on-deck chair" or "mercy seat."

Reece said he had never read "Paradise Lost" and decided to attend the celebration for the exposure. Reading, however, was more of a challenge, he said.

"I was a little nervous and kept on wanting to slow down," he said. "You've got to take time on the archaic words. I didn't know how to do all the voice inflection, and there were capital letters in the middle of the sentence."

Reece said he liked what he heard of the poem, although it was mostly what he expected.

"Outside this building (Andrews Hall), most people probably don't know or care, but Milton is pivotal," he said. "There are knock-offs and rip-offs, and he's influenced so many people with his scholarship, philosophy and ecclesiasts."

He shrugged.

"It's an English nerd thing."

kiahhaslett@dailynebraskan.com