A family scene in which John Milton (1608-1674) is depicted dictating Paradise Lost to one of his daughters while the other embroiders and his wife looks on. Wood engraving by F. Meaulle after Michael Munkacsy. Milton was an English poet, polemicist, essayist, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell. He wrote at a time of religious flux and political upheaval, and is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost (1667), written in blank verse. By 1654, Milton had become totally blind; the cause of his blindness is debated but bilateral retinal detachment or glaucoma are most likely. His blindness forced him to dictate his verse and prose to amanuenses, including his daughters and the poet Andrew Marvell.