John. 1608–74, English poet. His early works, notably L'Allegro and Il Penseroso (1632), the masque Comus (1634), and the elegy Lycidas (1637), show the influence of his Christian humanist education and his love of Italian Renaissance poetry. A staunch Parliamentarian and opponent of episcopacy, he published many pamphlets during the Civil War period, including Areopagitica (1644), which advocated freedom of the press. His greatest works were the epic poems Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), and Paradise Regained (1671) and the verse drama Samson Agonistes (1671)