On Thursday, Nov. 17, East Tennessee State University hosted a public reading marathon of John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” in the Reece Museum on campus. This event was sponsored by the ETSU Department of Literature and Language.
Special guests of the event included ETSU President Dr. Brian Noland and Provost Dr. Kimberly McCorkle, who led off the reading for the day.
“Paradise Lost” is an epic poem written by 17th century poet John Milton. The first version was published in 1667 and consisted of 10 books, and a second edition was published in 1674 and was arranged into 12 books. John Milton is known as one of the best poets of all time. The epic contains over 10,565 lines of poetry.
The poem itself consists of the Biblical tale of Adam and Eve and their temptation by Satan in the Garden of Eden.
Visual aids to the epic were also displayed in the Reece Museum, a rare exhibition of 17th to 20th century illustrations. There were also student art pieces, verbal and visual, that accompanied the literature.
There was also a chance for students who attended to be entered into a drawing for a $100 Barnes and Noble gift card.
For anyone who was not able to attend the event in person, a virtual Zoom session of the readings were also available. The event is hosted on a bi-annual basis in conjunction to Dr. Josh Reid’s “Milton and his Age” course.
Totals for this event finalized at 242 attendees in the Reece Museum, and 199 people via Zoom. Attendees from as far as Atlanta, Georgia and Columbus, Ohio were present, per the ETSU Milton Marathon Facebook page.
For more information regarding this event in the future, contact Dr. Josh Reid at reidjs@etsu.edu.
