PUBLIC HUMANITIES PURITY : PRCIS

BECAUSE - the spark of danger - liberating danger - still exists within '' Paradise Lost. ''

In our own era of right-wing moral panics and culture war posturing, abandonment of human rights and encroaching authoritarianism. Milton and the freedom to read him remains urgent.

Hard not to think of some contemporary politicians when Milton writes of how:

'' one shall rise/

Of proud ambitious heart, who not content /

With fair equality ............

Will arrogate dominion undeserved. ''

A POEM against tyranny will always be dangerous, an epic on behalf of liberty will always remain radical.

Just a year ago, Orange County, Fla., released a list of works to be removed from school libraries.

'' Paradise Lost '' was on the list.

The World Students Society thanks Ed Simon, a Public Humanities Special Faculty in the English Department at Carnegie Mellon University.

He is the author of '' Heaven, Hell and Paradise Lost '' and '' Devil's Contract : The History of the Faustian Bargain.''