John Milton, Paradise Lost
Eden in Paradise Lost
Milton locates the garden within the wider region of Eden and fills it with trees desirable to sight, scent and taste. A river passes through and supplies the garden through springs and streams. Satan occupies the Tree of Life as a lookout rather than receiving its life-giving virtue. The garden’s best provision is diverted into an instrument of surveillance.
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In the sources
Principal account
LiteraryMilton locates the garden within the wider region of Eden and fills it with trees desirable to sight, scent and taste. A river passes through and supplies the garden through springs and streams.
Further detail
LiterarySatan occupies the Tree of Life as a lookout rather than receiving its life-giving virtue. The garden’s best provision is diverted into an instrument of surveillance.
Context & interpretation
This entry concerns Milton’s garden description and the intruder’s vantage. The poem’s geographical allusions are literary features; they do not provide a verified location of a historical Eden.
Original passages
Source 1
Paradise Lost: Illustrated by Gustave Doré
A heaven on earthOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Milton, Paradise Lost, active reader leaf 107
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0115-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0115-E001-P0107
- Original scan leaf
- 108
- Recorded leaf number
- 108
- Current Reader position
- 103
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
Paradise Lost: Illustrated by Gustave Doré
a fresh fountain, and with many a rillOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Milton, Paradise Lost, active reader leaf 108
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0115-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0115-E001-P0108
- Original scan leaf
- 109
- Recorded leaf number
- 109
- Current Reader position
- 104
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Illustrations
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Literary & Visionary Settings ↗
Tree of Knowledge in Paradise Lost
The tree beside life whose knowledge becomes inseparable from the cost of knowing evil.
Shared source pageTree of Life in Paradise Lost
The garden’s tallest tree, misused by Satan as a lookout.
Same subject and traditionBridge from Hell to the World
The road made by Sin and Death across the abyss after the human fall.