John Milton - gay poet

John Milton(1608-1674, the author of Paradise Lost, has been described as the greatest poet in the English language.

As a youth, at university, Milton was known as the 'Lady' of Christ’s College.

Milton had a loving relationship with Charles Diodati. This is recorded in the letters they wrote to each other.

John Shawcross studied Milton's relationship with his boyhood friend Charles Diodati and concluded that the relationship was homosexual. (John T. Shawcross is Professor of English at the University of Kentucky and author of Milton: The Critical Heritage.)

There are homosexual allusions in various Milton works including his elegy for Diodati, Epitaphium Damonis (1638). (John Milton)

Milton was knowledgable about the classical literature of homosexuality, including the works of Virgil. In his poems, Milton makes reference to various gay figures, including Alexander the Great, Scipio Africanus, Ganymede, and Hylas.

In Milton's Paradise Regained, Christ faces homosexual temptation:

Our Saviour lifting up his eyes beheld...

Tall stripling youths rich clad, of fairer hew

Then Ganymed or Hylas.

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