In Book IV of Paradise Lost, John Milton brings us down to earth—into Eden itself. Here, creation is not merely admired; it is inhabited. The air is alive, the landscape abundant, and everything exists in right relationship. And at the center of it all: Adam and Eve. They are not yet burdened by shame, nor divided within themselves. Their work is joyful. Their love is pure. Their communion with God is natural, not strained or hidden. Milton writes of them:

Why Paradise Lost? Milton wrote this epic in the aftermath of political collapse. England had executed a king, tried a republic, and restored the monarchy. Milton himself had defended the Commonwealth and lost both position and eyesight in the struggle. Blind, disgraced, and physically broken, he dictated this poem. And what did he choose to write about? Not politics. Not his enemies. Not his suffering. He went back to Genesis. He went back to the beginning.