Paradise Lost

Satan and the rebel angels recover from their fall into Hell. Satan delivers his great defiant speeches. The angels build Pandemonium and debate their next move. Satan volunteers to journey alone to corrupt humanity.

God the Father and the Son discuss humanity's coming Fall. The Son volunteers to die for humanity's redemption. Satan arrives at Earth, enters Eden, and sees Adam and Eve for the first time. He is briefly moved to pity before hardening himself to his mission.

The archangel Raphael visits Adam and Eve to warn them about Satan. He tells the story of Satan's original rebellion, the three-day War in Heaven, and the six days of Creation. Adam asks questions about astronomy, love, and angelic nature. Raphael counsels humility: 'Be lowly wise.'

Eve proposes working separately from Adam. Adam reluctantly agrees. Satan, disguised as a serpent, tempts Eve with the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Eve eats. She returns to Adam, who chooses to eat as well — not from deception but from love. Their innocence is destroyed.

God sends the Son to judge Adam and Eve. Death and Sin enter the world. Satan returns to Hell and is transformed into a serpent. Adam and Eve move from mutual blame to mutual repentance. Michael shows Adam visions of human history — violence, corruption, and the eventual promise of redemption through Christ.

Michael completes the prophetic visions. Adam and Eve accept their punishment and leave Eden hand in hand. The poem ends not in despair but in solemn hope — expelled from Paradise but facing a world that is fallen and redeemable.