Author History - Support of Religious and Political Freedoms in Sonnet XV John Milton, born

In 1775, during the time Patrick Henry’s “Speech to the Virginia Convention” was written the colonists wanted to gain independence from Great Britain. King George created unreasonable taxes, the colonists felt like they shouldn’t have to pay for it so they began to rebel. Jonathan Edwards’s gave his sermon “ Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” during the 1740’s, also this when the outbreak of the Great Awakening took place and a religious revival swept the colonies and sparked conversions. In Patrick Henry’s “Speech to the Virginia Convention” and Jonathan Edwards’s sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, both authors use tone, imagery, and diction to reevaluate their stance on their current situations.

Patrick Henry, one of the most, if not the most, influential politicians of eighteenth century America, wrote, and presented, the Speech in the Virginia Convention during a time of tension between Britain and its Colonies. As a spokesman of the independence movement, Henry continuously faced the threat of persecution by the British, yet he carried on expressing his beliefs explicitly until he earned the opportunity to attend the Virginia Convention, in which he respectfully, but courageously, argued that war with the British was inevitable. In doing this, he rallied the colonists into a fighting spirit, and one month later, the Revolutionary war had begun. Through his use of political rhetorical devices, such as, ethos, pathos, logos, and his infamous fallacy, Patrick Henry influences not only the colonists’ mindsets, but also their actions against the British King.

Politician, Patrick Henry, in his speech, “Speech to the Second Virginia Convention”, delineates his views on what action to take in regards to the conflict with Britain. Patrick’s purpose is to address the Virginia Convention to prepare for war if Britain does not meet the colonists’ demands. He adopts a passionate, dramatic, upset, and stern tone in order to persuade the Virginia convention, specifically President Randolph, to concur with his predicament. This tone can be seen through the literary devices of antithesis, rhetorical questions, parallelism, and Biblical allusions.

In his famous speech given at the Virginia Convention in 1775, politician and Virginia lawyer, Patrick Henry, addresses the men of the Virginia Assembly about the inevitable war against British “tyranny.” Henry attempts to demonstrate his idea that war with Britain is the only option as well as persuade these men to join him in this fight for National Independence. Henry combines the elements of a gradual shift in tone and rhetorical devices in order to appeal to the members of the Virginia Convention.

Oliver Cromwell is – and has always been – one of the most controversial characters in British and Irish history. There are few people in Great Britain and Ireland today who have not yet heard of Oliver Cromwell and either loathe him or see him as a hero. Yet, the world is not black and white and so is the truth about Cromwell. In order to understand his role in both countries as a whole, one has to look at the perspective of both nations, Cromwell’s beliefs and his motives.

to the House of Burgesses with the hope of freeing Virginia from British rule. He spoke with conviction and showed undeniable support of the fight against the English government. His used the appeals of ethos, pathos,

Fenton, Mary C. “Hope, Land Ownership, and Milton's ‘Paradise Within.’” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, vol. 43, no. 1, 2003, pp. 151–180. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4625062.

John Milton produced some of the most memorable Christian texts in English literature. Central pieces of Milton’s work, including Paradise Lost and Samson Agonistes, specifically allude to stories that Judaism and Christianity hold in common. Historically, the anti-monarchical regime Milton supported, under the leadership of Cromwell, informally allowed Jews back into England in 1655 after Edward I exiled them in 1290 (Trepp 151). Additionally, seventeenth-century British Christians looked increasingly to Jewish texts to understand their own religion (e.g. Robert Ainsworth and John Seldon), with Hebraic studies from German scholarship and Latin translations of Jewish texts entering during the

Sir Thomas Wyatt’s defence covered two major areas; the possible insulting of the king and conspiring with Catholics in a newly decided protestant country. His 1541 defence guards his actions on both parts, however due to the lack of historical evidence it is impossible to know if this defence was ever used, even if we do know he somehow did manage to get himself off the charges. Nevertheless, it offers great insight to the mind and feelings of an otherwise elusive and ambiguous historical figure. It is this, that being Wyatt writing about his own biography, that offers vital importance to his poetry, and more importantly his satires like ‘Myne Owne John Poyntz’. Through Wyatt’s own work we can examine the possible emotion, and tie it down to its own specific historical moment.

BibliographyMilton, John. The Complete Poetry of John Milton. New York; Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. , 1971.

When a person hears Satan, a streak of fear, and the thought of evil arises. People fear Satan, and think of him as evil, but in John Milton’s Paradise Lost, he displays a thought of the Father being the evil being, and Satan a tragic hero. In Paradise Lost, Book 1 and 2, the minor areas where God is shown, He is displayed as hypocritical. He contradicts himself by creating the humans to be of free will, but when Satan displays free will, he is shunned. Satan could be described in many terms, and by many people, but all can be disputed. According to my sources, Satan is displayed as the hero, while God is the evil deity, and Milton was wrong for writing Him as so. In this essay, I will show my thoughts on the subject of Satan as an evil

In “Holy Sonnet 14” by John Donne, dramatizes the conflict between contradictions and a relationship with God.

By making many references to the Bible, John Donne's Holy Sonnets reveal his want to be accepted and forgiven by God. A fear of death without God's forgiveness of sins is conveyed in these sonnets. Donne expresses extreme anxiety and fright that Satan has taken over his soul and God won't forgive him for it or his sins. A central theme of healing and forgiveness imply that John Donne, however much he wrote about God and being holy, wasn't such a holy man all of the time and tried to make up for it in his writing.

John Milton was a great poet during the English Civil War. He was not really discovered until Charles II was in charge and called to restore and rule in France. Milton lost his eyesight in 1651. He had been married a few times, his first wife passed away in 1652, and his second wife passed away in 1658 shortly after child birth. Most people believe his poem, “Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint” was for his beloved second wife, due to the fact that he was blind and never saw her face and her passing after childbirth.

The period before these two poems were written in was filled with religious dissent that first began with Henry VIII’s establishment of the Church of England. This action began a long chain of religious opposition between this new Protestant movement and Catholicism. From entire Protestant rules such as the rule of Henry’s son, James I, to the slaughter and persecution of Protestants in the rule of Mary I, England was searching for a religious identity that