It took me about a year of free time to memorize.” Faculty members, students and staff each took turns reading at the podium.

“So I made a decision to learn at least book one and then I just kept going. “I memorized them back when I was in graduate school because I loved the language so much, and I wanted to know this language that I love by heart,” he said. “I’m thrilled that the English department is bringing this enthusiasm out of the classroom and into the bigger world so that we can share it with others.”Īfter President McInnis read the opening lines, Pfeiffer took a turn, reciting more than 700 lines of the poem - from memory. “It’s my pleasure to participate in today’s reading and to see this energy and enthusiasm and excitement for what is indeed one of the English language’s most powerful and enduring poems, one that has helped shape so much of the way we think,” she said. President McInnis, herself a cultural historian, offered a few words before kicking off the reading. “This is a great poem about freewill and evil, and this gives us an occasion to think about both of those things.” President Maurie McInnis began the event by reading the first part of the poem. “It’s nice to celebrate a remarkable poem, but in this time of the ascendancy of visual culture, it’s important to be reminded of what it’s like to engage with text in a sustained way,” said Pfeiffer. Douglas Pfeiffer, an associate professor who led the reading, described the poem as a timeless and culturally relevant piece of literature. The reading was presented by the Department of English, part of a month-long celebration of National Poetry Month. With Stony Brook President Maurie McInnis’ recitation of the first line of Paradise Lost, a marathon, all-day reading of John Milton’s epic poem contemplating the source of evil began outside the Humanities Building shortly after 9 am on April 19. “Of man’s first disobedience and the fruit of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste brought death into the world, and all our woe.” Associate Professor Douglas Pfeiffer read 700 lines of Paradise Lost from memory at the day-long reading of John Milton’s epic poem.

Miltons paradise lost