OF MAN’S first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste Brought death into the World, and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater Man Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat, 5 Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire That Shepherd who first taught the chosen seed In the beginning how the heavens and earth Rose out of Chaos: I'm a little bit confused. We are learning scansion, marking out lines with stress and unstress marks. This, I can do. So I know that Milton's Paradise Lost is in blank verse. But how can you understand why a poet chooses a particular meter to write on a certain subject? And how does knowing that Milton wrote in blank verse help us understand the subject matter better?