Satan being Satan w/ some beautiful poetry?

My initial observation of this reading was the way these words sounded and how they flowed when being read. The structure of these words was incredible, and it sounds so much better when read aloud. I believe it is better when read aloud as opposed to being read silently due to the fact that this was story was spoken aloud by a blind Milton before being transcribed. 

After having read the first couple hundred lines, and re-read them, I listened to a recording while following along. Having it read to me while I read as well helped me understand the rhythm of the lines. This was helped even more by the footnotes which tells the reader which words were meant to be read in a certain way, a way which the modern English reader may not read them (i.e. "perpetual" is meant to be read with 3 syllables as "per-pet-chal").

The brief introduction before the reading also kind of prepared me for what I was about to dive into, which I found helpful in navigating the words. Also, identifying the subject and sorting the pronouns was massively helpful (though difficult).

me @ all the helpful stuff

The Satan-talk begins pretty much right away, when discussing Eden, and we all know what happened there. We also hear about Satan convincing/tricking/getting people to do other stuff, "Who first seduced them to that foul revolt? / Th' infernal Serpent" (lines 33-34). 

Also early on, we get that Satan and his "host of rebel angels" (dibs on that band name) are cast out because Satan wanted to overthrow God's monarchy (around line 40-45), which I found to be a really interesting word choice especially due to the discussions we've recently had in class about treason/Charles' execution. While there's almost a 20 year gap between these two events, I can't imagine the views on treason changed much, and if a king can be executed for it I imagine Satan won't be looked upon highly for speaking against God's monarchy. 

I found this a really pleasant challenge in that this was really difficult to read, but greatly rewarding once I understood it. I'd also like to throw in the disclaimer that I'm proud to have been able to understand maybe 1/3 of what I read, but that's a good enough improvement for me.