Status Updates From Paradise Lost

1-2: “Of Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit Of that Forbidden Tree…” opening words recall the alliteration of the opening words of Genesis in the Hebrew, “b’reshit bara Elohim et hashamayim v'et haaretz”, which is lost in English translation. Milton brings the alliteration that opens Genesis into the English that opens his midrash on Genesis.