He's starting to champ at the bit. He's ready to write an epic poem on much more important subjects than shepherds and shepherdesses.

他已经迫不及待地想要写一首史诗,写一些比田园牧羊生活更为重要的题材。

耶鲁公开课 - 弥尔顿课程节选

In portraying the deity, I would think, if I were to write an epic poem - I would feel that I would be expected to stay within the fairly narrow parameters of religious decorum.

要表现神性，我认为，要是我要写一首史诗的话,-我肯定会觉得不能越出,宗教教义狭窄的界限。

耶鲁公开课 - 弥尔顿课程节选

It's a good sort of question that gets raised in such a problematic allusion: how do you set out to write an original poem within such a conventional genre like the epic?

对于这样一项有问题的引用,提出这些问题是很好的：,你怎么能开始写一篇标榜原创的诗作,却使用史诗这一传统的文体呢？

耶鲁公开课 - 弥尔顿课程节选

Finally, Milton's poem is late by virtue of the simple fact that it's written in the form of an epic. An epic might have seemed like a great idea when Milton was nineteen, but by the time Milton gets actually around to writing it, it's an entirely superannuated, utterly outdated form.

最后，弥尔顿这么晚才写这首诗是因为,这是一首史诗，在弥尔顿19岁的时候,写首史诗看起来可能是个好主意，但到了弥尔顿真正要写的时候，史诗已经是一种完全落伍过时的诗体了。

耶鲁公开课 - 弥尔顿课程节选