By the study of his prose works; and III.

By analyzing his poems.
BIRTH AND EARLY WORKS .-- John Milton was born on the 9th of December, 1608, in London.

His grandfather, John Mylton, was a Papist, who disinherited his son, the poet's father, for becoming a Church-of-England man.

His mother was a gentlewoman.

Milton was born just in time to grow up with the civil troubles.