ABSTRACT
This chapter intends to approach Paradise Lost as a text charged by the need to control its own creative potential. By focusing on specific authorizing processes within the epic, one can show how the desire for true liberty of thought within the poem activates its own policies of containment and regulation. Concentrating on the Edenic books of Milton's poem, it argues that, in its presentation of the world in its creation perfection, the poem discovers a new space where, freed from the limitations of mortal existence, desires for unrestricted access and activity of ideal fiction. The chapter also focuses on the ways in forming the ideal woman functions as a poetic statement and personal validation of Milton's Edenic composition. Regaining Eve closes by suggesting that the Miltonic construction of the ideal woman claims primacy over all other poet's championing of their mistresses.
