What, according to Milton, is the general purpose of poetry?

• A. To delight and instruct
• B. To persuade solely
• C. To entertain
• D. To record history

Answer: (B)

Milton believes poetry should do two things at once: delight the reader and instruct them. He treats poetry as a crafted art that uses beauty, imagination, and rhythm to capture interest, and then through that engagement it conveys truth, moral insight, or broader understanding. The value of poetry, for him, comes from this combination—pleasure that leads to edification. If poetry aims only to persuade, it becomes mere rhetoric; if it aims only to entertain, it lacks the moral or educational force poetry should have. So, the general purpose is to delight and instruct, using pleasure as a vehicle for instruction.