While Milton decided against writing an explicitly political nationalist poem, he did see himself as writing a poem that performed some kind of political function.

尽管弥尔顿决定要写的不是,有政治性的民族主义诗歌，他也让这首诗,发挥了一定政治作用。

耶鲁公开课 - 弥尔顿课程节选

Milton -- and we know this -- Milton was a political revolutionary, and when he anticipated writing the great poem, he consistently imagined that it would be a poem on a nationalist theme.

弥尔顿--我们知道--是个政治革命家，一直以来他所预想的这首伟大诗歌，的主题应该是民族主义的。

耶鲁公开课 - 弥尔顿课程节选

But by the time Milton begins writing his epic, he abandons his plan for a nationalistic poem, a nationalist poem, and decides instead to use the subject matter that he had been intending for that prospective tragedy, Paradise Lost.

当弥尔顿开始写史诗的时候，他放弃了原来写民族主义诗歌的计划，转而决定用他本来打算写的悲剧,《失乐园》的主题。

耶鲁公开课 - 弥尔顿课程节选