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