This epic is generally considered one of the greatest works in the English language. In the verses below the portrait in the fourth edition, John Dryden linked Milton with Homer and Virgil, suggesting Milton encompassed and surpassed both: 'Three Poets, in three distant Ages born, Greece, Italy, and England did adorn. The First in loftiness of thought surpass'd; The Next in Majesty; in both the Last. The force of Nature cou'd no farther goe: To make a third she joynd the former two.