"Unattempted yet in prose or rhyme": Milton's didactic technique in Paradise Lost

The problem that arises, then, is this the reader comes to the poem prepared to dislike Satan and have nothing but admiration for the Father. The narrator's portrayal is different, however. The reader at times will find himself identifying with Satan, feeling that his cause is justified, and find himself perhaps even repelled by the Father whose behavior some have termed petulant as C. S. Lewis notes in his Preface to Paradise Lost. Some even go so far as to argue that Milton's Satan is morally superior to his God, and that what has been accomplished in the poem is a justification of Satan's ways to men. Percy Bysche Shelley, for one, exemplifies the sympathetic Romantic response.