Woman discovers 'secret' coded message in John Milton poem 'Paradise Lost'

A young Massachusetts woman who recently graduated from Tufts University is convinced that she has found a 'secret' encoded message in "Paradise Lost," the poem by John Milton.

The Boston Globe reports that Miranda Phaal, who is 23, discovered what she believes is an acrostic, a coded message one sees when scanning the first character in multiple lines, while she was re-reading the poem when she was a senior at Tufts University last year.

"Paradise Lost" is about the story of Adam and Eve from the Christian bible.

The first letters of eight lines in one section spell "fall" three times, Phaal says, and she believes this refers to the 'falls from grace' of Adam, Eve, and Satan. Phaal also says it could be a coincidence, but Milton is known to have enjoyed secret messages.

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Tufts student may have found secret message in 'Paradise Lost' [image: WIKIPEDIA]