The Poetical Works of John Milton

181

Paich XXX 8 He will swallow up death in victory: otheros God will wife away Bears from off all face the rebuke

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shall be take curay from off all the earth; for the Lord hath potent

LYCIDAS.

There entertain him all the saints above,
In solemn troops, and sweet societies,
That sing, and singing in their glory move,

133

180

And wipe the tears for ever from his eyes. XXV & Rev TIL 17.
Now, Lycidas, the shepherds weep no more;
Henceforth thou art the Genius of the shore,
In thy large recompense, and shalt be good
To all that wander in that perilous flood.
Thus sang the uncouth swain to th' oaks and Las & lines for
(unknown) as in Pon for I 407

rills,

185

While the still morn went out with sandals gray,

He touch'd the tender stops of various quills,

Stanza.

in ottava rima

With eager thought warbling his Doric lay;vurity & Mod

And now the sun had stretch'd out all the hills,
And now was dropt into the western bay;

At last he rose,

and twitch'd his mantle blue:

To-morrow to fresh woods, and pastures new.
"Umur kel is Voteger

191

190 See Past. Ægl. on Sir P. Sidney's death, by L. B. ver. 159.

The sun,

lo! hastned hath his face to steep

In western waves; and th' aire with stormy showres,
Warnes us to drive homewards our silly sheep:
Lycon, lett's rise -

193 To-morrow] Fletcher's P. Island, c. vi. s. 77.

the Fellows

To-morrow shall ye feast in pastures new Warton.

who

the manned is

" that more than ordinary respect. wh. I found above any of my equals at the hands of those courteous & learned men, that College wherein I spent sonce years, art my parting after I had taken two degrees, signified many ways how much better it would content letters full of Seidnefy loving respect, both before that time & boy after, I was assured Singular food affection toward

them that I w. ; as

their

many

Milton does not set himself to tell in what rural objects are like, but indicates them by then bewrich bearing on the life hired among them by toy studions youth Town & Country are but acenery on the mood of Mark Part. the huimas arent. Description melts ind emotion Contemplation home, itself in intern

134

IL PENSEROSO.

HENCE, vain deluding joys,

The brood of folly without father bred,
How little you bestead, advantage, help
Or fill the fixed mind with all your toys?
Dwell in some idle brain,

And fancies fond with gaudy shapes possess,
As thick and numberless

As the gay motes that people the sunbeams,
Or likest hovering dreams

The fickle pensioners of Morpheus' train.
But hail thou Goddess, sage and holy,
Hail divinest Melancholy,

Whose saintly visage is too bright

To hit the sense of human sight,

And therefore to our weaker view

O'erlaid with black, staid wisdom's hue;
Black, but such as in esteem

Prince Memnon's sister might beseem,
Or that starr'd Ethiop queen that strove
To set her beauty's praise above

The Sea-Nymphs, and their pow'rs offended :
Yet thou art higher far descended;

13 too bright] Hor. Od. i. xix. 5.
'spici.'

Nimium lubricus

19 Ethiop] 'Noctem Æthiopissam.' Miltoni Prolus. p. 73.

feed of Vall

10 Queen Urizarbett, had for her grand a select jucad of handsome pentlemen called pensioners

It inserose were set

Cromwell when he was dark the

36 Wirensen days of part of a great man he did it with and any indecency notwithstanding the want of custom.

Thee bright-hair'd Vesta, long of yore,
To solitary Saturn bore;

His daughter she (in Saturn's reign,
Such mixture was not held a stain).
Oft in glimmering bow'rs and glades
He met her, and in secret shades
Of woody Ida's inmost grove,
While yet there was no fear of Jove.
Come, pensive Nun, devout and pure,

Sober, steadfast, and demure,

135

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All in a robe of darkest grain, cocca, urple) ton lly swete

Flowing with majestic train,

And sable stole of cyprus lawn, cape
Over thy decent shoulders drawn.
Come, but keep thy wonted state,
With even step, and musing gait,
And looks commèrcing with the skies,
Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes:
There held in holy passion still,

Forget thyself to marble, till

With a sad leaden downward cast

Thou fix them on the earth as fast: Muhale by

abandon

And join with thee calm Peace, and Quiet,poler, dures cunt way
Spare Fast, that oft with Gods doth diet, note top off. 127
And hears the Muses in a ring

Aye round about Joye's altar sing: ve emphatre & note fost
it apports, not a busine
Twelf
Hides heart

416

3 cyprus] Winter's Tale, act iv. sc. 3. que; a five curled linen crich.

· Cyprus black as e'er was crow.' Warton.

37 keep] State in wonted manner keep.' Jonson's Cynth. Rev. act v. s. 6. Warton

43 of Epitaph. Damires 79

Saturni prave socpe fint pastoribus actrum
Intimaque Boliquo frigt praecordia plumbo,
Roman mation, reached down to intelle

35 Stra

20 Mare

69of Drante

a little bird

Wuch as she fain from chore to shore would fly
For lest herself in the broad vasty
sky

Ezekil choy.☆

136

IL PENSEROSO.

And add to these retired Leisure,
That in trim gardens takes his pleasure;
But first, and chiefest, with thee bring,
Him that yon soars on golden wing,
Guiding the fiery-wheeled throne,
The Cherub Contemplation;
Ana the mute Silence hist along,
'Less Philomel will deign a song,
In her sweetest, saddest plight,
Smoothing the rugged brow of night,

3022. 58 While Cynthia checks her dragon
Gently o'er th' accustom'd oak;

only Ceres had yoke, a dragon-woke rano drive on Lavi

Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of folly, of white top
Most musical, most melancholy!

Thee, chauntress, oft the woods among

I woo, to hear thy even-song;

ant the And missing thee, I walk unseen On the dry smooth-shaven green, To behold the wandering moon, of

67 Lamb

rare errentem unan Den I 742 (vry) vaya luna Horace

Riding near her highest noon,
Like one that had been led astray
Through the heav'n's wide pathless way;
And oft, as if her head she bow'd,
Stooping through a fleecy cloud.
Oft on a plat of rising ground,
I hear the far-off curfew sound,

59 Smoothing] Shakesp. Sonnets,

39 checks] Todd's Milton, vol. vi. p. 323.

6e Riding] Eurip. Suppl. 992. ἱππέουσι δι ̓ ὀρφναιας.

best

46 "High actions is high passions & describing Por Ry II 266 Tractate of Education: Attic trojedes optatable & most regal afumery

IL PENSEROSO.

137

This Acter apees to far with thefil as it is an imitation Over some wide-water'd shore, great character, & actions Swinging slow with sullen roar;

Or if the air will not permit,
Some still removed place will fit,

Where glowing embers through the room
Teach light to counterfeit a gloom;

Far from all resort of mirth,

Save the cricket on the hearth,

The singing of the hall
Kyt inches.
off

Or the bellman's drowsy charm,
To bless the doors from nightly harm:

Or let my lamp at midnight hour

Be seen in some high lonely tow'r,

Where I may oft out-watch the Bear, den freak, as the bear

With thrice-great Hermes, or unsphere

The spirit of Plato, to unfold

never wel

What worlds, or what vast regions hold

The immortal mind, that hath forsook Re

Her mansion in this fleshly nook:

And of those Demons that are found

In fire, air, flood, or under ground, OR. I121

Whose power hath a true consent
With planet, or with element.
Sometime let gorgeous tragedy
In sceptred pall come sweeping by,
Presenting Thebes, or Pelops' line,
Or the tale of Troy divine,

alla, an inter farment of richly dyed ovembroider

work often

100

75 wide-water'd] Constable's Son. Ellis's Spec. ii. p. 305.
'Or like the echo of a passing bell,

Which, sounding on the water, seems to howl.'

98 Sceptred] Miltoni Eleg. i. 37. p 257