LYCIDAS.*—John Milton. JOHN MILTON (1608-1674) among English poets ranks next to Shakspeare. His youth was spent in long and very earnest study; and to what he thus acquired, he added still more by travelling in foreign countries. He was Latin Secretary to Oliver Cromwell, and for the last twenty-two years of his life was totally blind. Chief poems: L'Allegro and Il Penseroso, Comus, Lycidas, Samson Agonistes; Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, in which he has discarded rhyme, and given us the most splendid specimen of blank verse in the language. Meed, reward. the classical abode of with words of good omen do the same kindly office for me when I am in my Sable shroud, my dark tomb or grave. break. Afield to the fields. Battening, feeding or fattening. * YET once more, O ye laurels,* and once more, * Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year. * With lucky words* favour my destined urn; And bid fair peace be to my sable shroud.* For we were nursed upon the selfsame hill, Oft till the star, that rose at evening bright, wards the west. wheel. 5 10 15 20 25 30 * Lycidas: in this poem Milton bewails a learned friend, Edward King, unfortunately drowned in his passage from Chester, on the Irish Sea, 1637. The name Lycidas was adopted from the Greek poet Theocritus. * * [heel Meanwhile the rural ditties were not mute, But, O the heavy change, now thou art gone, The willows, and the hazel copses green, Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays. 45 As killing as the canker * to the rose, 50 Oaten flute, the shepherds' pipe, made of dry oat straws. Satyrs and Fauns, according to the ancients, were demigods, half man, half goat, who attended upon Bacchus. Damatas, one of Virgil's characters, but here referring to their college tutor. Gadding, winding about, straggling. Canker, something that gnaws, or eats away. Or taint-worm to the weanling* herds that graze, Closed o'er the head of your loved Lycidas ? 55 Nor yet where Deva * spreads her wizard stream: Had ye been there: for what could that have done? 60 Whom universal nature did lament, When, by the rout that made the hideous roar, who watched over Bards, the Druid Mona, the Isle of to have Deva, the river Dee, in olden times said been the haunt of magicians. Orpheus was the son of Calliope, the Muse of Epic poetry. Down the swift Hebrus* to the Lesbian shore? Hebrus (the Maritza), a river in the south of Turkey. profits. 65 To tend the homely, slighted, shepherd's trade, Boots, here 70 Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise To scorn delights and live laborious days; means Guerdon, a reward. 75 Comes the blind Fury* with the abhorred shears, Fury, Atropos, one And slits the thin-spun life. of the three Fates. "But not the praise," Phoebus, Apollo, the Phœbus* replied, and touch'd my trembling god of poetry. ears: "Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil, Set off to the world, nor in broad rumour lies: * 80 of so much fame in heaven expect thy meed." reeds! That strain I heard was of a higher mood: And listens to the herald of the sea He ask'd the waves, and ask'd the felon* winds, And question'd every gust of rugged wings * And sage Hippotades* their answer brings, Last came, * and last did go. 115 Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how to hold Sheep-hook, alluding 120 A sheep-hook,* or have learn'd aught* else to the bishop's crozier, the least * That to the faithful herdsman's art belongs! But, swollen with wind and the rank * mist they which is in shape like a shepherd's crook. Aught, anything. What recks, &c., what does it matter them. to Sped, provided for. out any real value. sound. Rank, here means a very bad taste or smell. Draw, breathe into. Contagion, a catching disease. Rot inwardly, and foul contagion * spread: Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw Daily devours apace, and nothing said: 130 But that two-handed engine at the door Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more." Return, Alpheus,* the dread voice is past, That shrunk thy streams; return, Sicilian Muse, be connected with And call the vales, and bid them hither cast 135 Their bells and flowerets* of a thousand hues. Ye valleys low, where the mild whispers use Alpheus, a stream in Arethusa. Flowerets, little flowers. Of shades, and wanton* winds, and gushing brooks, Wanton, wandering * at pleasure. dom, sparingly. looks; Throw hither all your quaint* enamell'd* eyes, 140 That on the green turf suck the honey'd showers, And purple all the ground with vernal flowers. Bring the rathe* primrose that forsaken dies, The tufted crow-toe, and pale jessamine, The white pink, and the pansy freak'd* with jet, Freaked, spotted or 145 The glowing violet, The musk-rose, and the well-attired woodbine, 150 And daffodillies fill their cups with tears, To strew the laureat hearse* where Lycid lies. Let our frail* thoughts dally* with false surmise; Where thou perhaps, under the whelming tide, streaked. smooth Wan, pale. Laureat hearse, an- ered bier. Dally, delay, linger. Bellerus, St. Michael's Mount, Cornwall; anciently called Bellerium, Where the great vision of the guarded mount Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more, 165 Sunk though he be beneath the wat❜ry floor; And tricks* his beams, and with new-spangled ore 170 * Where, other groves and other streams along, Thus sang the uncouth swain to the oaks and * While the still morn went out with sandals gray; At last he rose, and twitch'd his mantle blue: 175 180 185 190 CHARACTER.-Shakspeare. GOOD name, in man and woman, Is the immediate jewel of their souls. Who steals my purse, steals trash; 'tis something, nothing; 'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands: But he that filches from me my good name, Robs me of that which not enriches him, And makes me poor indeed. 5 |