5 When we for age could neither read nor write, 10 Find out some uncouth1 cell, Where brooding Darkness spreads his jealous wings, And the night-raven sings; There, under ebon shades and low-browed rocks, As ragged as thy locks, In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell. To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore: The frolic wind that breathes the spring, As he met her once a-Maying, There, on beds of violets blue, And fresh-blown roses washed in dew, Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee Quips and cranks and wanton wiles, While the cock, with lively din, 1 Uncouth means here unknown, strange, remote. 10 15 20 20 25 25 30 35 35 40 45 50 50 £5 60 With store of ladies, whose bright eyes Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child, And ever, against eating cares, Lap me in soft Lydian airs, Married to immortal verse, Such as the meeting soul may pierce, 125 130 135 In notes with many a winding bout 140 90 That Orpheus' self may heave his head 145 95 His half-regained Eurydice. 150 These delights if thou canst give, And young and old come forth to play On a sunshine holyday, Mirth, with thee I mean to live. Till the livelong daylight fail: Then to the spicy nut-brown ale, 100 With stories told of many a feat, How Faery Mab the junkets' eat. IL PENSEROSO (1634) She was pinched and pulled, she said; 105 When in one night, ere glimpse of morn, is shadowy flail hath threshed the corn That ten day-labourers could not end; Then lies him down the lubber" fiend, And fancies fond with gaudy shapes possess, As thick and numberless 110 And, stretched out all the chimney's length, Basks at the fire his hairy strength, As the gay motes that people the sun-beams, Or likest hovering dreams, Thus done the tales, to bed they creep, By whispering winds soon lulled asleep. Towered cities please us then, To hit the sense of human sight, 15 And the busy hum of men, Where throngs of knights and barons bold, In weeds of peace, high triumphs hold, 120 This ambiguous expression has been frequently discussed; it may mean that every shepherd tells his tale of love; or that the shepherds tell stories to each other; or that each shepherd counts his sheep. Tell may mean either relate or count, as to "tell a story,' "or to "tell one's beads," or "to tell one's money." If this last interpretation is adopted tale=simply to count the sheep. An early form of violin. A kind of cream cheese, here delicious sweetmeats. Eat is the old form of the past terse. Robin Goodfellow, a serviceable fairy refined and etherealized by Shakespeare into l'uck in the Midsummer Night's Dream. 7 Clumsy, sluggish. And therefore to our weaker view 20 8 Used here in its astrological sense. The ladies' eyes influence the contests, as the stars (according to astrology) influenced human events and destinies. The music of the Lydians, a people of Asia Minor, was soft and voluptuous. 1 Profit, avail. 2 Memnon was an Ethiopian Prince famous for his dusky beauty; in this his sister presumably resembled him. Cassiope, who was starred, i. e., turned into the constellation Cassiopeia. The Sea-Nymphs, and their powers offended. His daughter she; in Saturn's reign With a sad leaden downward cast And join with thee calm Peace and Quiet, 25 30 335 40 Or let my lamp, at midnight hour, What worlds or what vast regions hold Or what (though rare) of later age But, O sad Virgin! that thy power And made Hell grant what love did seek; 45 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, 50 The Cherub Contemplation; And the mute Silence hist5 along, 55 'Less Philomel will deign a song, Where more is meant than meets the ear. 120 In her sweetest saddest plight, Smoothing the rugged brow of Night, Thus, Night, oft see me in thy pale career, Till civil-suited Morn appear, While Cynthia checks her dragon yoke Not tricked and frounced, as she was wont Gently o'er the accustomed oak. 60 With the Attic boy14 to hunt, Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of folly, But kercheft in a comely cloud, 125 Most musical, most melancholy! While rocking winds are piping loud, Thee, chauntress, oft the woods among Or ushered with a shower still, I woo, to hear thy even-song; And, missing thee, I walk unseen 65 When the gust hath blown his fill, Ending on the rustling leaves, On the dry smooth-shaven green, 130 To behold the wandering moon, Riding near her highest noon, Like one that had been led astray Through the heaven's wide pathless way, And oft, as if her head she bowed, Stooping through a fleecy cloud. Oft, on a plat of rising ground, I hear the far-off curfew sound, Over some wide-watered shore, Swinging slow with sullen roar; Or, if the air will not permit, 70 75 Some still removèd place will fit, Where glowing embers through the room Teach light to counterfeit a gloom, 80 Far from all resort of mirth, Save the cricket on the hearth, Or the bellman's drowsy charm To bless the doors from nightly harm. 4 Goddess of the fire-side. Apparently an imperative, "bring silently along." With minute-drops from off the eaves. Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well: 235 Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair2 That likest thy Narcissus are? O, if thou have Hid them in some flowery cave, Tell me but where, is Concert, agreement. 240 16 Stained glass windows with scenes illustrative of sacred story. A river celebrated for its winding course (hence our verb to meander). 2 The two brothers of the singer, from whom she has been accidentally separated. LYCIDAS1 (1638) Listen and save! Yet once more,2 O ye laurels, and once more, I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude, Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year.5 10 1 A legendary British princess, who became the goddess of the river Severn. 2 Proteus, a sea-god, who had the power of changing his shape. He had a hook (i. e. shepherd's crook) "because he was the shepherd of the sea-calves." 1 Lycidas is a lament for the death of Edward King, a young man of much promise who had been a fellowstudent of Milton at Cambridge some five years before. King was drowned while on his way to Ireland,-the ship striking a hidden rock off the Welsh coast and going down in a calm sea. 2 Milton had probably written no poetry since Comus, produced three years earlier (1634). 3 Words favorable to the repose of the departed. Such, according to the Roman rite, were the words sit tibi terra leris, uttered by the mourner as he sprinkled the earth three times over the dead. Milton now shadows forth the early companionship of King and himself at Cambridge. Thus the "Satyrs" and "Fauns" (34) are supposed to represent the undergraduates, and "Old Dametus (36) one of the tutors of Christ's College. One of the mountainous heights on the Welsh coast. The Dee, down which King sailed on his way from Chester. As many memories of Arthur and of the old Druidic faith were associated with the "holy Dee," it is called the "wizard," i. e. the enchanted, or magic stream. He asked the waves, and asked the felon winds, What hard mishap hath doomed this gentle swain? And questioned every gust of rugged wings That blows from off each bleaked promontory. They knew not of his story; 95 And sage Hippotades13 their answer brings, 100 8 The Muse herself Calliope. Orpheus was torn in pieces by the Thracian women at a Bacchanalian festival, his limbs strewn upon the plain, and his head cast into the river Hebrus. Amaryllis-Neara. These names borrowed from the classic pastorals, simply stand for young and beautiful maidens. 10 Atropos, who cut the thread of life, was one of the Fates. Milton did not hesitate to add to or modify classic myths, when it suited his purpose. 11 Arethusa-Mincius. Rivers suggestive respectively of Greek and Latin pastoral poetry. 12 Triton. 13 Hippotades, the son of Hippotas, i. c. Eolus. 14 Panope, or Panopea, was one of the Nereids, |