Ay me! whilst thee the shores and sounding seas
Wash far away, where'er thy bones are hurl'd-
Whether beyond the stormy Hebrides,
Where thou perhaps under the whelming tide
Visitest the bottom of the monstrous world,
Or whether thou, to our moist vows denied,
Sleepst by the fable of Bellerus old,
Where the great vision of the guarded mount
Looks toward Namancos and Bayona's hold.
Look homeward Angel now, and melt with ruth;
And, O ye dolphins, waft the hapless youth.

J

L

K

K 155

L

M

160

n

Weep no more, woful shepherds, weep no more;
For Lycidas your sorrow is not dead,

Sunk though he be beneath the wat'ry floor.
So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed,

And yet anon repairs his drooping head,

165

And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore 170 Flames in the forehead of the morning sky:

So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high

Through the dear might of him that walk'd the waves,

Where other groves and other streams along

With nectar pure his oozy locks he laves
And hears the unexpressive nuptial song,

In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love.
There entertain him all the saints above,
In solemn troops and sweet societies,
That sing, and singing in their glory move,
And wipe the tears for ever from his eyes.
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.

175

180

185

Thus sang the uncouth swain to the oaks and rills,
While the still morn went out with sandals gray;
He touched the tender stops of various quills,
With eager thought warbling his Doric lay.

And now the sun had stretch'd out all the hills, 1
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,

190

NOTES

I seq. Cf. Et vos, o lauri, carpam, et te, proxima myrte. (Virgil, Ecl., ii. 54.) The primary meaning of the opening metaphor seems to be: once more, after years of silence, I am writing poetry before my powers are ripe'. But there may be a second meaning: 'once more I am forced to lament an untimely death'. Milton had already written an elegy on the death of the young Marchioness of Winchester (1631) and a poem on the death of his infant niece (1626).

"the

The laurel was sacred to Apollo, the myrtle to Venus; they are therefore symbols of poetry (or music) and love. Ivy was reward of learned brows" (Horace, Carm. 1. 1. 29). The plucking of these leaves symbolizes the composition of poetry (possibly a poem musical, loving, and learned). But the metaphor is twofold: the leaves are also plucked to form garlands to hang on the ‘laureate hearse' of Lycidas—the meaning of which is plain.

Possibly (for Milton's poetry, as Dante's, is often 'polysensous') there may be also an allusion to the poetic gifts, the affectionate character, and the learning of Edward King-cut off 'before the mellowing year'.

2. brown: probably copied from Horace's pulla myrtus, “blackbrown myrtle" (Carm. 1. 25. 18) or Ovid's nigra myrtus (A. A. 3. 690). There is a decided touch of brown in the green of the myrtle leaf.

sere or sear; used of dry leaves, wood, &c. "The sear, the yellow leaf" (Macbeth, v. 3); "matter sere"=tinder, dry leaves, &c. (Paradise Lost, x. 1017); "fuel sere" (Milton's Ps. ii.). Cf. 'to sear' and 'sore', and Ger. versehren and unversehrt.

3. harsh and crude, acrid and unripe. The Latin crudus= bleeding, raw, uncooked, unripened, or undigested; hence also premature, unprepared, &c. Cf. "materials dark and crude" (Paradise Lost, i. 517).

4. The Latin rudis unwrought, unpolished, unskilled; hence also awkward, rough. Here rude seems to mean both 'unskilled' and 'rough'-the latter meaning being brought out by the word 'shatter'.

5. Is before here a conjunction or preposition? Distinctly, I think, a preposition. Milton is not so careless in epithets as to say:

'before the mellowing year shatters your leaves'. Moreover, the leaves are those of evergreens. The construction is the same as in 'ere his prime'. The sense is: 'I pluck your unripe berries and rudely shatter your leaves before the season of mellow fruits'.

But the sense Notice the noun rare in Milton and is here (as

6. dear (as Lat. carus, Fr. cher, Ger. teuer) means what makes large demands either on our feelings or on our resources. Shakespeare uses it in connection with hate as well as love: "dearest foe" (Hamlet, 1. 2), "dearest spite" (Sonn. 37), "dear offences" (Henry V, ii. 2). Mr. Jerram quotes from Sidney's Arcadia: "father of occasion deare"-of which Milton's words seem to be an echo, so that dear may mean here 'important' or 'grievous', as in Shakespeare's "dear peril" (Timon, v. 3). of 'affecting lends more charm to the passage. between two adjectives, a Greek construction not (e.g. Paradise Lost, v. 5, ix. 1003; Nat. 187). often the Lat. et) almost equivalent to 'namely'. 7. Compels. Cf. "When distress and anguish cometh upon you" (Prov. i. 27). Both in English and other languages several nominatives may be regarded as a single subject, and can be followed by a singular verb. Thus, "faith and troth bids them" (Tr. and Cress. iv. 5); dis pietas mea, Et Musa cordi est (Horace, Carm. I. 17). But in old English, the 3rd pers. plur. of verbs ended in -eth, -en, or -es; which is perhaps the explanation of such apparently ungrammatical expressions as:

"Whose own hard dealings teaches them suspect

The deeds of others". (Merchant of Venice, i. 3.)

8. For the name 'Lycidas', see p. 49, and for King's age at the time of his death, see p. 47.

6

9. his peer; his equal. (Lat. par, Fr. pair.) Cf. "To set himself in glory above his peers" (Paradise Lost, i. 39). Nobles are peers' because they have the same rights. Milton uses the word also in this sense ("the grand infernal peers"), and Shakespeare does so always except in "His peers. have found him guilty" (Henry VIII, ii. 1.).

10. From Virgil's "neget quis carmina Gallo?" (Ecl. x. 3).

II. build the lofty rime; from Lat. condere carmen (used by
Horace and Lucretius; cf. ȧoidàs éπúpywoe, Eur. Suppl. 998).
Tennyson's adaptation of the metaphor (in Oenone) is fine:

"Hear me, for I will speak, and build up all
My sorrow with my song".

Rime is printed rhyme in Paradise Lost, i. 16 and other pas-
sages where it is a synonym for poetry; but not in the preface
to Paradise Lost, where it is used in its proper sense.
Some
imagine that Milton wrote rhyme' when he meant verse, con-
necting it with the Gk. pueμós (rhythm). But in the MS. of