...sing, and build the lofty rhyme. (lines 10-11) The image of Orpheus is appropriately present yet again: What could the Muse herself that Orpheus bore, The...lament, When by the rout that made the hideous roar, His goary visage down the stream was sent, Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore? (lines 58-63) Orpheus...

...herself that Orpheus bore, The Muse herself, for her enchanting son, Whom universal nature did lament, 60 When, by the rout that made the hideous roar, His...To tend the homely, slighted, shepherd's trade, And stricdy meditate the thankless Muse? Were it not better done, as others use, To sport with Amaryllis...

...Mona high, Nor yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream: Ay me, I fondly dream! Had ye been there — for what could that have done? What could the Muse...her enchanting son Whom universal nature did lament, MI When by the rout that made the hideous roar, His gory visage down the stream was sent. Down the...

...protect Orpheus, let alone lowly Lycidas, from disaster: Ay me, I fondly dream! Had ye been there — for what could that have done? What could the Muse...sent, Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore? (11. 56-63) The inability of the Muses to protect their own leads Milton, as Evans writes, to question...

...would have been useless. This fact reminds Milton of one of his favourite stories, the myth of Orpheus: What could the Muse herself that Orpheus bore, The...rout that made the hideous roar His gory visage down M3e stream was sent, Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore. (58-63) Poets die suddenly, and the...

...high, Nor yet where De va spreads her wizard stream: Ay me! I fondly dream — Had ye been there — for what could that have done? What could the Muse...stream was sent, Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore?14 Each set of female figures in the passage — nymphs, Muse, murderous maenads — is succeeded...

...Mona high, Nor yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream. Ay me, I fondly dream! Had ye been there ... for what could that have done? What could the Muse...swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore. Alas! What boots it witli uncessant care To tend the homely slighted shepherd's trade, And strictly meditate the thankless...

...to magically shift its course as an omen of disaster. The Muse herself, for her enchanting son, 60 Whom universal nature did lament, When by the rout...sent, Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore. (d) from Paradise Lost, 1667 These are the opening lines of Book 7 (1-39), at the mid-point of Paradise...

...its course as an omen of diowster, The Muse herself. for her enchanting son. fi0 Whom universal namre did lament. When by the rout that made the hideous...the stream was sent. Down the swift Hebrus to the Leshian shore. (dI from Paradise Lost, 1667 These are the opening lines of Book 7 (1-39l, at the mid-point...

...herself that Orpheus bore. The muse herself for her enchanting son Whom universal nature did lament. 44 When by the rout that made the hideous roar. His gory...sent, Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore. (38-63) The allusion here is to an episode which haunted Milton's imagination for the rest of his life,...