The Complete Poetry of John Milton (28 page)
Read The Complete Poetry of John Milton Online
Authors: John Milton
Tags: #English; Irish; Scottish; Welsh, #Poetry, #European
130
With minute drops from off the Eaves.
And when the Sun begins to fling
His flaring beams, me Goddes bring
To arched walks of twilight groves,
And shadows brown that
Sylvan
23
loves
135
Of Pine, or monumental Oak,
Where the rude Ax with heaved stroke,
Was never heard the Nymphs to daunt,
Or fright them from their hallow’d haunt.
There in close covert by som Brook,
140
Where no profaner eye may look,
Hide me from Day’s garish eie,
While the Bee with Honied thigh,
That at her flowry work doth sing,
And the Waters murmuring
145
With such consort
24
as they keep,
Entice the dewy-feather’d Sleep;
And let som strange mysterious dream
Wave at his Wings in Airy stream,
Of lively protrature display’d,
150
Softly on my eye-lids laid.
And as I wake, sweet musick breath
Above, about, or underneath,
Sent by som spirit to mortals good,
Or th’ unseen Genius of the Wood.
155
But let my due feet never fail
To walk the studious Cloysters pale,
25
And love the high embowed Roof,
With antick Pillars massy proof,
26
And storied Windows richly dight,
160
Casting a dimm religious light.
There let the pealing Organ blow
To the full voic’d Quire below,
In Service high, and Anthems cleer,
As may with sweetnes, through mine ear,
165
Dissolve me into extasies,
And bring all Heav’n before mine eyes.
And may at last my weary age
Find out the peacefull hermitage,
The Hairy Gown and Mossy Cell,
170
Where I may sit and rightly spell,
27
Of every Star that Heav’n doth shew,
And every Herb that sips the dew;
Till old experience do attain
To somthing like Prophetic strain.
175
These pleasures
Melancholy
give,
And I with thee will choose to live.
(
1631 ?
)
1
foolish.
2
attendants upon the god of dreams.
3
an Ethiopian prince, known for his handsomeness.
4
Cassiopeia boasted that her daughter Andromeda was more beautiful than the Nereids, for which she was made a constellation.
5
Goddess of the hearth, Vesta was the virgin daughter of Saturn. Although the genealogy of Melancholy was apparently made up by Milton, the relation between Saturn and the “pensive nun” may have been suggested by the supposed gravity of those born under the sign of Saturn.
6
son of Saturn, who overthrew his father’s rule of the heavens.
7
a fine, black fabric.
8
firmly established.
9
drawn from Ezekiel’s vision (Ezek. i, x) of the fiery wheels and the throne above the cherubim.
10
The cherubim had the faculty of knowledge and contemplation of divine things.
11
the nightingale.
12
See
Ely
, n. 13.
13
the town’s night-watchman.
14
The northern constellation of the Great Bear, since it never sets, was regarded by Hermes Trismegistus (for whom see
Idea
, n. 10) as a kind of perfection. “Il Penseroso,” reading Hermes, will thus study and think through the full night.
15
Neoplatonic deities of the four elements in the next line.
16
He seems to contemplate such plays as those dealing with the Oedipean dynasty, the house of Atreus, and Euripedes’
Trojan Women
and
Hecuba
, Tragic actors wore high-heeled boots (buskins).
17
a legendary Greek poet praised by Plato.
18
See
L’Allegro
, n. 19.
19
Chaucer, whose unfinished “Squire’s Tale” tells this story. The ring and glass gave special powers of achievement to their owner.
20
course.
21
unshowily dressed.
22
Cephalus; see
El.
5, n. 10.
23
Sylvanus, god of forests.
24
harmony.
25
the bounds of the cloister.
26
grotesque pillars so massive as to prevent the roof from falling.
27
ponder.
Poems
Written During
Studious Retirement
or Associated with the
European Trip
(1632–40)
How soon hath Time the suttle theef of youth,
Stoln on his wing my three and twentith yeer!
My hasting dayes fly on with full career,
1
But my late spring no bud or blossom shew’th.
2
5
Perhaps my semblance might deceave the truth
That I to manhood am arriv’d so neer,
And inward ripenes doth much less appear,
That som more timely-happy spirits
3
indu’th.
4
Yet be it
5
less or more, or soon or slow,
10
It shall be still
6
in strictest measure eev’n
7
To that same lot, however mean or high,
Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heav’n;
All is, if I have grace to use it so,
As ever in my great task-maisters eye.
8
(
Dec. 1632
)
1
speed.
2
It is unlikely that any specific vocation is referred to here, though some have interpreted the line in terms of poetry.
3
those who have matured as one might normally expect. Milton remarks his lack of accomplishment to date, the point made in a letter to a friend, to which he attached this sonnet: “I am somtyme suspicious of my selfe, & doe take notice of a certaine belatednesse in me” (TM, p. 6).
4
invests.
5
inward ripening.
6
always.
7
level, equivalent.
8
“All things are, as they always have been, foreseen by God, my great taskmaster, just as long as I have the grace to use my inward ripeness as He wishes.” As pointed out by Lewis Campbell (
Classical Review
, VIII, 1894, 349), the lines may owe something to Pindar (
Nemean Odes
, IV, 41-43): “Whatsoever excellence Lord Destiny assigned me, well I know that the lapse of time will bring it to its appointed perfection.” Yet they are Biblical too; Exod. xxxiii. 13: “Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight”; and Rom. xii. 3, 6: “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.… Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us.…”
1
Part of an entertainment presented to the Countess Dowager of
Darby
2
at
Harefield,
by som Noble persons of her Family, who appear on the Scene in pastoral habit, moving toward the seat of State
,
3
with this Song.
1. SONG
Look Nymphs, and Shepherds look,
What sudden blaze of majesty
Is that which we from hence descry
Too divine to be mistook:
Fame
that her high worth to raise
Seem’d erst so lavish and profuse,
10
We may justly now accuse
Of detraction from her praise,
Less then half we find exprest,
Envy
bid conceal the rest.
Mark what radiant state she spreds
15
In circle round her shining throne,
Shooting her beams like silver threds.
This this is she alone,
Sitting like a Goddes bright
In the center of her light
20
Might she the wise
Latona
5
be
Or the towred
Cybele
,
6
Mother of a hunderd gods;
Juno
dares not give her odds;
7
Who had thought this clime had held
25
A deity so unparalel’d?
As
they com forward, the Genius of the Wood
8
appears, and turning toward them, speaks.
Gen.
Stay gentle
9
Swains, for though in this disguise,
I see bright honour sparkle through your eyes.
Of famous
Arcady
ye are, and sprung
Of that renowned flood so often sung,