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Lycidas
Excerpt from Lycidas
And as he passes turn, And bid fair peace be to my sable shroud. For we were nursed upon the self same hill, Fed the same ?ock by fountain, shade, and rill. Together both, ere the high.
And as he passes turn, And bid fair peace be to my sable shroud. For we were nursed upon the self same hill, Fed the same ?ock by fountain, shade, and rill. Together both, ere the high.
28 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1638
3 people are currently reading
592 people want to read
About the author
John Milton
3,776 books2,245 followersPeople best know John Milton, English scholar, for
Paradise Lost
, the epic poem of 1667 and an account of fall of humanity from grace.
Beelzebub, one fallen angel in Paradise Lost, of John Milton, lay in power next to Satan.
Belial, one fallen angel, rebelled against God in Paradise Lost of John Milton.
John Milton, polemicist, man of letters, served the civil Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell. He wrote in blank verse at a time of religious flux and political upheaval.
Prose of John Milton reflects deep personal convictions, a passion for freedom and self-determination, and the urgent issues and political turbulence of his day. He wrote in Latin, Greek, and Italian and achieved international renown within his lifetime, and his celebrated Areopagitica (1644) in condemnation of censorship before publication among most influential and impassioned defenses of free speech and the press of history.
William Hayley in biography of 1796 called and generally regarded John Milton, the "greatest ... author," "as one of the preeminent writers in the ... language," though since his death, critical reception oscillated often on his republicanism in the centuries. Samuel Johnson praised, "with respect to design may claim the first place, and with respect to performance, the second, among the productions of the ... mind," though he, a Tory and recipient of royal patronage, described politics of Milton, an "acrimonious and surly republican."
Because of his republicanism, centuries of British partisanship subjected John Milton.
Beelzebub, one fallen angel in Paradise Lost, of John Milton, lay in power next to Satan.
Belial, one fallen angel, rebelled against God in Paradise Lost of John Milton.
John Milton, polemicist, man of letters, served the civil Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell. He wrote in blank verse at a time of religious flux and political upheaval.
Prose of John Milton reflects deep personal convictions, a passion for freedom and self-determination, and the urgent issues and political turbulence of his day. He wrote in Latin, Greek, and Italian and achieved international renown within his lifetime, and his celebrated Areopagitica (1644) in condemnation of censorship before publication among most influential and impassioned defenses of free speech and the press of history.
William Hayley in biography of 1796 called and generally regarded John Milton, the "greatest ... author," "as one of the preeminent writers in the ... language," though since his death, critical reception oscillated often on his republicanism in the centuries. Samuel Johnson praised, "with respect to design may claim the first place, and with respect to performance, the second, among the productions of the ... mind," though he, a Tory and recipient of royal patronage, described politics of Milton, an "acrimonious and surly republican."
Because of his republicanism, centuries of British partisanship subjected John Milton.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
February 16, 2025
When I first read this poem at college In 1967, I thought it the most exquisitely perfect poem I had ever read. This work alone convinced me to major In English. Yet among my friends and favourite critics the jury was out on its merit.
I loved it for its classicist's spin on the death of a beloved friend - an exceedingly worthy and pious friend, who, unlike Milton, loved the Anglican Church and was an ill-fated Priest, destined for a "watery bier" In a South Irish Sea shipwreck.
In 1910, the scholarly critic James Holly Hanford praised this classic piece of inspiration as "probably the most perfect piece of pure literature in existence," and yet the greatest-known critic of English Lit, Samuel Johnson, decried it as an abject failure.
But Johnson was an opinionated religious Puritan like Milton. So what gives?
I think I may be able to solve that mystery....
You see, by the time Milton wrote it the Puritans had defeated the Monarchists and gained the Throne of England. But by the Glorious Revolution of the Church of England engineered by King William, Britain had become disillusioned with Cromwell AND Catholicism.
A Polarized Age (as ours is again, now) produces a Polarized Public. Nowadays, we all make war on our fellows rather than love 'em! The religious right hates the woke left, and vice versa.
True compassionate peace and brotherhood is a Hippie Cold War Relic! So even wise Old Timers are ignored and stifled.
But Milton? His Puritanism was comfortable (Puritans were now in charge in Britain) while Johnson's Monarchism was a strange bedfellow to his Puritanism, by the monarchical but more cynical eighteenth century.
So Johnson’s inner struggle in a time of cynicism produced truly great Mannerist criticism, while Milton's comfort following the bloody English War of Religion had produced Great Classical Poetry - THIS masterpiece.
You see, Mannerism is eternally at war with Classicism. An eternal game of unsettled emotions versus settled Faith.
No wonder Johnson dissed Milton!
But for both of them, just as the War against Discomfort produces, in an Oyster, the Pearl of Great Price...
Just so, in the end for all of us, without the Pain of Loss, there is no Creative Gain.
https://youtu.be/S_mp5oA-LTM?si=wafA0...
I loved it for its classicist's spin on the death of a beloved friend - an exceedingly worthy and pious friend, who, unlike Milton, loved the Anglican Church and was an ill-fated Priest, destined for a "watery bier" In a South Irish Sea shipwreck.
In 1910, the scholarly critic James Holly Hanford praised this classic piece of inspiration as "probably the most perfect piece of pure literature in existence," and yet the greatest-known critic of English Lit, Samuel Johnson, decried it as an abject failure.
But Johnson was an opinionated religious Puritan like Milton. So what gives?
I think I may be able to solve that mystery....
You see, by the time Milton wrote it the Puritans had defeated the Monarchists and gained the Throne of England. But by the Glorious Revolution of the Church of England engineered by King William, Britain had become disillusioned with Cromwell AND Catholicism.
A Polarized Age (as ours is again, now) produces a Polarized Public. Nowadays, we all make war on our fellows rather than love 'em! The religious right hates the woke left, and vice versa.
True compassionate peace and brotherhood is a Hippie Cold War Relic! So even wise Old Timers are ignored and stifled.
But Milton? His Puritanism was comfortable (Puritans were now in charge in Britain) while Johnson's Monarchism was a strange bedfellow to his Puritanism, by the monarchical but more cynical eighteenth century.
So Johnson’s inner struggle in a time of cynicism produced truly great Mannerist criticism, while Milton's comfort following the bloody English War of Religion had produced Great Classical Poetry - THIS masterpiece.
You see, Mannerism is eternally at war with Classicism. An eternal game of unsettled emotions versus settled Faith.
No wonder Johnson dissed Milton!
But for both of them, just as the War against Discomfort produces, in an Oyster, the Pearl of Great Price...
Just so, in the end for all of us, without the Pain of Loss, there is no Creative Gain.
https://youtu.be/S_mp5oA-LTM?si=wafA0...
November 7, 2020
From BBC Radio 4 - Drama:
A two-part drama telling the stories behind two of the greatest and most influential poetic elegies ever published in English - Milton's Lycidas and Tennyson's In Memoriam.
Part 1. Milton's Lycidas - starring Holliday Grainger and Nico Mirallegro.
Although written two centuries apart, in 1637 and 1833, the making and circumstances of these great elegies are full of interconnections and are centred on the poetic response to grief and loss. Milton's Lycidas is the first great elegy in English poetry. Both Lycidas and In Memoriam were written in response to the sudden unexpected death of a young male friend, striking the poets in their mid-twenties. when the poets were students at Cambridge. The dead men were prodigiously gifted and also poets, early rivals and first readers to the poets who elegised them.
Milton and Tennyson were thereby thrown into personal grief and poetic challenge, but how to make a poetic elegy that honours and reflects that genuine grief whilst rising to the challenge of the first great poetic subject in these young poets' lives? Milton and Tennyson responded to these complex and terrible circumstances with radically different elegies that stand among the finest poems in English literature.
CAST
Holliday Grainger ..... Emily Tennyson
Nico Mirallegro ..... John Milton
James Cooney ..... Alfred Lord Tennyson
Conrad Nelson ..... John Milton senior
Ashley Margolis ..... Diodati
Elegies was written and adapted from Lycidas by John Milton by Michael Symmons Roberts
Directed by Susan Roberts
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00...
A two-part drama telling the stories behind two of the greatest and most influential poetic elegies ever published in English - Milton's Lycidas and Tennyson's In Memoriam.
Part 1. Milton's Lycidas - starring Holliday Grainger and Nico Mirallegro.
Although written two centuries apart, in 1637 and 1833, the making and circumstances of these great elegies are full of interconnections and are centred on the poetic response to grief and loss. Milton's Lycidas is the first great elegy in English poetry. Both Lycidas and In Memoriam were written in response to the sudden unexpected death of a young male friend, striking the poets in their mid-twenties. when the poets were students at Cambridge. The dead men were prodigiously gifted and also poets, early rivals and first readers to the poets who elegised them.
Milton and Tennyson were thereby thrown into personal grief and poetic challenge, but how to make a poetic elegy that honours and reflects that genuine grief whilst rising to the challenge of the first great poetic subject in these young poets' lives? Milton and Tennyson responded to these complex and terrible circumstances with radically different elegies that stand among the finest poems in English literature.
CAST
Holliday Grainger ..... Emily Tennyson
Nico Mirallegro ..... John Milton
James Cooney ..... Alfred Lord Tennyson
Conrad Nelson ..... John Milton senior
Ashley Margolis ..... Diodati
Elegies was written and adapted from Lycidas by John Milton by Michael Symmons Roberts
Directed by Susan Roberts
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00...
Read
July 6, 2025Read for the House of Humane Letter's summer course, "How to Read a Poem Like C.S. Lewis."
I will need to reread this, attend class, and perhaps read some companion essays. In my first go-around, I understood very little of the poem that Harold Bloom referred to as one of the greatest poems in the English language.
I will need to reread this, attend class, and perhaps read some companion essays. In my first go-around, I understood very little of the poem that Harold Bloom referred to as one of the greatest poems in the English language.
December 31, 2017
A very brief look into both a classical poetry type and the struggle with grief overy the loss of an aquaintance, both done well in Milton's deft hands.
January 18, 2023
Twice in a row now, my first read of the year has been Milton. He’s not even my favourite author!!
However, I also cannot deny his abilities. Even with this, having not yet come into his own as a poet, he still made his words dance and flit across the page.
This poem is part of an anthology to commemorate the loss of one of his classmates at Cambridge, Sir Edward King.
As much as this poem is melancholic and bitter at the fact that a budding soul was taken so soon, it is also a piece of work. Even in the early stages of his career, Milton did not shy away from using every metaphor and reference known to man to fill his rhymes with. Some may call it pretentious, but the way I’ve come to see it—and the way my own professor has described it to me— is that he was writing as a scholar (as a University student, that is) to other scholars. Which, considering the crowd that did attend University in the 1600s, can definitely be seen as an ostentatious and flashy piece. Something only fit for the elite to understand. However, he only used lore that would be “common knowledge” to a student in higher education. Which is to say: common knowledge to myself as well. While the way subjects are taught now and what is taught has definitely changed since then, and while I may not have been exposed to all that he speaks about in this poem, I still appreciate the complexity. I appreciate the little *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge* of: “Hey, you. Humanities student. You should know this shit. You’re gonna keep running into Virgil and allusions to the Catholic Church. Get with the program.” It feels almost as if Milton is extending his own hand through the ethos to grasp at mine. The touching words being from one student to another. From one aspiring artist to another. From one word-hungry child to another.
I’m not sure why I consistently speak about dead writers as if they are friends whom I dearly miss because I have not seen them for a long time. Maybe it is this childish desire to unite them all in my head. That if I can link them all back to myself, I can build an armada of writers to… do what exactly? I’m not sure. Perhaps if all could write and create at the same time, it would form a symphony of words and sentences that could cure the world of all its illnesses. Yes, there is a “literary cannon”, but what if there was a literal canon? To create something so powerful that it would shake the world and force all people to read and reflect in its wake. If one writer can impact the lives of hundreds of thousands. What could hundreds of writers do if they wrote all at once?
Okay. That had absolutely nothing to do with Lycidas or Milton (unless you consider that Milton has touched me so much with this poem, to a point where I am writing him fan mail)
But anyway. Great poem. Staggering. Undoubtedly cool. Cheers, mate!
However, I also cannot deny his abilities. Even with this, having not yet come into his own as a poet, he still made his words dance and flit across the page.
This poem is part of an anthology to commemorate the loss of one of his classmates at Cambridge, Sir Edward King.
As much as this poem is melancholic and bitter at the fact that a budding soul was taken so soon, it is also a piece of work. Even in the early stages of his career, Milton did not shy away from using every metaphor and reference known to man to fill his rhymes with. Some may call it pretentious, but the way I’ve come to see it—and the way my own professor has described it to me— is that he was writing as a scholar (as a University student, that is) to other scholars. Which, considering the crowd that did attend University in the 1600s, can definitely be seen as an ostentatious and flashy piece. Something only fit for the elite to understand. However, he only used lore that would be “common knowledge” to a student in higher education. Which is to say: common knowledge to myself as well. While the way subjects are taught now and what is taught has definitely changed since then, and while I may not have been exposed to all that he speaks about in this poem, I still appreciate the complexity. I appreciate the little *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge* of: “Hey, you. Humanities student. You should know this shit. You’re gonna keep running into Virgil and allusions to the Catholic Church. Get with the program.” It feels almost as if Milton is extending his own hand through the ethos to grasp at mine. The touching words being from one student to another. From one aspiring artist to another. From one word-hungry child to another.
I’m not sure why I consistently speak about dead writers as if they are friends whom I dearly miss because I have not seen them for a long time. Maybe it is this childish desire to unite them all in my head. That if I can link them all back to myself, I can build an armada of writers to… do what exactly? I’m not sure. Perhaps if all could write and create at the same time, it would form a symphony of words and sentences that could cure the world of all its illnesses. Yes, there is a “literary cannon”, but what if there was a literal canon? To create something so powerful that it would shake the world and force all people to read and reflect in its wake. If one writer can impact the lives of hundreds of thousands. What could hundreds of writers do if they wrote all at once?
Okay. That had absolutely nothing to do with Lycidas or Milton (unless you consider that Milton has touched me so much with this poem, to a point where I am writing him fan mail)
But anyway. Great poem. Staggering. Undoubtedly cool. Cheers, mate!
February 21, 2022
Lycidas is deceased and the poet writes to bewail his death. Lycidas himself was a great poet, and so his death must not remain unsung. The poet’s powers are not yet fully matured; still he would write an elegy to articulate his grief.
The poet invokes the Muses to motivate him so that he may express grief over his friend’s death in an apposite manner. He hopes that just as he is now mourning the death of Edward King, some other poet would mourn for him when he himself dies.
Using the predictable imagery and phraseology of the pastoral, he tells us that he and Edward King were close friends and companions at Cambridge. The poet remembers his happy college life when he enjoyed the company of his friend. All nature mourns the demise of Lycidas.
Milton asks the nymphs, the goddesses of rivers and mountains, why did they not save from drowning their beloved Lycidas? Why were they not present at the place where he was drowned?
But the very next moment the poet checks himself, for he realises the futility of his complaint. Even if the goddesses, had been present there, they would have failed to save the life of Lycidas. Even gods are helpless before death.
The passage forms one of the two long digressions in the poem. The poet comments on the decline of poetry in the age. It is useless now to devote oneself night and day to the writing of sermons and poetry, for people do not care for it. It is much better to write love-lyrics as other poets of the age do.
It is the desire for Fame which makes a poet live laborious days in the service of poetry, butjust when a poet is near fame and popularity, his life is cut short by cruel fate and he dies. But the very next moment Apollo, the god of poetry, reminds the poet that true fame is not of this world and it does not depend upon the opinion of the people of this world. True fame arises from the approval of God Himself.
Such fame is immortal. It lives on even after the death of the poet. Therefore, he (Milton) need not despair, he would certainly get the reward he deserves.
After the parenthesis on the true nature of fame the poet returns to his main subject, i.e., the death of Lycidas. When his ship was wrecked, the ocean was tranquil and hushed. There was no storm blowing. Therefore, the ship must be blamed for the tragedy. It must have been constructed under an eclipse and cursed by witches.
In keeping with the pastoral tradition, Milton now introduces a procession of mourners mourning the death of Lycidas. One of them is Camus, representing the University of Cambridge, the friends and teachers of Edward King.
The other mourner is St. Peter who mourns the death of King because he was intended for the Church, and would have been a true shepherd to his sheep. The introduction of St. Peter provides Milton with an excuse for a long digression denouncing the dishonest clergy of his times.
After the indignant denunciation of the corrupt clergy, Milton returns again to his main theme. He now asks the pastoral Muse to collect flowers of a sober colour to strew them over the dead body of Lycidas. But the very next moment, he remembers that Lycidas was drowned and his body has not been recovered.
Alas therefore, flowers cannot be strewn over the dead body of Lycidas. Even this consolation is denied to the poet.
In the conventional manner of a pastoral elegy, Milton ends his elegy on a npte of consolation and hope. Though drowned in the ocean, Lycidas is not dead in reality. Like the sun, he would rise again and live a happier and nthler life in some other region. His abode henceforth would be Heaven, the kingdom of God.
Perhaps he would become the Genius (protecting Angel) of the shore near which he was drowned, and protect from harm all those who sail in that dangerous sea.
In this concluding passage, Milton forgets that he was writing a pastoral elegy and speaks in his own person. With the setting of the sun, he ends his lament and departs to fresh woods and pastures new.
It may be a reference to his proposed journey to Italy or to the fact that henceforth he would write poetry in another vein. He would write his epic and never again take up mosques, pastorals and idylls.
The poet invokes the Muses to motivate him so that he may express grief over his friend’s death in an apposite manner. He hopes that just as he is now mourning the death of Edward King, some other poet would mourn for him when he himself dies.
Using the predictable imagery and phraseology of the pastoral, he tells us that he and Edward King were close friends and companions at Cambridge. The poet remembers his happy college life when he enjoyed the company of his friend. All nature mourns the demise of Lycidas.
Milton asks the nymphs, the goddesses of rivers and mountains, why did they not save from drowning their beloved Lycidas? Why were they not present at the place where he was drowned?
But the very next moment the poet checks himself, for he realises the futility of his complaint. Even if the goddesses, had been present there, they would have failed to save the life of Lycidas. Even gods are helpless before death.
The passage forms one of the two long digressions in the poem. The poet comments on the decline of poetry in the age. It is useless now to devote oneself night and day to the writing of sermons and poetry, for people do not care for it. It is much better to write love-lyrics as other poets of the age do.
It is the desire for Fame which makes a poet live laborious days in the service of poetry, butjust when a poet is near fame and popularity, his life is cut short by cruel fate and he dies. But the very next moment Apollo, the god of poetry, reminds the poet that true fame is not of this world and it does not depend upon the opinion of the people of this world. True fame arises from the approval of God Himself.
Such fame is immortal. It lives on even after the death of the poet. Therefore, he (Milton) need not despair, he would certainly get the reward he deserves.
After the parenthesis on the true nature of fame the poet returns to his main subject, i.e., the death of Lycidas. When his ship was wrecked, the ocean was tranquil and hushed. There was no storm blowing. Therefore, the ship must be blamed for the tragedy. It must have been constructed under an eclipse and cursed by witches.
In keeping with the pastoral tradition, Milton now introduces a procession of mourners mourning the death of Lycidas. One of them is Camus, representing the University of Cambridge, the friends and teachers of Edward King.
The other mourner is St. Peter who mourns the death of King because he was intended for the Church, and would have been a true shepherd to his sheep. The introduction of St. Peter provides Milton with an excuse for a long digression denouncing the dishonest clergy of his times.
After the indignant denunciation of the corrupt clergy, Milton returns again to his main theme. He now asks the pastoral Muse to collect flowers of a sober colour to strew them over the dead body of Lycidas. But the very next moment, he remembers that Lycidas was drowned and his body has not been recovered.
Alas therefore, flowers cannot be strewn over the dead body of Lycidas. Even this consolation is denied to the poet.
In the conventional manner of a pastoral elegy, Milton ends his elegy on a npte of consolation and hope. Though drowned in the ocean, Lycidas is not dead in reality. Like the sun, he would rise again and live a happier and nthler life in some other region. His abode henceforth would be Heaven, the kingdom of God.
Perhaps he would become the Genius (protecting Angel) of the shore near which he was drowned, and protect from harm all those who sail in that dangerous sea.
In this concluding passage, Milton forgets that he was writing a pastoral elegy and speaks in his own person. With the setting of the sun, he ends his lament and departs to fresh woods and pastures new.
It may be a reference to his proposed journey to Italy or to the fact that henceforth he would write poetry in another vein. He would write his epic and never again take up mosques, pastorals and idylls.
July 18, 2017
This was just a rambling poem that roamed about with no destination except to help the author deal with his grief at the loss of his friend in prose.
February 15, 2023
Milton beautifully captured and preserved his grief for eternity.
Not sure what exactly, but this poem made me feel something.
Not sure what exactly, but this poem made me feel something.
November 4, 2025
Men created elegies to talk about their dead bros without sounding gay
March 30, 2025
This is a poem worth savoring—as nearly all great poetry is—line by line, unpacking its meanings and allusions. The repetition of sounds like the o’s evoke mourning, while the softer l’s lend lightness, each sound portrays the feelings of this passionate poem.
I spent two hours studying this relatively short poem and the time flew by. What an extraordinary work this is—not just a masterpiece of elegy, but a profound ode to friendship, loss, and artistic legacy
Resources used:
https://milton.host.dartmouth.edu/rea...
https://youtu.be/8PB-IFgdL68
https://youtu.be/0QmqnkNYKss
I spent two hours studying this relatively short poem and the time flew by. What an extraordinary work this is—not just a masterpiece of elegy, but a profound ode to friendship, loss, and artistic legacy
Resources used:
https://milton.host.dartmouth.edu/rea...
https://youtu.be/8PB-IFgdL68
https://youtu.be/0QmqnkNYKss
April 27, 2024
‘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 strecht out all the hills,
And now was dropped into the western bay.
At last he rose, and twicht his mantle blue;
Tomorrow to fresh woods, and pastures new.’
He touched the tender stops of various quills,
With eager thought warbling his Doric lay;
And now the sun had strecht out all the hills,
And now was dropped into the western bay.
At last he rose, and twicht his mantle blue;
Tomorrow to fresh woods, and pastures new.’
December 11, 2025
A pastoral elegy that Milton wrote after the drowning of his great friend Edward King. It definitely helps to have annotations to understand all the wording.
Thomas Jefferson made a small contribution to this style with the sudden passing of his dear friend Dabney Carr.
I had not read since college, so good to revisit.
Thomas Jefferson made a small contribution to this style with the sudden passing of his dear friend Dabney Carr.
I had not read since college, so good to revisit.
Read
January 3, 2026«Begin then, Sisters of the sacred well
That from beneath the seat of Jove doth spring;
Begin, and somewhat loudly sweep the string.
Hence with denial vain and coy excuse!
So may some gentle muse
With lucky words favour my destin'd urn, And as he passes turn
And bid fair peace be to my sable shroud!»
That from beneath the seat of Jove doth spring;
Begin, and somewhat loudly sweep the string.
Hence with denial vain and coy excuse!
So may some gentle muse
With lucky words favour my destin'd urn, And as he passes turn
And bid fair peace be to my sable shroud!»
August 16, 2019
Both a poignant expression of grief and a philosophical exploration of the nature of true faith; Milton always had more than one thing going on.
November 6, 2019
Confessional poetry about grief knows no bounds!
November 2, 2020
"To-morrow to fresh woods, and pastures new."
September 19, 2022
read for university
January 7, 2023
This poem is so powerful and heart breaking. Milton... you're a genius, I have no doubt!!!
I need a hug :" This made me cry my eye balls out. So beautiful🤍🤍🤍
I need a hug :" This made me cry my eye balls out. So beautiful🤍🤍🤍
Read
October 16, 2023beautiful but empty
March 5, 2024
what a beautiful memorial for a lost friend. there were a lot of references to myths and ancient people. now i have a lot of google tabs to close
February 26, 2025
i want to borrow milton's ego
March 13, 2025
Milton’s genius will never fail to astound me.
July 27, 2025
“surely no man could have fancied that he read Lycidas with pleasure had he not known its author.”
April 17, 2024
// 3:
Reread while revising for exam, which on second thought I didn't NEED to do because I'm not being TESTED on Lycidas (BLASTED WASTE OF TIME) but this is probably my favourite of Milton's works, which is saying something, considering we read Comus, Lycidas, Samson Agonistes, and Paradise Lost in this class. Beautiful, heartbreaking, points to a reality deeper and further and wider and more beautiful than death. STILL MAD THAT I READ IT THOUGH
// 1 + 2:
Read for class :) twice, for good measure :) I want to go BACK TO SLEEP
Reread while revising for exam, which on second thought I didn't NEED to do because I'm not being TESTED on Lycidas (BLASTED WASTE OF TIME) but this is probably my favourite of Milton's works, which is saying something, considering we read Comus, Lycidas, Samson Agonistes, and Paradise Lost in this class. Beautiful, heartbreaking, points to a reality deeper and further and wider and more beautiful than death. STILL MAD THAT I READ IT THOUGH
// 1 + 2:
Read for class :) twice, for good measure :) I want to go BACK TO SLEEP
May 6, 2011
The piece is truly beautiful and melancholy. But I wonder if it got too sentimental at times. I'm glad that Milton ended it on a more positive note.
June 26, 2022
a very difficult knotty text but it’s milton at his best undoubtedly
November 15, 2022
death sad.
October 7, 2024
the tortured poets department
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews