keep our imagination keenly on the alert,- —our visual imagination to picture such a scene as is given in the lines Towers and battlements it sees and our spiritual imagination to respond to such expressive lines as these: There, held in holy passion still, L'ALLEGRO (Page 339) 1-3. This personification of Melancholy, the indication of her relationship to the three-headed watchdog of the nether world, and of her birthplace on the banks of the river of Hades is all, of course, an invention of Milton's fancy, typical of those with which he inlays his poetry. 10. Cimmerian: according to Homer, a race living far to the west, in perpetual darkness and mist. 12. Euphrosyne: one of the Graces. Of the two theories of parentage suggested, it is easy to see why the second should commend itself more to Milton. Yclept: an archaism meaning "called." 29. Hebe: the cup-bearer to the Gods, typifying eternal youth. 36. Mountain nymph: The whereabouts of Liberty's natural home is happily suggested. 45. Then to come: It seems best to regard this as parallel with "to hear " above, meaning that Allegro comes, and, through the window, bids good-morrow to one of his household or, perhaps, to the world of nature about him. In spite of equivalent to in despite of (in order to spite) sorrow. 55. Hoar hill: The indication of hoar-frost sets the season late-good hunting weather. 67. Tells his tale: Besides the obvious meaning, the expression often signifies "counts the number" of sheep-a natural and profitable morning occupation. 71. Lawns: open fields. Fallows: land left ploughed, but without crops. 80. Cynosure: originally the constellation of the Lesser Bear, by which sailors steered; then, by a figure, anything that attracted the gaze and admiration of the many. 83-8. Corydon, etc.: The four names in this group, the first two of shepherds, the last two of shepherdesses, have been traditional in pastoral poetry since the time of Theocritus. 91. Secure: has here the earlier meaning of 'care-free." 94. Rebeck: a rude kind of fiddle. 102. Faery Mab: the mischievous sprite whose playful tricks on the junkets (cream cheese) of the country wenches are the subject of many a story. 104-14. Friar's lantern, etc.: Now one of the men takes up the tale, and tells of being led by Friar Rush, or Jacko'-lantern, to a spot where Robin Goodfellow performs prodigious feats for the reward of a bowl of cream, before having to beat a hasty retreat at dawn. Lubber fiend here means no more than a kind of clownish Brownie houseservant. Crop-full: stomach-stuffed. 120. Weeds: garments in general, according to older usage. 125-30. Hymen: the God of the marriage feast, with his appropriate companions. 132. Learned sock: the low slipper (Latin soccus) worn by the actor in comedy, contrasted with the high boot, or buskin, of the tragic stage. Compare Il Penseroso, line 102. 136. Lydian airs: tender and voluptuous melodies, as contrasted with the sprightly Phrygian music or the majestic Dorian. The melody of sound in this passage (135-144), so exquisitely following the sense, peculiarly rewards a sympathetic reading aloud. 145-50. Orpheus, etc.: The story of Orpheus, whose music prevailed on Pluto to release his dead wife from Hades, is referred to again in Il Pensoroso, lines 105-8. IL PENSEROSO 3. Bestead: satisfy, profit. 4. Toys: trifling vanities. 6. Fond: here, foolish," according to earlier usage. 10. Pensioners: an honorary body-guard. Morpheus: the God of dreams. This line is a good example of Milton's most concentrated diction, each word requiring sympathetic comprehension before the significance of the phrase can be grasped in its entirety. 18. Prince Memnon's sister: Milton transfers the peerless beauty of a traditional hero, Memnon, to a sister, whom he seems to have invented. 19. Starred Ethiop queen: Cassiopeia, whose boasts that the beauty of her daughter Andromache surpassed that of the Nereids brought vengeance from the God of the Sea. The fact that both mother and daughter were afterwards placed among the constellations accounts for the epithet "starred." 23-30. Bright-haired Vesta, etc.: This passage assigns the birth of Melancholy to the age of primitive innocence in the world, before Jove displaced Saturn as King. The purpose is evidently to attribute calm and sanctity to the Goddess. Ida's inmost grove: in a mountain in Crete. 33. Grain: used in Milton's time for a rich purple dye. 35. Stole: evidently here a kind of shawl. Cipres lawn: a kind of fine black crêpe. 36. Decent: used here in Latin sense of "comely." 52-4. Professor Masson's explanation of the passage is as follows: "A daring use of the great vision, in Ezekiel, chap. x, of the sapphire throne, the wheels of which were four cherubs, while in the midst of them and underneath the throne was a burning fire. Milton ventures to name one of these cherubs who guide the fiery wheelings of the visionary throne." 55. Hist: a coined verb, in the imperative, expressing effectively a hushed summons. 56. Philomel: the nightingale, bird of melancholy. 59. Cynthia checks her dragon yoke: Another mythological invention of the poet's, for though other Goddesses did drive dragon-teams, Cynthia (Diana) did not. 74. Curfeu: from the French couvre-feu, to extinguish the lights, at the signal of a bell in the early evening. 83. Bellman's drowsy charm: this lines pictures, with wonderful concentration, the sleepy night-watchman, with his monotonously chanted verses to ward off evil, as he goes his rounds from door to door 87. Outwatch the Bear: sit up studying till the Bear, the constellation that never sets, fades away in the daylight. 88. Thrice great Hermes: Hermes Trismegistus (thrice great), a mythical Egyptian philosopher and magician, supposed to have written various medieval books on astrology. 88-9. Unsphere The spirit of Plato: call back his spirit from the sphere it inhabits in the other world, to give aid in philosophical studies. 66 93-6. Those demons, etc.: The medieval traditions, associating the spirits, or demons," of the four elements (line 94) with the movements of the planets, are here referred to. 98-100. In sceptered pall, etc.: The scepter and the pall, or cloak worn by the actor in tragedy, would be associated with the famous Greek tragedies based on favorite mythological stories,—of the royal house of Thebes, of the descendants of Pelops, of the heroes of the Trojan War. 102. Buskined stage: See note to L'Allegro, line 132. 104. Musaus: son of Orpheus, and reputed to be the earliest of Greek poets. 105-8. Orpheus, etc.: See note L'Allegro, lines 145-50. 110-15. The story of Cambuscan bold: the "Tartar king who, with the others mentioned in the passage, appeared in Chaucer's unfinished Squire's Tale. Virtuous ring means one of magic properties. 120. More is meant than meets the ear: as is the case in allegorical poems, such as Spenser's Faerie Queene. 124. The Attic Boy: Cephalus, the youthful lover of Aurora. 134. Sylvan: Sylvanus, the God of fields and forests. 147-50. Strange, mysterious dreams: The Cambridge edition of Milton's poems offers the following paraphrase of this passage: "Let some mysterious dream move to and fro at the wings of sleep, unrolling its pictures, until they fall upon my eyelids." 156. Pale: an inclosure, in this case of a cloister used by students. 157. Embowed: arched. 159. Storied: with pictures illustrating Bible stories. 170. Spell: reflect, thoughtfully upon. POEMS IN THE FORM OF ODES ODE TO AUTUMN (Page 349) Keats writes from Winchester, September 22, 1819: "How beautiful the season is now-How fine the air. A temperI never liked stubble fields ate sharpness about it. so much as now-Aye, better than the chilly green of the spring. Somehow, a stubble-field looks warm in the same way that some pictures look warm. This struck me so much in my Sunday walk that I composed upon it.” ODE TO THE WEST WIND From Shelley himself we learn under what circumstances he came to compose this ode: "This poem was conceived and chiefly written in the wood that skirts the Arno, near Florence, and on a day when that tempestuous wind, whose temperature is at once mild and animating, was collecting the vapors which pour down the autumnal rains. They began, as I foresaw, at sunset with a violent tempest of hail and rain, attended by that magnificent thunder and lightning peculiar to the Cisalpine regions. "The phenomenon alluded to at the conclusion of the third stanza is well known to naturalists. The vegetation at the bottom of the sea, of rivers, and of lakes, sympathizes with that of the land in the change of seasons, and is consequently influenced by the winds which announce it.” The construction of this ode, which is by some considered perfect beyond that of any other English lyric, repays careful study. Each stanza we find to be made up of three-line units linked together by rime,-the terza rima used by Dante, -each stanza being closed, however, by a couplet. The invocation, covering three stanzas, is not only descriptive but interpretative, and we note especially at the end of the first stanza the power of the west wind not simply to destroy, but in destroying to preserve life for its resurrection in the spring. With the fourth stanza the ideas of the invocation are applied personally, but in a conditional, tentative way, referring back to the three forces of wind, cloud, and wave. The fifth stanza completes the identification of the poet with the spirit of the west wind in intense, passionate lines, and then, returning to the idea of spring resurrection, speaks the hope of a future for his own message to mankind. ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE Keats's biographer, Lord Houghton, tells of how in the spring of 1819 a nightingale built her nest in a near-by tree. |