Like to that sanguine flower inscribed with woe. "Ah! who hath reft," quoth he, "my dearest pledge?"

Last came, and last did go,

The Pilot of the Galilean Lake;

110 Two massy keys he bore of metals twain (The golden opes, the iron shuts amain).

He shook his mitered locks, and stern bespake: "How well could I have spared for thee, young

swain,

Enow of such as, for their bellies' sake, 115 Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold! Of other care they little reckoning make, Than how to scramble at the shearers' feast, And shove away the worthy bidden guest. Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how to hold

120 A sheep-hook, or have learnt aught else the least That to the faithful herdman's art belongs! What recks it them? What need they? They

are sped;

And, when they list, their lean and flashy songs Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw; 125 The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed, But, swoln with wind and the rank mist they draw, Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread; Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw Daily devours apace, and nothing said. 130But that two-handed engine at the door

135

Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more.
Return, Alpheus, the dread voice is past
That shrunk thy streams; return, Sicilian Muse,
And call the vales, and bid them hither cast
Their bells and flowerets of a thousand hues.
Ye valleys low, where the mild whispers use
Of shades, and wanton winds, and gushing brooks,
On whose fresh lap the swart star sparely looks,
Throw hither all your quaint enameled eyes,
That on the green turf suck the honeyed showers, 140
And purple all the ground with vernal flowers.
Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies,
The tufted crow-toe, and pale jessamine,
The white pink, and the pansy freaked with jet,
The glowing violet,

The musk-rose, and the well-attired woodbine,
With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head,
And every flower that sad embroidery wears;
Bid amaranthus all his beauty shed,
And daffadillies fill their cups with tears,

145

150

To strew the laureate hearse where Lycid lies.

For so, to interpose a little ease,

Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise.
Aye me! Whilst thee the shores and sounding seas
Wash far away, where'er thy bones are hurled; 155
Whether beyond the stormy Hebrides,

Where thou perhaps under the whelming tide
Visit'st the bottom of the monstrous world;
Or whether thou, to our moist vows denied,

160 Sleep'st by the fable of Bellerus old,

165

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.

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

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

And yet anon repairs his drooping head, 170 And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore Flames in the forehead of the morning sky;

So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high,
Through the dear might of Him that walked the

waves,

Where, other groves and other streams along,
175 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,
180That sing, and singing in their glory move,
And wipe the tears forever 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
185 To all that wander in that perilous flood.

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 stretched out all the hills, 190
And now was dropt into the western bay.

At last he rose, and twitched his mantle blue;
Tomorrow to fresh woods, and pastures new.

B.-R. C. Browne, Milton's Poetical Works (Clarendon Press).

Cf.-Compare.

Fr.-French.

· Lat.-Latin.

M.-Masson, Milton's Poetical Works (Macmillan).

O. F.-Old French.

Skeat Skeat's Etymological Dictionary.

T.-W. P. Trent, Milton's L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, etc. (Longmans).

V.-A. W. Verity, editions of L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, etc. (Cambridge University Press).

L'ALLEGRO

Title. L'Allegro: Italian, the cheerful man.

1. Melancholy. The mythological figures in these poems are sometimes taken from the classics, sometimes, as in this case, created and given a parentage by Milton. 2. Cerberus: in Greek mythology, the three-headed dog who guarded the entrance to the lower world.

3. Stygian. The cave of Cerberus looked out on the Styx, one of the four rivers of Hades.

5. uncouth: literally, "unknown," hence "wild,” ""fearful."

6. brooding: partly literal, in keeping with the figure suggested also by wings; partly metaphorical, in keeping with the idea of watchfulness in jealous.

7. night-raven. The raven is not a night bird, yet Shakespeare also uses this term. The croaking of a raven was regarded as ominous, and perhaps the compound was formed, without reference to natural history, to intensify the idea of gloom.