part of the bird; but coming, as it does, in the nighttime, and making us reflect, and reminding us by its very beauty of the mystery and fleetingness of all sweet things, it becomes melancholy in the finer sense of the word, by the combined overshadowing of the hour and of thought. (12) Like one that hath been led astray. This calls to mind a beautiful passage about the moon, in Spenser's Epithalamium : Who is the same that at my window peeps? (13) Where glowing embers. Here, also, the reader is reminded of Spenser.-See p. 114: A little glooming light, much like a shade. (14) Or let my lamp, at midnight hour, Be seen. The picturesque of the "be seen" has been much admired. Its good-nature seems to deserve no less approbation. The light is seen afar by the traveller, giving him a sense of home comfort, and perhaps helping to guide his way. (15) Call up him that left half told The story of Cambuscan bold. Chaucer, with his Squire's Tale. But why did Milton turn Càmbuscàn, that is, Cambus the Khan, into Cambuscan? The accent in Chaucer is never thrown on the middle syllable. LYCIDAS. The poet bewails the death of his young friend and fellow-student, Edward King, of Christ's College, Cambridge, who was drowned at sea, on his way to visit his friends in Ireland. The vessel, which was in bad condition, went suddenly to the bottom, in calm weather, not far from the English coast; and all on board perished. Milton was then in his twenty-ninth year, and his friend in his twenty-fifth. The poem, with good reason, is supposed to have been written, like the preceding ones, at Horton, in Buckinghamshire : Yet once more, O ye laurels, and once more, I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude, Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year. Begin, then, sisters of the sacred well, That from beneath the seat of Jove doth spring, 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. For we were nurst upon the self-same hill, Together both, e'er the high lawns appear'd Tow'rd heav'n's descent had slop'd his west'ring wheel. Meanwhile the rural ditties were not mute, Temper'd to the oaten flute; Rough Satyrs danc'd; and Fauns with cloven heel But, O the heavy change, now thou art gone, The willows, and the hazel copses green, Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays. As killing as the canker to the rose, Or taint worm to the weanling herds that graze, Such, Lycidas, thy loss to shepherd's ear. Where were ye, Nymphs, when the remorseless deep Nor yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream: (19) Had ye been there for what could that have done? Whom universal Nature did lament, When, by the rout that made the hideous roar, Alas! what boots it with incessant care Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise To scorn delights, and live laborious days;' Set off to the world, nor in broad rumour lies, Of so much fame in heaven expect thy meed." O fountain Arethuse, and thou honour'd flood, Smooth-sliding Mincius, crown'd with vocal reeds, That strain I heard was of a higher mood: But now my oat proceeds, And listens to the herald of the sea That came in Neptune's plea; He ask'd the waves, and ask'd the felon winds, What hard mishap hath doom'd this gentle swain? And question'd every gust of rugged wings That blows from off each beaked promontory: They knew not of his story; And sage Hippotades their answer brings, Built in the eclipse, and rigg'd with curses dark, Next Camus, reverend sire, went footing slow, His mantle hairy, and his bonnet sedge, Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge Like to that sanguine flower inscrib'd with woe. (20) "Ah! who hath reft," quoth he, "my dearest pledge?" Last came, and last did go, (2) The pilot of the Galilean lake; Two massy keys he bore of metals twain, (The golden opes, the iron shuts amain,) He shook his mitred locks, and stern bespake: "How well could I have spar'd for thee, young swain, (") Enow of such, as for their bellies' sake Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold? Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how to hold What recks it them? What need they? They are sped; |