Lycidas by John Milton

About the poet: John Milton, an English poet born on 9 December, 1608 is the poet of steadfast will and
purpose, who moved amid the fears and hopes and changing impulses of the world, regarding them as
trivial and momentary things that can never swerve a great soul from its course. He was a polemist, man
of letters and civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell. Though he is best
known for his epic poems “Paradise Lost” (1667) which is written in blank verse, but he wrote about
religious flux and political upheaval as well. His works reflect deep personal convictions, a passion for
freedom and self-determination, and urgent issues and political turbulence of his day. His international
renowned image had much to do with his indulgent in writing in a variety of languages such as English,
Latin, Greek, and Italian; his celebrated work Areopagitica (1644) is considered as one of the most
influential defences of free speech and freedom of press

He was born in Bread Street, London on 9 December, 1608, to a composer named John Milton. Milton’s
first compositions are considered to be two psalms at the age of 15. He graduated with a B.A in 1629,
from Christ’s College Cambridge. Throughout the rule of Charles I and its breakdown in constitutional
confusion and war, Milton had played various roles; he studied, wrote poetry, travelled, and launched
himself as a pamphleteer and publicist. His political attitude was responsible for his placement in the
public office under the Commonwealth of England; he also acted as an official spokesman in certain of
his publications. After the restoration in 1660, Milton, lost his public stardom and platform, though he
was almost blind by then, yet he managed to complete most of his celebrated works.

Poetic devices in Lycidas by John Milton

APOSTROPHE: Line 1-5: the poet addresses “laurels” and “myrtles” with the word “o”; this is called
apostrophe.

Metaphor: “line 1-5”: The immature plant whose berries the poet is picking and is cutting their leaves is
a metaphor for Lycidas’s death.

Line 25-29: shepherds as a metaphor for their friendship.

Line 79-80: fame is described as a plant that does not grow on “mortal soil” hence the plant is acting as a
metaphor for fame.
Lines 82-83: the plant which is a metaphor for fame once again is a metaphor as it “lives and spreads
aloft”.

Lines 139-141: “eyes” are the metaphor for the flowers of the valley.

Lines 143-151: “wear” is a metaphor to describe the way flowers manifest their appearance.

SYMBOL: Line 1-5: “laurels” are a symbol of poetic ability and fame.

PERSONIFICATION: Lines 39-41: woods and caves have been personified, who mourns.

Lines 42-44: willow and hazel leaves have been personified who used to dance to Lycidas’s songs.

Lines 143-151: flowers have been personified by the use of the word “wear”.

SIMILE: Line 45-49: the speaker compares the new of Lycidas’ death to the infection that a rose suffers.

Line 106: the river cam’s “bonnet sedge” (104) is compared to the hyacinth using the word “like”.

Lines 45-49: Lycidas’ death has been compared to the effect on shepherds’ ears as caterpillars eating
roses.

The poem has an abundance of classical allusions, starting from “laurels” recalling the story of Apollo
and Daphne to the “sacred sisters” hinting at the nine muses of Mount Helicon who are long believed to
inspire poetry.

Lycidas Line by Line Summary by John Milton

“Lycidas” is one of the most remarkable poems written as a pastoral elegy in 1637, and is last of his
Horton poems. A college friend Edward King, had been drowned in the Irish Sea, and Milton following
the poetic custom of the age, depicts both himself and his friend in the guise of shepherds leading the
pastoral life. The poem can be conveniently divided into six sections, a prologue, four main parts, and an
epilogue. In the prologue (lines 1-24) Milton invokes the Muse and points out the intention of writing the
poem. This elegy is a product of the poet’s bitter experiences and sad memories; precisely the memory is
the untimely death of Lycidas. The second section (lines 25-84) is primarily concerned with the
description of the time the poet and Lycidas have spent at Cambridge. The description is a series of
perfectly painted pastoral images; the two friends began their study in the morning, and continued till
the night; they had some time for recreations too. But the account returns back to the original
melancholic tone, with the realization that now that Lycidas is dead,

The description is a series of perfectly painted pastoral images; the two friends began their study in the
morning, and continued till the night; they had some time for recreations too. But the account returns
back to the original melancholic tone, with the realization that now that Lycidas is dead, thing has
changed drastically. The poet questions the Muse, as to where she was when his friend was dying, but
soon comes to the realization that even she would not have been able to save him. The poem lets the
reader reflect on the nature of life and death; fame and fate. The futility of abandoning the pleasures
and recreations, to achieve a successful life which is the result of laborious days when all ends with
death have been touched upon in the poem. In the precariousness of human life lies the tragic irony; but
Milton, in turn, rejects the pure earthy reputations as the true reward of life; this reward is in the divine
judgment. The third section (line 164-184) commences with the poet’s return to the heavy pastoral
images, and he indulges himself in the description of a procession of mourners lamenting the death of
his friend. The procession is led by Triton, the herald of the Sea, and the last to come is St. Peter “the
pilot of the Galilean lake”. Milton gives us an image of a burning denunciation of contemporary clergy
and the sad reality of the Protestant Church in England, through St. Peter.

The fourth section (line 132-164), is the section where the poet describes the “flowerets of a thousand
hues” cast on the hearts of Lycidas, as an “escape from intolerable reality into a lovely world of make-
believe. The fifth section (lines 164-184) is invested in expressing the poet’s believe in immortality. Grief,
sorrow, and pain are all temporary in life, which needs to be driven away; though the friend is dead he
has arisen from the dead: “through the dear might of Him that walked the waves.” And now his friend is
in heaven and therefore there is no reason to cry, as he is in peace; he is being entertained by the saints
in the “sweet societies/ that sing, and singing I their glory move.” The

Lycidas Analysis by John Milton

August of 1637, was a gloomy month in Milton’s life, the month brought him the death of his friend
Edward King. He was a fellow student at Cambridge, who lost his life in a ship to Ireland, at the age of 25.
The death of his friend left a deep impression on Milton; Lycidas is not just a pastoral elegy, as the
pastoral images are twice interrupted in the poem to give a personal emotional account of the poet. The
poem begins with the invocation of the Muse. By naming the friend Edward King “Lycidas”, Milton
follows “the tradition of memorializing a loved one through Pastoral poetry, a practice that may be
traced from ancient Greek Sicily through Roman culture and into the Christian Middle Ages and early
Renaissance.”

The friend is described by the poet as a “selfless” even though he was a clergy; this statement is bold and
also raises a number of questions: “through the allegory, the speaker accuses God of unjustly punishing
the young, selfless King, whose premature death ended a career that would have unfolded in stark
contrast to the majority of the ministers and bishops of the church of England, whom the speaker
condemns as depraved, materialistic, and selfish”. Use of pastoral images to represent aspects or ideal of
life in a rural landscape was very common among the Renaissance poets and authors. Critics have often
pointed out the artificial character of pastoral nature: “the pastoral was in its very origin a sort of toy, a
literature of make-believe.” The poem does not have any such deep hidden meaning, it is rather a simple
lamentation of a friend for his dead friend; the poem begins with a pastoral image of laurels and myrtles,
“symbols of poetic fame; as their berries are not yet ripe, the poet is not yet ready to take up his pen”.

The death of the friend forces the poet to pick up his tool and write an elegy: “yet the untimely death of
young Lycidas requires equally untimely verses from the poet. Invoking the muses of poetic inspiration,
the shepherd-poet takes up the task, partly, he says in hope that his own death will not go unlamented”.
The poet recalls the life of the shepherds in the “pastures of Cambridge”.

The pastoral images are used by him to allegories the life that they both had spent together as fellow
students at Christ’s College, Cambridge. Milton has used the symbol of “self-same hill” has been used to
represent the university; their studies have been compared to the works of the shepherds of driving the
field and “battling… flocks”; Milton has described the classmates as “rough satyrs” and “fauns with clov’n
heel” and the dramatic and comedic pastimes they pursued are “rural duties…/ temper’ed to the’ oaten
flute”. More such images dominate the poem, such as a professor stands as the “old Damoetas [who]
lov’d to hear our song”. The poem then gives an account of the “heavy change” that nature has suffered
after the death of Lycidas- a pathetic fallacy, in which not just the poet but also the willows, hazel groves,
woods and caves lament his death.
Tone of the poem: Being an elegy there is no doubt that poem has a melancholic tone. The poem has
many varied themes, from death to friendship, from man to the natural world. The poem vividly
describes the poet lamenting the death of his friend and questioning the useless attributes and rules
that we abide by to have a successful life, as death can come anytime and claim our lives. But the poet
ends the poem with yet another realization that pain and sorrow are temporary just like life. There is no
more pain as the poet is now aware that his friend is now at peace and resides in heaven, hence the
poem though sorrowful, ends on positive and determined notes.

Conclusion: The poem is a beautiful token of friendship that Milton gave to his dead friend. Even though
he was not ready, he took his pen and wrote the untimely elegy for the untimely death of his friend. The
pastoral quality of the poem is remarkable. Milton himself “recognized the pastoral as one of the natural
modes of literary expression”, and he has effectively exercised the same throughout “Lycidas” to attain
the juxtaposition between death and memories of the loved one who is lost (dead)