203 Milton's Lycidas

8/12/2019 203 Milton's Lycidas

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Miltons Lycidas

ENGL 203

Dr. Fike


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Next Time

http://faculty.winthrop.edu/fikem/Courses/ENGL%20203/203%20Milton's%20Paradise%20Lost.htm
http://faculty.winthrop.edu/fikem/Courses/ENGL%20203/203%20Milton's%20Paradise%20Lost.htmhttp://faculty.winthrop.edu/fikem/Courses/ENGL%20203/203%20Milton's%20Paradise%20Lost.htmhttp://faculty.winthrop.edu/fikem/Courses/ENGL%20203/203%20Milton's%20Paradise%20Lost.htmhttp://faculty.winthrop.edu/fikem/Courses/ENGL%20203/203%20Milton's%20Paradise%20Lost.htmhttp://faculty.winthrop.edu/fikem/Courses/ENGL%20203/203%20Milton's%20Paradise%20Lost.htmhttp://faculty.winthrop.edu/fikem/Courses/ENGL%20203/203%20Milton's%20Paradise%20Lost.htm


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Question about the Forward SlashMark

There are two ways to quote poetry: If you have 4 lines or more, set the passage

off, double spaced and double indented. Putthe citation after the final period.

If you have 3 lines or fewer, put the passagein quotation marks within your own paragraph

(do not set it off), mark line breaks with aforward slash (/), and put the citation beforethe final period.


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Eliot, Tradition and the IndividualTalent

Tradition is a matter of much wider significance. It cannot beinherited. It involves, in the first place, the historical sense, whichwe may call nearly indispensable to anyone who would continue tobe a poet beyond his twenty-fifth year; and the historical senseinvolves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of itspresence; the historical sense compels a man to write not merelywith his own generation in his bones, but with a feeling that thewhole of the literature of Europe from Homer and within it the wholeof the literature of his own country has a simultaneous existence andcomposes a simultaneous order. This historical sense, which is asense of the timeless as well as of the temporal and of the timelessand of the temporal together, is what makes a writer traditional. Andit is at the same time what makes a writer most acutely conscious ofhis place in time, of his own contemporaneity.


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Poets Life

Virgil set the model: Pastoral (Oaten Flute, 34; Oate, 88) Then epic

Milton is following this pattern, bursting onthe scene with forcd fingers rude (4).

Humble, right?

And yetsee the next slide.


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The Voice of God?

Line 1, Yet once more : cf. Hebrews12:26-28 : His voice then shook the earth;but now he has promised, Yet once moreI will shake not only the earth but also theheaven.

Suddenly, not so humble!


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Factoids

The poem is a monody : a dirge orlament or funeral song by a singlespeaker. This is not totally accurate

because it contains multiple voices. It is a pastoral elegy:

Pastoral: a rural poem that comments onaspects of civilized life.

Elegy: an expression of grief related to thedeath of a friend; typical elements are praise,lament, and consolation.


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Elements of the Pastoral Elegy Invocation of the muse (15) Expression of grief felt at the loss of a friend (37-49) Digression (on the church 108-31) Consolation stuff happens, but everything turns out for

the best (165-85); consolation strengthened belief inGod Poet as shepherd (shepherd = someone who guards

sheep + a pastor in the religious sense) Praise of the dead shepherd (25 -36)

Pathetic fallacy (39-41) nature is given human qualities Questioning of the nymphs (50ff.) Flower symbolism (64-84)


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An Extension of Pastoral:Types of Water

Classical: Tears of the Muses (pastoral poems);the river Hebrus (62-63)

Natural: The sea that drowned King; humantears are salty, like the ocean.

Christian : Christs walking on the water (173),baptism.

The blessed kingdom : the other streams ofparadise (174); now the tear is forever wiped

from the eyes of Lycidas. See headnote in the Oxford Anthology : fresh

water, good; salt water, bad.


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Edward King (1612-1637) King was 4 years younger than Milton, who was

born in 1608. King was admitted to Christs College at

Cambridge in 1626 (Milton, in 1625). King drowned at sea in 1637: It was that fatall

and perfidious Bark / Built in th eclipse, andriggd with curses dark, / That sunk so low thatsacred head of thine (100 -02).

Key points about King: Piety Erudition Poetic talent


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Anthology

Miltons poem was part of an anthology ofpoems that people wrote in honor ofEdward King.


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The Shipwreck

According to the Latin epigraph prefacing thecommemorative volume, the ship in which hewas[,] having struck a rock not far from the

British shore and being ruptured by the shock,he, while the other passengers were fruitlesslybusy about their mortal lives, having fallenforward on his knees, and breathing a life which

was immortal, in the act of prayer going downwith the vessel, rendered up his soul to God,

Aug. 10, 1637, aged 25.


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Other Relevant Deaths

Ben Jonson died the same month as King. Miltons mother died in April of the same year. Plague: 1636-37. POINT: These deaths added to the intensity of

Miltons involvement in the shipwreck. The Latin motto in the 1637 collection: If you

reckon rightly shipwreck is everywhere. In other words, death is universal. Therefore, it

was natural for Milton to think about his owndeath.


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Outline of the Poem(label these sections in your book)

Introduction: 1-24 Meditation on true fame: 25-84 Happy section, 25-36 Lament for Ls death, 37 -49 Regret that the nymphs could not protect him, 50-63 Risk of death before great work is completed, 64-84 Prophecy of the run of the corrupted clergy: 85-131 Bridge/transition: 132-64 Deification of Lycidas: 165-84 Conclusion: 186-93


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Movements within the Poem Lamentation to triumph Low to high Past to future Pagan/classical to Christian (pastoral world, natural

world, Christian world, the blessed kingdom). Again: Classica l: Sisters of the sacred well (15); the tears of themuses (poems) are in the background; the Hebrus River, intowhich Orpheuss dismembered body was thrown by theMaenads, who embody the dark forces of nature and savagerythat so easily overcome the fragile civilizing arts (Lewalski 83).

Natural: the sea that drowned King; human tears salty like theocean. Christian world : Christs walking on the water at 173; baptism. The blessed kingdom : the other streams of paradise (174).

Now the tear is forever wiped from Ls eyes.


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First Verse Paragraph

Lets read it.

What do you notice about it?


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Next Passages

Lines 64- 84: What is Miltons beef here?

Lines 102- 31: What is Miltons beef here?


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Miltons Two Beefs Death Milton has lost his friend, and now the poet

worries that death might snuff out his own artistic future. That is why he includes a section on fame (70). If youre going

to die young, why not sport with Amaryllis in the shade ? Milton rails against blind fury with th abhorred shears (75).

Milton transfers the scissors from Fates (Clotho spins; Lachesiscards; Atropos cuts) to the Furies (avenging spirits with keen,wide- open, searching eyes to help them find their victims). Msfuries are blind--this creates a sense of cruel randomness.

Clergy Milton has St. Peter rail against religiouscorruption. Line 110, Two massy Keyes he bore of metals twain : cf.

Matthew 16:19 : I will give you the keys of the kingdom ofheaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound inheaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed inheaven. Cf. PL 2.327-28.


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More on Death

A procession of mourners: Neptunes herald = Triton, 89 Hippotades (Aeolus), 96 Camus (the spirit of Cambridge, a reverend

sire, 103) St. Peter: The Pilot of the Galilean lake, 109


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More on the False Clergy

Line 115, Creep and intrude, and climb into thefold : cf. John 10:1: Truly, truly, I say to you,he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door

but climbs in by another way, that man is a thiefand a robber; but he who enters by the door isthe shepherd of the sheep.

Line 118, And shove away the worthy biddenguest : cf. Matthew 22:8: they that werebidden [to the feast] were not worthy.


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False Clergy = Blind mouths!(119)

The word bishop comes from the Greek episkopeo , one who oversees.The worst thing that could happen to a bishop, therefore, is blindness.

Line 119, Isaiah 56:10-57.1 : His watchmen are blindThe shepherds alsohave no understanding..The righteous man perishes.

The word pastor is from the Latin pascere , to pasture or to feed. The

Latin pastor means shepherd. Starvation will result if one turns from careand feeding and becomes a mouth. POINT: Blindness and ravenousness. Blind bishops and greedy pastors:

The hungry Sheep look up, and are not fed (125).

The result: grim Wolf with privy paw (128): the Roman Catholic Churchadvances.

Line 128, re. wolves, cf. PL 4.182-92 and 12.507-14. The arms of St.Ignatius Loyola (founder of the Jesuits) included two gray wolves.


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Miltons Source From Virgil's 3rd Eclogue :

Menalcas.Poor sheep, ever a luckless flock! while the master clings by Neaera

and dreads lest she prefer me before him. This hireling shepherdmilks the sheep twice an hour: the juice is stolen from the flock, themilk from the lambs.........Thou him in singing? or hadst thou ever a waxen-bound pipe? Wert

not wont in the cross-roads, blockhead, to mangle a wretched tuneon a grating straw?


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P u n i s h m e n t : that two-handedengine (130)

The two houses of parliament The temporal and Spiritual authority of the Court of High Commission The destructive power of the imminent civil war Puritan zeal Combined forces of England and Scotland or of France and Spain The Catholic Church The pastoral staff or sheep-hook

The keys of Heaven and Hell given to St. Peter The lock on St. Peters door St. Peters sword (Matthew 20:51, John 18:10) The Sharp two -edged Sword of the Johannine vision (Revelation 1:16, 2:12) The Sword of Divine Justice (Ezekiel 21:9- 17), especially as wielded by Michael with huge two -

handed sway ( PL 6.251) The axe in general, especially the one laid unto the root of the trees (Matthew 3:10, Luke 3:9) The rod of Christs anger

The Word of God The Son of God The sythe of Time Man in his dual capacity of labour and prayer The iron flail of Talus in FQ V The temple of Janus


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But Implied Hopefulness

Mention of Alpheus and Arethusa framesthe section on the clergy.

Alpheus (imperfection) loves Arethusa(virtue).

Therefore, Milton implies that goodnesswill triumph over corruption.


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Quick Summary

Miltons beefs: death and religious corruption. Those who abuse religious positions will be

punished.

Comfort/consolation: Milton exorcizes his grief. He focuses on true fame in heaven. He takes comfort in the hope of heaven.

Good will win out. This inspires him to move on to fresh woods, and

pastures new (his upcoming trip to Italy in the lastline of the poem).


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Final Passage

Lines 172-end.

What does Milton say about Lycidas/King?

What does Milton say about himself in the

last verse paragraph?

Documents

203 Milton's Lycidas