LYCIDAS
- John Milton
INTRODUCTION
Milton's elegy 'Lycidas' is also known as monody which is in the form of a pastoral
elegy written in 1637 to lament the accidental death, by drowning of Milton’s friend Edward
King who was a promising young man of great intelligence. The elegy takes its name from
the subject matter, not its form. No rules are laid down for the meter. The theme of the elegy
is mournful or sadly reflective.
SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF MILTON
John Milton, English poet, pamphleteer, and historian, is best known for writing
"Paradise Lost," widely regarded as the greatest epic poem in English. John Milton is best
known for Paradise Lost, widely regarded as the greatest epic poem in English. Together
with Paradise Regained, it formed his reputation as one of the greatest English writers. In his
prose works he advocated the abolition of the Church of England. His influence extended
through the English civil wars and also to the American and French revolutions.
Milton was a Puritan who believed in the authority of the Bible, and opposed religious
institutions like the Church of England, and the monarchy, with which it was entwined. He
wrote pamphlets on radical topics like freedom of the press, supported Oliver Cromwell in
the English Civil War, and was probably present at the beheading of Charles I. Milton wrote
official publications for Cromwell’s government.
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His some major works:
Paradise Lost: Milton’s Long Epic
Comus: Milton’s Masque
Lycidas: Milton’s Pastoral Elegy
Paradise Regained: Milton’s Short Epic
BACKGROUND AND TEXT
Lycidas first appeared in a 1638 collection of elegies. This collection commemorated
the death of Edward King, a college mate of Milton’s at Cambridge who drowned when his
ship sank off the coast of Wales in August, 1637. Milton volunteered or was asked to make a
contribution to the collection.
FORM AND STRUCTURE
The Structure of Lycidas remains somewhat mysterious. J. Martin Evans argues that
there are two movements with six sections each that seem to mirror each other. Arthur Barker
believes that the body of Lycidas is composed of three movements that run parallel in pattern.
That is each movement begins with an invocation, then explores the conventions of the
pastoral, and ends with a conclusion to Milton’s “emotional problem.”
GENRE
Lycidas is a pastoral elegy, a genre initiated by Theocritus, also put famous use by
Virgil and Spenser. Christopher Kendrick asserts that one’s reading of Lycidas would be
improved by treating the poem anachronistically, that is, as if it was one of the most original
pastoral elegies. Also, as already stated, it employees the irregular rhyme and meter of an
Italian canzone. Stella Revard suggests arrangement in verse paragraphs and its introduction
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of various voices and personae are also features that anticipate epic structures. Like the form,
structure, and voice of Lycidas, its genre is deeply complex. James Sitar.
SUMMARY
The name “Lycidas” is fairly common in pastoral poetry. Edward King, a schoolmate
of Melton’s at Cambridge who drowned when his ship sank off the coast of Wales in August,
1637. King entered Christ’s College in 1626 when he was 14 years old.
It is usually a lamentation of the dead. Besides some somber themes, such as
unrequited love, or a great national disaster can as well be the elegiac theme. Though lyrical,
it is not spontaneous, and is often the result of deliberate poetic art, and can be as elaborate in
style as the ode. We read the elegy as a conscious work of art, and not as a spontaneous
expression of sorrow.
Dr. Johnson, criticizing 'Lycidas' remarks, “where there is leisure for fiction, there is
little grief.” Neither is elegy a mere expression of a sense of loss. The elegiac poet engages
himself in discursive reflections. Death, the primary theme of most elegies, is a vast
evocative theme. It leads the poet to regions of reflections usually lying beyond the lyric
imagination. Death can be, and is often, the starting point for the poet to deal with serious
themes.
Milton, for example, gives us in 'Lycidas', speculations on the nature of death, tributes
to friends, as also literary criticism. He comments on the degradation of poetry and religion in
'Lycidas'. And “Lycidas” would be a poor poem without its passage on fame, and the
onslaught on the corrupt clergy of that day. Though grief is the dominant condition in the
early parts of an elegy, many elegies end on a note of joyful resignation, and also on a note of
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affirmation. The pastoral elegy uses the mechanism of pastoral convention-shepherds and
shepherdesses, incidents form bucolic life, and rustic speech. Originally developed among the
Sicilian Greeks, it was later developed by Virgil and introduced into England during the
Renaissance.
The poem 'Lycidas' 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
explains the reasons for writing the poem. Although Milton had decided not to write poetry
till his powers matured, “bitter constraint and sad occasion” compels the poet to attempt an
elegy. That occasion is the untimely death of Lycidas.
In the Second Section (lines, 25-84) he describes the type of life Lycidas and the poet
had at Cambridge. The descriptions are in pastoral imagery. They together- Lycidas and
Milton - began their study early in the morning, continued throughout the day late into the
night. Besides, there were innocent recreations. But now that Lycidas was dead; a great
change, heavy change had taken place. Milton laments the death of Lycidas in the manner of
traditional elegiac poets. He asks the Muse where she had been when her Lycidas was dying,
and adds that even her presence would not have saved him.
This leads to reflections on the nature and meaning of life and death, and of fate and
fame. Why should one, abandoning all pleasures, live a life of strenuous discipline, and
cultivate the Muse. Fame is the reward of living laborious days. But as one is about to obtain
his reward of fame, then fate intervenes and he dies. In the precariousness of human life lies
the tragic irony. But Milton rejects pure earthy reputations as the true reward of life; that
reward is in the divine judgment.
At the beginning of the third section (which contains lines 85-131) Milton returns to
the pastoral style, and describes a procession of mourners lamenting Lycidas’s death. The
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procession is led by Triton, the herald of the Sea, and the last to come is St. Peter “The Pilot
of the Galilean lake.” Through the mouth of St. Peter, Milton gives us a burning denunciation
of contemporary clergy, and the sad condition of the Protestant Church in England. In these
lines, we have powerful expressions of some of Milton’s passionate convictions.
The fourth section (lines 132-164), in which the poet describes the “flowerets of a
thousand hues” cast on the hearts of Lycidas, is an “escape from intolerable reality into a
lovely world of make-believe.”
In the fifth section (lines 164-184) Milton expresses his belief in immortality. Grief
and sorrow are temporary. And though Lycidas is apparently dead, he has arisen from the
dead: “Through the dear might of Him that walked the waves.” Lycidas is in heaven, and
therefore “Weep ye no more.” The saints there to entertain him in
“sweet societies / That sing, and singing in their glory move.”
The epilogue (lines 185-193) brings us back to the portal images again, and refers
indirectly to the Greek Pastoral poets. The conclusion points to a new determination both to
face life hopefully, and to rise up to greater poetic achievements.
CONCLUSION
Thus though 'Lycidas' is a conventional pastoral elegy, which has its origin in the loss
of a friend, the poem becomes impersonal and timeless. The elegiac mourning is twice
interrupted to invest the personal sorrow with universal significance. This is achieved by
making the tragic death of Lycidas as one example of the precariousness of existence, and the
tragic irony of fate which renders all human effort futile. A second theme of equally great
concern is the degeneration of the Church, and the contemporary neglect of the things of the
spirit. 'Lycidas' is undoubtedly one of the greatest short poems in English language.
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