Read The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems Online
Authors: John Milton,Burton Raffel
Tags: #Fiction, #General, #Literary Collections, #Poetry, #Classics, #English; Irish; Scottish; Welsh, #English poetry
And the milkmaid singeth blithe,
And the mower whets
471
his scythe,
And every shepherd tells his tale
Under the hawthorn in the dale.
Straight, mine eye hath caught new pleasures
Whilst the landscape round it measures,
472
Russet
473
lawns, and fallows
474
gray,
Where the nibbling flocks do stray,
Mountains on whose barren breast
The laboring clouds do often rest,
Meadows trim with daisies pied,
475
Shallow brooks and rivers wide.
Towers and battlements
476
it sees,
Bosomed high in tufted trees,
Where perhaps some beauty
477
lies,
478
The cynosure
479
of neighboring eyes.
Hard by, a cottage chimney smokes
From betwixt two agèd oaks,
Where Corydon and Thyrsis,
480
met,
Are at their savory dinner set
Of herbs
481
and other country messes,
482
Which the neat-handed
483
Phyllis dresses.
484
And then in haste her bow’r
485
she leaves,
With Thestylis to bind
486
the sheaves,
487
Or if the earlier season
488
lead
489
To the tanned
490
haycock
491
in the mead,
492
Sometimes with secure
493
delight
The upland
494
hamlets
495
will invite,
When the merry bells ring round,
And the jocund
496
rebecks
497
sound
To many a youth and many a maid,
Dancing in the checkered shade,
And young and old come forth to play
On a sunshine holiday,
Till the livelong daylight fail.
Then to the spicy nut-brown ale,
With stories told of many a feat,
How fairy Mab
498
the junkets
499
eat.
She was pinched and pulled, she said,
And he, by friar’s lantern led,
Tells how the drudging goblin sweat
To earn his cream-bowl, duly set,
When in one night, ere glimpse of morn,
His shadowy flail
500
hath threshed the corn
501
That ten day-laborers could not end,
Then lies him down (the lubber fend!)
502
And, stretched out all the chimney’s length,
Basks at the fire his hairy strength,
And, crop-full,
503
out of doors he flings,
Ere the first cock his matin
504
rings.
Thus done the tales, to bed they creep,
By whispering winds soon lulled asleep.
Tow’red cities please us, then,
And the busy hum of men,
Where throngs of knights and barons bold
In weeds
505
of peace high triumphs
506
hold,
With store
507
of ladies, whose bright eyes
Rain influence, and judge the prize
Of wit or arms, while both contend
To win her grace, whom all commend.
There let Hymen
508
oft appear
In saffron
509
robe, with taper
510
clear,
And pomp,
511
and feast, and revelry,
With masque and antique pageantry,
Such sights as youthful poets dream
On summer eves by haunted stream.
Then to the well-trod stage anon,
If Jonson’s
512
learnèd sock be on,
513
Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy’s
514
child,
Warble his native wood-notes wild.
And ever, against eating
515
cares,
Lap me in soft Lydian airs,
516
Married to immortal verse,
Such as the meeting
517
soul may pierce
In notes, with many a winding bout
518
Of linkèd sweetness long drawn out,
With wanton
519
heed
520
and giddy
521
cunning,
522
The melting voice through mazes running,
Untwisting all the chains that tie
The hidden soul of harmony,
That Orpheus
523
self may heave
524
his head
From golden slumber on a bed
Of heaped Elysian
525
flowers, and hear
Such strains
526
as would have won the ear
Of Pluto,
527
to have quite set free
His half-regained Eurydice.
528
These delights if thou canst give,
Mirth, with thee I mean to live.
529
IL PENSEROSO
530
1631?
Hence, vain deluding joys,
The brood of folly without father bred!
How little you bestead,
531
Dwell in some idle brain,
As thick and numberless
As the gay motes
536
that people the sun beams,
Or likest hovering dreams,
But hail thou, goddess, sage and holy,
Hail divinest Melancholy,
Whose saintly visage is too bright
To hit
539
the sense of human sight
And, therefore, to our weaker view
O’er laid with black, staid wisdom’s hue—
Black, but such as in esteem
Prince Memnon’s
540
sister might beseem,
541
Or that starr’d Ethiope
542
Queen that strove
To set her beauty’s praise above
The sea nymphs, and their powers offended.
Yet thou art higher far descended,
Thee, bright-haired Vesta,
543
long of yore
To solitary Saturn bore:
His daughter she (in Saturn’s reign
Such mixture was not held a stain),
Oft in glimmering bow’rs and glades
He met her, and in secret shades
Of woody Ida’s
544
inmost grove,
While yet there was no fear of Jove.
Come, pensive nun,
545
devout and pure,
Sober, steadfast, and demure,
546
All in a robe of darkest grain,
547
Flowing with majestic train,
And sable
548
stole
549
of cypress lawn
550
Over thy decent
551
shoulders drawn!
Come, but keep thy wonted
552
state
With even step and musing gait,
And looks commercing
553
with the skies,
Thy rapt
554
soul sitting in thine eyes.
There held in holy passion still,
Forget thyself to marble, till
With a sad,
555
leaden
556
downward cast
557
Thou fix them
558
on the earth as fast.
559
And join with thee calm peace, and quiet,
Spare
560
fast,
561
that oft with gods doth diet,
And hears the Muses in a ring
Aye
562
round about Jove’s altar sing.
And add to these retired
563
leisure,
That in trim
564
gardens takes his pleasure.
But first, and chiefest, with thee bring
Him
565
that yon soars on golden wing,
Guiding the fiery-wheelèd throne,
566
The cherub Contemplation,
567
And the mute silence hist
568
along,
’Less
569
Philomel
570
will deign a song
In her sweetest, saddest plight,
571
Smoothing the rugged brow of night,