Great Relatives Poetry Schoolbook

90 To Celia The ninetieth poem in the collection.

89 Go, lovely Rose! The eighty-ninth poem in the collection.

88 To Dianeme The eighty-eighth poem in the collection.

87 The True Beauty The eighty-seventh poem in the collection.

86 The Loveliness of Love The eighty-sixth poem in the collection.

85 To The Lady Margaret Ley The eighty-fifth poem in the collection. (* additional details below ) *NOTES FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK: Lady M. Ley was daughter to Sir J. Ley, afterwards Earl of Marlborough, who died March, 1628-9, coincidently with the dissolution of the third Parliament of Charles's reign. Hence Milton poetically compares his death to that of the Orator Isocrates of Athens, after Philip's victory in 328 B.C.

84 Elizabeth of Bohemia The eighty-fourth poem in the collection. (* additional details below ) *NOTES FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK: Elizabeth of Bohemia: Daughter to James I., and ancestor to Sophia of Hanover. These lines are a fine specimen of gallant and courtly compliment.

83 To Lucasta, On Going To The Wars The eighty-third poem in the collection.

82 Counsel to Girls The eighty-second poem in the collection.

81 Child and Maiden The eighty-first poem in the collection.

80 The Great Adventurer The eightieth poem in the collection.

79 Wishes For The Supposed Mistress - R. Crashaw The seventy-ninth poem in the collection. (* additional details below ) *NOTES FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK: Sydneian showers: either in allusion to the conversations in the "Arcadia," or to Sidney himself as a model of "gentleness" in spirit and demeanour.

78. Hymn to Diana The seventy-eighth poem in the collection. Hesperus = Evening Star

77 To Cyriack Skinner The seventy-seventh poem in the collection. (* additional details below ) *NOTES FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK: Themis: the goddess of justice. Skinner was grandson by his mother to Sir E. Coke;—hence, as pointed out by Mr. Keightley, Milton's allusion to the bench. what the Swede intends, and what the French: Sweden was then at war with Poland, and France with the Spanish Netherlands.

76 To Mr. Lawrence The seventy-sixth poem in the collection. (* additional details below ) *NOTES FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK: Favonius: the spring wind.

75 The Retreat The seventy-fifth poem in the collection. (* additional details below ) *NOTES FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK: Vaughan's beautiful though quaint verses should be compared with Wordsworth's great Ode, No. 287.

74 The Gifts of God The seventy-fourth poem in the collection.

73 The Noble Nature The seventy-third poem in the collection. (* additional details below ) *NOTES FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK: This high-toned and lovely Madrigal is quite in the style, and worthy of, the "pure Simonides."

72 Character of a Happy Life The seventy-second poem in the collection. (* additional details below) *NOTES FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK: "A fine example of a peculiar class of Poetry;—that written by thoughtful men who practised this Art but little. Wotton's, 72, is another. Jeremy Taylor, Bishop Berkeley, Dr. Johnson, Lord Macaulay, have left similar specimens."

71 On His Blindness The seventy-first poem in the collection.

70 When The Assault Was Intended To The City The seventieth poem in the collection. (* additional details below ) *NOTES FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK: The assault: was an attack on London expected in 1642, when the troops of Charles I. reached Brentford. "Written on his door" was in the original title of this sonnet. Milton was then living in Aldersgate Street. Emathian Conqueror: When Thebes was destroyed (B.C. 335) and the citizens massacred by thousands, Alexander ordered the house of Pindar to be spared. He was as incapable of appreciating the Poet as Lewis XIV. of appreciating Racine: but even the narrow and barbarian mind of Alexander could understand the advantage of a showy act of homage to Poetry. the repeated air \Of sad Electra's poet: Amongst Plutarch's vague stories, he says that when the Spartan confederacy in 404 B.C. took Athens, a proposal to demolish it was rejected through the effect produced on the commanders by hearing part of a chorus from the Electra of Euripides sung at a feast. There is however no apparent congruity between the lines quoted (167, 8 Ed. Dindorf) and the result ascribed to them.

69 Death the Leveller The sixty-ninth poem in the collection.

68 The Last Conqueror The sixty-eighth poem in the collection.

67 On the Tombs in Westminster Abbey The sixty-seventh poem in the collection.

66 Lycidas - J. Milton Elegy on a Friend drowned in the Irish Channel The sixty-sixth poem in the collection. (* additional details below - after my un-schooled interpretation.) *NOTES FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK: Lycidas. The person lamented is Milton's college friend Edward King, drowned in 1637 whilst crossing from Chester to Ireland. Strict Pastoral Poetry was first written or perfected by the Dorian Greeks settled in Sicily: but the conventional use of it, exhibited more magnificently in Lycidas than in any other pastoral, is apparently of Roman origin. Milton, employing the noble freedom of a great artist, has here united ancient mythology, with what may be called the modern mythology of Camus and Saint Peter,—to direct Christian images.—The metrical structure of this glorious poem is partly derived from Italian models. Sisters of the sacred well: the Muses, said to frequent the fountain Helicon on Mount Parnassus. Mona: Anglesea, called by the Welsh Inis Dowil or the Dark Island, from its dense forests. Deva: the Dee: a river which probably derived its magical character from Celtic traditions: it was long the boundary of Briton and Saxon.—These places are introduced, as being near the scene of the shipwreck. Orpheus was torn to pieces by Thracian women; Amaryllis and Neaera names used here for the love idols of poets: as Damoetas previously for a shepherd. the blind Fury: Atropos, fabled to cut the thread of life. Arethuse and Mincius: Sicilian and Italian waters here alluded to as synonymous with the pastoral poetry of Theocritus and Virgil. oat: pipe, used here like Collins' oaten stop, No. 146, for Song. Hippotades: Aeolus, god of the Winds. Panope a Nereid. The names of local deities in the Hellenic mythology express generally some feature in the natural landscape, which the Greeks studied and analysed with their usual unequalled insight and feeling. Panope represents the boundlessness of the ocean-horizon when seen from a height, as compared with a limited horizon of the land in hilly countries such as Greece or Asia Minor. Camus: the Cam; put for King's University. The sanguine flower: the Hyacinth of the ancients; probably our Iris. The pilot: Saint Peter, figuratively introduced as the head of the Church on earth, to foretell 'the ruin of our corrupted clergy, then in their heighth' under Laud's primacy. the wolf: Popery. Alpheus: a stream in Southern Greece, supposed to flow underseas to meet the Arethuse. Swart star: the Dogstar, called swarthy because its heliacal rising in ancient times occurred soon after mid-summer. moist vows: either tearful prayers, or prayers for one at sea. Bellerus: a giant, apparently created here by Milton to personify Bellerium, the ancient title of the Land's End. The great Vision:—The story was that the Archangel Michael had appeared on the rock by Marazion in Mount's Bay which bears his name. Milton calls on him to turn his eyes from the south homeward, and to pity Lycidas, if his body has drifted into the troubled waters of the Land's End. Finisterre being the land due south of Marazion, two places in that district (then by our trade with Corunna probably less unfamiliar to English ears), are named,—Namancos now Mujio in Galicia, Bayona north of the Minho, or, perhaps a fortified rock (one of the Cies Islands) not unlike St. Michael's Mount, at the entrance of Vigo Bay. ore: rays of golden light. Doric lay: Sicilian, pastoral. Poem 70. The assault: was an attack on London expected in 1642, when the troops of Charles I. reached Brentford. "Written on his door" was in the original title of this sonnet. Milton was then living in Aldersgate Street. Emathian Conqueror: When Thebes was destroyed (B.C. 335) and the citizens massacred by thousands, Alexander ordered the house of Pindar to be spared. He was as incapable of appreciating the Poet as Lewis XIV. of appreciating Racine: but even the narrow and barbarian mind of Alexander could understand the advantage of a showy act of homage to Poetry. the repeated air \Of sad Electra's poet: Amongst Plutarch's vague stories, he says that when the Spartan confederacy in 404 B.C. took Athens, a proposal to demolish it was rejected through the effect produced on the commanders by hearing part of a chorus from the Electra of Euripides sung at a feast. There is however no apparent congruity between the lines quoted (167, 8 Ed. Dindorf) and the result ascribed to them.