The Complete Poetry of John Milton Read Online
| Aen. | Aeneid |
| Ec. | Virgil, Eclogues |
| El. | Elegy |
| FQ | Faerie Queene |
| HLQ | Huntington Library Quarterly |
| Meta. | Ovid, Metamorphoses |
| MLN | Modern Language Notes |
| MLR | Modern Language Review |
| NQ | Notes and Queries |
| Od. | Odyssey |
| PL | Paradise Lost |
| PMLA | Publications of the Modern Language Association |
| PQ | Philological Quarterly |
| PR | Paradise Regain’d |
| Ps. | Psalm |
| Rep. | Plato, Republic |
| RES | Review of English Studies |
| SA | Samson Agonistes |
| SEL | Studies in English Literature |
| Son. | Sonnet |
| SP | Studies in Philology |
| TLS | Times Literary Supplement |
| TM | Trinity Manuscript |
| UTQ | University of Toronto Quarterly |
Contents
INTRODUCTION TO THE REVISED EDITION
1. POEMS WRITTEN DURING SCHOOL, COLLEGE, AND UNIVERSITY YEARS (1624-32)
Apologus de Rustico et Hero (The Fable of the Peasant and the Overlord)
Carmina Elegiaca (Elegiac Verses)
“Ignavus satrapam dedecet …” (“Slothful sleep …”)
Elegia prima (Elegy 1: To Charles Diodati)
Elegia secunda (Elegy 2: On the death of the Beadle of Cambridge University)
Elegia tertia (Elegy 3: On the death of the Bishop of Winchester)
In obitum Præsulis Eliensis (On the death of the Bishop of Ely)
In obitum Procancellarii medici (On the death of the Vice-Chancellor, a Physician)
In proditionem Bombardicam (On the Gunpowder Plot)
In eandem (On the same: “Thus did you strive …”)
In eandem (On the same: “James derided …”)
In eandem (On the same: “Whom impious Rome …”)
In inventorem Bombardæ (On the inventor of Gunpowder)
In quintum Novembris (On the fifth of November)
Elegia quarta (Elegy 4: To Thomas Young)
On the Death of a Fair Infant Dying of a Cough
Elegia quinta (Elegy 5: On the coming of spring)
On the Morning of Christs Nativity
Elegia sexta (Elegy 6: To Charles Diodati, sojourning in the country)
Elegia septima (Elegy 7: “Not yet did I know …”)
(Lines appended to Elegia septima)
Sonnet 3: “As on a rugged mountain …”
Canzone: “Scoffing, amorous maidens …”
Sonnet 4: “Diodati, and I will say it …”
Sonnet 5: “In truth your fair eyes, …”
Sonnet 6: “Young, gentle, and candid …”
Naturam non pati senium (Nature does not suffer decay)
An Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester
2. POEMS WRITTEN DURING STUDIOUS RETIREMENT OR ASSOCIATED WITH THE EUROPEAN TRIP (1632-40)
Sonnet 7: “How soon hath Time …”
Philosophus ad regem … (A philosopher on his way …)
Ad Salsillum poetam Romanum ægrotantem (To Salzilli, a Roman poet, being ill)
Ad Leonoram Romæ canentem (To Leonora singing in Rome)
Ad eandem (To the same: “Another Leonora captured …”)
Ad eandem (To the same: “Why, credulous Naples, …”)
Epitaphium Damonis (Damon’s Epitaph)
3. POEMS WRITTEN DURING PUBLIC LIFE AND GOVERNMENTAL SERVICE (1641-58)
Sonnet 8: “Captain or Colonel, …”
Sonnet 9: “Ladie, that in the prime …”
Sonnet 10: “Daughter to that good Earle, …”
In Effigiei Ejus Sculptorem (On the Engraver of His Likeness)
Sonnet 11: “I did but prompt the age …”
Sonnet 13: “Harry, whose tunefull …”
Sonnet 14: “When Faith and Love …”
Ad Joannem Roüsium (To John Rouse)
The Fifth Ode of Horace. Book I.
Sonnet 12: “A book was writt of late …”
Sonnet 15: “Fairfax, whose name in armes …”
Verse from Pro Populo Anglicano defensio: “Who released to Salmasius …”
Sonnet 16: “Cromwell, our cheif of men, …”
Sonnet 17: “Vane, young in yeares, …”
Verse from Defensio secunda: “Rejoice, mackerel, …”
Sonnet 19: “When I consider …”
Sonnet 20: “Lawrence of vertuous Father …”
Sonnet 21: “Cyriack, whose Grandsire …”
Sonnet 22: “Cyriack, this three years day …”
Sonnet 23: “Mee thought I saw …”
INDEX OF TITLES AND FIRST LINES
PART 1
Poems
Written during School,
College, and University Years
(1624–32)
A Paraphrase on Psalm 1141
When the blest seed of Terah’s faithfull Son,2
After long toil their liberty had won,
And past from Pharian3 fields to Canaan Land,
Led by the strength of the Almighties hand,
5
5 Jehovah’s wonders were in Israel shown,
His praise and glory was in Israel known.
That4 saw the troubl’d Sea, and shivering fled,
And sought to hide his froth-becurled head
Low in the earth, Jordans clear streams recoil,
10
10 As a faint host that hath receiv’d the foil.5
The high, huge-bellied Mountains skip like Rams
Amongst their Ews, the little Hills like Lambs.
Why fled the Ocean? And why skipt the Mountains?
Why turned Jordan toward his Crystall Fountains?
15
15 Shake earth, and at the presence be agast
Of him that ever was, and ay shall last,
That glassy flouds from rugged rocks can crush,
And make soft rills from fiery flint-stones gush.
(1624)
1 Harris Fletcher, analyzing the grammar school lesson of paraphrasing from one language to another, points out that “Milton’s effort was cast into eighteen lines, or two more than the original verse divisions called for, and was more or less done in this fashion: lines 2, 4, 8, 10 were really added lines; but in lines 13-14 Milton compressed the four lines of verses 5 and 6 …” (Intellectual Development, I, 191). Compare the translation of Milton’s rendition of this same psalm in Greek.
2 Abraham; the original cites only Jacob, the blest seed of Abraham.
3 Egyptian.
4 “the strength of the Almighties hand,” object of “saw.”
5 the sword; therefore, “hath been driven back.”
Psalm 1361
Praise the Lord, for he is kind.
For his mercies ay endure,
Ever faithfull, ever sure.
5
5 Let us blaze his Name abroad,
For of gods he is the God.
For, 
.
O let us his praises tell,
10
10 That doth the wrathfull tyrants quell.
For, .
That with his miracles doth make
Amazed Heav’n and Earth to shake.
15
15 For, .
That by his wisdom did create
The painted Heav’ns so full of state.
20
20 For, .
That did the solid Earth ordain
To rise above the watry plain.
For, .
25
25 That by his all-commanding might
Did fill the new-made world with light.
For, c.
And caus’d the Golden-tressed Sun
30
30 All the day long his cours to run.
For, .
The horned Moon to shine by night
Amongst her spangled sisters bright.
35
35 For, .
He with his thunder-clasping hand
Smote the first-born of Egypt Land.
40
40 For, .
And in despight of Pharao fell,
He brought from thence his Israel.
For, .
45
45 The ruddy waves he cleft in twain,
Of the Erythræan main.2
For, .
The floods stood still like Walls of Glass,
50
50 While the Hebrew Bands did pass.
For, .
But full soon they did devour
The Tawny3 King with all his power.
55
55 For, .
His chosen people he did bless
In the wastfull Wildernes.
60
60 For, .
In bloody battail he brought down
Kings of prowess and renown.
For, .
65
65 He foild bold Seon and his host,
That rul’d the Amorrean coast.
For, .
And large-limb’d Og he did subdue,
70
70 With all his over-hardy crew.
For, .
And to his servant Israel
He gave their Land therin to dwell.
75
75 For, .
Beheld us in our misery.
80
80 For, .
And freed us from the slavery
Of the invading enemy.
For, .
85
85 All living creatures he doth feed,
And with full hand supplies their need.
For, .
Let us therfore warble forth
90
90 His mighty Majesty and worth.
For, .
That his mansion hath on high
Above the reach of mortall eye.
95
95 For his mercies ay endure,
Ever faithfull, ever sure.
(1624)
1 Though this paraphrase elaborates upon the Hebrew, its result, unlike that in Ps. 114, is relative simplicity of language and image. Phrases have been traced to George Buchanan (in his Latin paraphrases of the psalms) and to Joshua Sylvester (in his translation of DuBartas’ Divine Weeks and Works). Milton omitted verses 12, 18, and 22 of the original.
2 the Red Sea.
3 dark-complexioned.
Apologus de Rustico et Hero1
Rusticus ex Malo sapidissima poma quotannis
Legit, et urbano lecta dedit Domino:
Hic incredibili fructûs dulcedine Captus
Malum ipsam in proprias transtulit areolas.
5
5 Hactenus illa ferax, sed longo debilis ævo,
Mota solo assueto, protinùs aret iners.
Quod tandem ut patuit Domino, spe lusus inani,
Damnavit celeres in sua damna manus.
Atque ait, Heu quantò satius fuit illa Coloni
10
10 (Parva licet) grato dona tulisse animo!
Possem Ego avaritiam frœnare, gulamque voracem:
Nunc periere mihi et fœtus et ipsa parens.
The Fable of the Peasant and the Overlord1
Every year a peasant gathered from an appletree the most savory fruit / and gave the choice apples to his overlord who lived in the city. / He, pleased with the unbelievable sweetness of the fruit, / transferred the apple tree itself to his own gardens. / The tree, fruitful up to this time but weak from old age, [5] / when moved from its accustomed soil, instantly withered to inactivity. / When at last it was evident to the overlord that he had been deceived / by a vain hope, he cursed the hands so swift in bringing loss. / And he cried, “Alas, how much more satisfactory it was to receive / with a grateful heart these gifts, although small, from my tenant. [10] / Would I could curb my greed and my voracious gullet: / now both the fruit and its parent are lost to me.”
(1624–25)
1 A version of a popular fable by Aesop, Milton’s twelve elegiac lines were derived from ten by Mantuan (Sylvarum, Bk. 4).
Carmina Elegiaca1
Surge, age, surge, leves, iam convenit, excute somnos,
Lux oritur; tepidi fulcra relinque tori.
Iam canit excubitor gallus, prænuncius ales
Solis, et invigilans ad sua quemque vocat;
5
5 Flammiger Eois Titan2 caput exerit undis,
Et spargit nitidum læta per arva iubar.
Daulias3 argutum modulatur ab ilice carmen
Edit et excultos mitis alauda modos;
Iam rosa fragrantes spirat silvestris odores;
10
10 Iam redolent violæ luxuriatque seges.
Ecce novo campos Zephyritis4 gramine vestit
Fertilis, et vitreo rore madescit humus.
Segnes invenias molli vix talia lecto,
Cum premat imbellis lumina fessa sopor;
15
15 Illic languentes abrumpunt somnia somnos,
Et turbant animum tristia multa tuum.
Illic tabifici generantur semina morbi.
Qui pote torpentem posse valere virum?
Surge, age, surge, leves, iam convenit, excute somnos,
20
20 Lux oritur; tepidi fulcra relinque tori.
Elegiac Verses1
Arise, up, arise. Now that it is time, shake off slumbers; / light is appearing; leave the props of your languid bed.
1 comment