The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems (22 page)

Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more,

For Lycidas your sorrow is not dead,

Sunk though he be beneath the wat’ry floor!

So sinks the day-star
¹²¹⁴
in the ocean bed

And yet anon
¹²¹⁵
repairs
¹²¹⁶
his drooping head

And tricks
¹²¹⁷
his beams, and with new spangled ore
¹²¹⁸

Flames in the forehead of the morning sky.

So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high,

Through the dear might of Him that walked the waves!

Where other groves and other streams along

With nectar pure his oozy
¹²¹⁹
locks he laves
¹²²⁰

And hears the unexpressive
¹²²¹
nuptial song

In the blest kingdoms meek, of joy and love.

There entertain him all the saints above,

In solemn
¹²²²
troops,
¹²²³
and sweet societies
¹²²⁴

That sing, and singing in their glory move,
¹²²⁵

And wipe the tears forever from his eyes.

Now, Lycidas, the shepherds weep no more!

Henceforth thou art the genius
¹²²⁶
of the shore

In thy large
¹²²⁷
recompense,
¹²²⁸
and shalt be good

To all that wander in that perilous flood.

Thus sang the uncouth
¹²²⁹
swain to th’ oaks and rills,
¹²³⁰

While the still morn went out with sandals gray.

He touched the tender stops of various quills,
¹²³¹

With eager thought warbling his Doric
¹²³²
lay.

And now the sun had stretched out
¹²³³
all the hills,

And now was dropped into the western bay.

At last he rose and twitched
¹²³⁴
his mantle blue:

Tomorrow to fresh woods, and pastures new.

THE FIFTH ODE OF HORACE, BOOK ONE

1646–48?

Quis multa gracilis te puer in rosa, rendered almost word for word, without rhyme, according to the Latin measure,
¹²³⁵
as near as the [English] language will permit.

What slender youth, bedewed with liquid odors,

Courts
¹²³⁶
thee on roses in some pleasant cave,

Pyrrha? For whom bind’st thou

In wreaths thy golden hair,

Plain
¹²³⁷
in thy neatness?
¹²³⁸
O how oft shall he

On faith and changèd gods complain, and seas

Rough with black winds and storms

Unwonted
¹²³⁹
shall admire,
¹²⁴⁰

Who now enjoys thee credulous
¹²⁴¹
all gold?

Who always vacant,
¹²⁴²
always amiable,

Hopes thee, of flattering gales

Unmindful? Hapless
¹²⁴³
they

To whom thou, untried,
¹²⁴⁴
seem’st fair. Me in my vowed
¹²⁴⁵

Picture
¹²⁴⁶
the sacred wall declares t’ have hung
¹²⁴⁷

My dank and drooping weeds
¹²⁴⁸

To the stern god of sea.

ON THE NEW FORCERS OF CONSCIENCE, UNDER THE LONG PARLIAMENT

1647?

Because you have thrown off your prelate
¹²⁴⁹
lord

And with stiff
¹²⁵⁰
vows renounced his liturgy,
¹²⁵¹

To seize the widowed whore, plurality
¹²⁵²

From them whose sin ye envied, not abhorred,

Dare ye for this adjure
¹²⁵³
the civil sword

To force our consciences that Christ set free,

And ride us with a classic
¹²⁵⁴
hierarchy

Taught ye by mere A.S.
¹²⁵⁵
and Rutherford?
¹²⁵⁶

Men whose life, learning, faith, and pure intent

Would have been held in high esteem with Paul

Must now be named and printed heretics

By shallow Edwards
¹²⁵⁷
and Scotch what d’ye call.
¹²⁵⁸

But we do hope to find out all your tricks,

Your plots and packings, worse than those of Trent,
¹²⁵⁹

That so the Parliament

May with their wholesome and preventive shears

Clip your phylactries
¹²⁶⁰
(though bauk
¹²⁶¹
your ears),

And succor our just fears

When they shall read this clearly in your charge:

New presbyter is but old priest writ large.

PSALMS 1–8
¹²⁶²

August 1653

1

Blessed is the man who hath not walked astray

In counsel of the wicked, and i’ th’ way

Of sinners hath not stood, and in the seat

Of scorners hath not sat. But in the great

Jehovah’s Law is ever his delight,

And in His Law he studies day and night.

He shall be as a tree which, planted, grows

By wat’ry streams, and in his season knows

To yield his fruit, and his leaf shall not fall,

And what he takes in hand shall prosper all.

Not so the wicked, but as chaff
¹²⁶³
which fanned
¹²⁶⁴

The wind drives, so the wicked shall not stand
¹²⁶⁵

In judgment, or abide
¹²⁶⁶
their trial then,

Nor sinners in the assembly of just men.

For the Lord knows th’ upright way of the just,

And the way of bad men to ruin
¹²⁶⁷
must.

2

Why do the gentiles
¹²⁶⁸
tumult,
¹²⁶⁹
and the nations

Muse
¹²⁷⁰
a vain thing? The kings of the earth upstand
¹²⁷¹

With power, and princes in their congregations
¹²⁷²

Lay deep their plots together, through each land,

Against the Lord and His Messiah dear.

Let us break off, say they, by strength of hand,

Their bonds, and cast from us, no more to wear,

Their twisted cords. He who in Heav’n doth dwell

Shall laugh. The Lord shall scoff
¹²⁷³
them, then, severe,
¹²⁷⁴

Speak to them in His wrath, and in His fell
¹²⁷⁵

And fierce
¹²⁷⁶
ire
¹²⁷⁷
trouble
¹²⁷⁸
them. But I saith He

Anointed hath my King (though ye rebel)

On Sion, my holy hill. A firm decree

I will declare. The Lord to me hath said

Thou art my Son, I have begotten thee

This day. Ask of me, and the grant is made.

As thy possession I on thee bestow

Th’ heathen, and as thy conquest (to be swayed
¹²⁷⁹
)

Earth’s utmost bounds. Them shalt thou bring full low,