The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems (12 page)

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

Or fill the fixèd
⁵³²
mind with all your toys!
⁵³³

Dwell in some idle brain,

And fancies fond
⁵³⁴
with gaudy
⁵³⁵
shapes possess

As thick and numberless

As the gay motes
⁵³⁶
that people the sun beams,

Or likest hovering dreams,

The fickle pensioners
⁵³⁷
of Morpheus
⁵³⁸
train.

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,

While Cynthia
⁵⁷²
checks
⁵⁷³
her dragon yoke,
⁵⁷⁴