Lycidas: Poetry and Death Essay -- Milton Lycidas Essays

Lycidas Poetry and Death Living in a period of important religious and cultural flux, throne Miltons poetry reflects the many influences he found both in history and in the contemporary universe of discourse. With a vast knowledge of literature from the classical world of Greek and Roman culture, Milton often looked back to more ancient times as a means of enriching his works. At other times, however, he relies on his noticeable Christian beliefs for creating spiritually compelling themes and deeply religious imagery. Despite the seemingly conflicting nature of these two polarized sources of inspiration, Milton somehow found a way of bridging the hoo-hah between a pagan and a Christian world, often weaving them together into one overpowering story. The pastoral elegy Lycidas, written after the death of a fellow student at Cambridge, exemplifies this mastery over ancient and contemporary traditions in its transition from a pagan to a Christian context. col the poem in a setti ng rich with mythological figures and scenery, then deliberately moving into a distinctly Christian setting, Milton touches upon two personally pertinent issues poetry and Christian redemption. In this way, Lycidas both addresses the subject of being a poet in a life doomed by death and at the same(p) time shows the triumphant glory of a Christian life, one in which even the demise of the poet himself holds brighter promises of eternal heavenly joy. Confronted with the drowning of contemporary Cambridge student and fellow poet Edward mogul in 1637, John Milton faced the daunting subject of making sense of an existence that inevitably culminates in the ultimate destruction of human life. As M. H. Abrams states in his prefatory notes to Lycidas, Milton took part... ...hes, David. A Study of Literature. Miltons Lycidas The customs duty and the Poem. Ed. C. A. Patrides. Columbia, Missouri University of Missouri Press, 1983. 92-110. Hanford, James H. The Pastoral Elegy and Miltons Ly cidas. Miltons Lycidas The Tradition and the Poem. Ed. C. A. Patrides. Columbia, Missouri University of Missouri Press, 1983. 31-59. MacCaffrey, Isabel G. Lycidas The Poet in a Landscape. Miltons Lycidas The Tradition and the Poem. Ed. C. A. Patrides. Columbia, Missouri University of Missouri Press, 1983. 246-66. Milton, John. Lycidas. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M. H. Abrams. 6th ed. New York W. W. Norton & Company, 1996. 646-51. Tayler, Edward W. Lycidas in Christian Time. Miltons Lycidas The Tradition and the Poem. Ed. C. A. Patrides. Columbia, Missouri University of Missouri Press, 1983. 303-18.