John Milton

L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, Comus, and Lycidas (eBook, ePUB)

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

L'ALLEGRO

  HENCE, loathed Melancholy,
  …………Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born
  In Stygian cave forlorn
  …………'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights
  unholy!
  Find out some uncouth cell,
  …………Where brooding Darkness spreads his jealous wings,
  And the night-raven sings;
  …………There, under ebon shades and low-browed rocks,
  As ragged as thy locks,
  …………In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell.
  But come, thou Goddess fair and free,
  In heaven yclept Euphrosyne,
  And by men heart-easing Mirth;
  Whom lovely Venus, at a birth,
  With two sister Graces more,
  To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore:
  Or whether (as some sager sing)
  The frolic wind that breathes the spring,
  Zephyr, with Aurora playing,
  As he met her once a-Maying,
  There, on beds of violets blue,
  And fresh-blown roses washed in dew,
  Filled her with thee, a daughter fair,
  So buxom, blithe, and debonair.
  Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee
  Jest, and youthful Jollity,
  Quips and cranks and wanton wiles,
  Nods and becks and wreathed smiles
  Such as hang on Hebe's cheek,
  And love to live in dimple sleek;
  Sport that wrinkled Care derides,
  And Laughter holding both his sides.
  Come, and trip it, as you go,
  On the light fantastic toe;
  And in thy right hand lead with thee
  The mountain-nymph, sweet Liberty;
  And, if I give thee honour due,
  Mirth, admit me of thy crew,
  To live with her, and live with thee,

Produktdetails

• Verlag: CAIMAN
• Erscheinungstermin: 20. Juni 2019
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9788834150023
• Artikelnr.: 59062122

Autorenporträt

John Milton (9 December 1608 - 8 November 1674) was an English poet, polemicist, man of letters, and civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under its Council of State and later under Oliver Cromwell. He wrote at a time of religious flux and political upheaval, and is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost (1667), written in blank verse. Writing in English, Latin, Greek, and Italian, he achieved international renown within his lifetime, and his celebrated Areopagitica (1644), written in condemnation of pre-publication censorship, is among history's most influential and impassioned defences of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. His desire for freedom extended into his style: he introduced new words (coined from Latin) to the English language, and was the first modern writer to employ non-rhymed verse outside of the theatre or translations. William Hayley's 1796 biography called him the "greatest English author",[1] and he remains generally regarded "as one of the preeminent writers in the English language",[2] though critical reception has oscillated in the centuries since his death (often on account of his republicanism). Samuel Johnson praised Paradise Lost as "a poem which...with respect to design may claim the first place, and with respect to performance, the second, among the productions of the human mind", though he (a Tory and recipient of royal patronage) described Milton's politics as those of an "acrimonious and surly republican".[3] Poets such as William Blake, William Wordsworth and Thomas Hardy revered him. The phases of Milton's life parallel the major historical and political divisions in Stuart Britain. Milton studied, travelled, wrote poetry mostly for private circulation, and launched a career as pamphleteer and publicist under the increasingly personal rule of Charles I and its breakdown into constitutional confusion and war. The shift in accepted attitudes in government placed him in public office under the Commonwealth of England, from being thought dangerously radical and even heretical, and he even acted as an official spokesman in certain of his publications. The Restoration of 1660 deprived Milton, now completely blind, of his public platform, but this period saw him complete most of his major works of poetry.