Lycidas

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1638

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Background

Literary Context: Milton and the Pastoral Tradition

The pastoral tradition in poetry presents shepherds in a rustic setting. They may not be actual shepherds but are presented as such as part of the artificial convention of the genre. “Pastor” is the Latin word for shepherd. In a pastoral elegy, the poet laments the death of a friend, and the whole of nature also mourns the loss. Often, the elegy offers a hope of immortality for the one who is mourned, or there may be other forms of consolation with which the poem ends.

The earliest pastoral poems were the Idylls by the ancient Greek poet Theocritus, who wrote about the life of shepherds in Sicily in the third century BC. The pastoral form was developed by the Roman poet Virgil, in the first century BC. In his Eclogues and Georgics, Virgil presented an idealized picture of the simplicity of rural life. The influence of both these poets can be seen in Milton’s “Lycidas.” For example, Theocritus’s Thyrsis (Idyll 1), a lament for the poet shepherdess Daphnis, begins with the following lines:

Thyrsis of Ætna am I, and this is the voice of Thyrsis. Where, ah! where were ye when Daphnis was languishing; ye Nymphs, where were ye? By Peneus’s beautiful dells, or by dells of Pindus? for surely ye dwelt not by the great stream of the river Anapus, nor on the watch-tower of Ætna, nor by the sacred water of Acis (Theocritus. “The Song of Thyrsis.” C. D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature. 1917).

These lines are clearly echoed by Milton:

Where were ye Nymphs, when the remorseless deep

Closed o’er the head of your lov’d Lycidas?

For neither were ye playing on the steep,

Where your old bards, the famous Druids, lie,

Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high,

Nor yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream (Lines 50-55).

Similarly, Virgil’s 10th Eclogue has the following passage, which can be compared to those same lines from “Lycidas”: “What groves, what glades were your abode, you virgin Naiads, when Gallus was pining with unrequited love? For no heights of Parnassus or of Pindus, no Aonian Aganippe made you tarry” (Virgil. Eclogue 10. Translated by H. R. Fairclough. Classical Texts Library).

There are a number of other allusions to the Eclogues in “Lycidas,” such as the lines in Eclogue 2, “Was it not better to brook Amaryllis’ sullen rage and scornful disdain? or Menalcas, though he was dark and you are fair?”; this can be compared to Milton’s “Were it not better done, as others use / To sport with Amaryllis in the shade / Or with the tangles of Neaera’s hair?” (Lines 66-68). In weaving such allusions into “Lycidas,” Milton both demonstrates his classical erudition and invites comparison between his own work and that of some of his famous classical predecessors.

Historical Context: Milton and the English Religious Debates

The tension between Anglicanism, Catholicism, and the Puritans was a long-running issue in the English church going back to the 16th century. When Henry VIII (1509-1547) broke with the Catholic Church in 1534, he established the Church of England—also known as the Anglican Church—as its national alternative, with himself as the Supreme Head of the Church in place of the pope. This meant that, from its inception, the monarchy and the Anglican church establishment were deeply intertwined. As the 16th century wore on and gave way to the 17th, various new Protestant sects developed, some of which opposed the Anglican church and its state-sanctioned leaders and practices. The Puritans were one such sect: They deplored the elaborate rituals and hierarchies of Anglicanism and advocated instead for a much stricter and simpler form of religious ritual.

Milton was deeply interested in politics and church government. He was firmly on the Puritan side of the debate: He believed that preachers, elected by the local congregations, should be the leaders of the church, rather than the government-appointed bishops. He also regarded the powers of the bishops (prelates) as a threat to the country, expressing his low opinion of them in his 1641 tract, The Reason of Church Government, criticizing “their unconscionable wealth and revenues, their cruel authority over their brethren that labor in the word, while they snore in their luxurious excess” (Milton, John. The Reason of Church-Government. Printed by E. G. for Iohn Rothwell, 1641).

Milton’s religious stance can even be glimpsed in “Lycidas,” as the section on St. Peter and his fury with the Anglican bishops shows. This section is Milton’s commentary on a lively issue of the day: the extent to which bishops should have the power to control the form that Anglican services took. William Laud, the Archbishop of Canterbury, wanted services to consist only of traditional church ceremony, without sermons. Moderate Protestants and Puritans alike thought that Laud’s approach, with its emphasis on ceremonial rites, smacked too much of Catholicism. In grieving the loss of the pure-hearted Lycidas, whom the speaker believes would have done much good had he lived to fulfill his career in the church, the speaker also condemns the luxurious and corrupt Anglican bishops, who live on only to inflict more harm on their English congregations.