by John Milton
Crede mihi vix hoc carmine scire queas.
Nam neque noster amor modulis includitur arctis,
Nec venit ad claudos integer ipse pedes.2
Quàm bene solennes epulas, hilaremque Decembrim
10
Festaque cœlifugam3 quæ coluere Deum,
Deliciasque refers, hyberni gaudia ruris,
Haustaque per lepidos Gallica musta focos.
Quid quereris refugam vino dapibusque poesin?
Carmen amat Bacchum, Carmina Bacchus amat.4
15
Nec puduit Phœbum virides gestasse corymbos,
Atque hederam lauro præposuisse suæ.5
Sæpius Aoniis clamavit collibus Euœ
Mista Thyoněo turba novena choro.6
Naso Corallæis7 mala carmina misit ab agris:
20
Non illic epulæ non sata vitis erat.
Quid nisi vina, rosasque racemiferumque Lyæum
Cantavit brevibus Tëia Musa8 modis?
Pindaricosque inflat numeros Teumesius Euan,
Et redolet sumptum pagina quæque merum;
25
Dum gravis everso currus crepat axe supinus,
Et volat Eléo pulvere fuscus eques.
Quadrimoque madens Lyricen Romanus9 Jaccho
Dulce canit Glyceran, flavicomamque Chloen.
Jam quoque lauta tibi generoso mensa paratu,
30
Mentis alit vires, ingeniumque fovet.
Massica10 fœcundam despumant pocula venam,
Fundis et ex ipso condita metra cado.
Addimus his artes, fusumque per intima Phœbum
Corda, favent uni Bacchus, Apollo, Ceres.11
35
Scilicet haud mirum tam dulcia carmina per te
Numine composito tres peperisse Deos.
Nunc quoque Thressa12 tibi cælato barbitos auro
Insonat argutâ molliter icta manu;
Auditurque chelys suspensa tapetia circum,
40
Virgineos tremulâ quæ regat arte pedes.
Illa tuas saltern teneant spectacula Musas,
Et revocent, quantum crapula pellit iners.
Crede mihi dum psallit ebur, comitataque plectrum
Implet odoratos festa chorea tholos,
45
Percipies taciturn per pectora serpere Phœbum,
Quale repentinus permeat ossa calor,
Perque puellares oculos digitumque sonantem
Irruet in totos lapsa Thalia13 sinus.
Namque Elegía levis multorum cura deorum est,
50
Et vocat ad numeros quemlibet illa suos;
Liber adest elegis, Eratoque, Ceresque, Venusque,
Et cum purpureâ matre tenellus Amor.
Talibus inde licent convivia larga poetis,
Sæpius et veteri commaduisse mero.
55
At qui bella refert, et adulto sub Jove cælum,
Heroasque pios, semideosque duces,
Et nunc sancta canit superum consulta deorum,
Nunc latrata fero regna profunda cane,14
Ille quidem parcè Samii pro more magistri15
60
Vivat, et innocuos præbeat herba cibos;
Stet prope fagineo pellucida lympha catillo,
Sobriaque è puro pocula fonte bibat.
Additur huic scelerisque vacans, et casta juventus,
Et rigidi mores, et sine labe manus.
65
Qualis veste nitens sacrâ, et lustralibus undis
Surgis ad infensos augur iture Deos.
Hoc ritu vixisse ferunt post rapta sagacem
Lumina Tiresian, Ogygiumque Linon,16
Et lare devoto profugum Calchanta, senemque
70
Orpheon edomitis sola per antra feris;
Sic dapis exiguus, sic rivi potor Homerus
Dulichium vexit per freta longa virum,
Et per monstrificam Perseiæ Phœbados17 aulam,
Et vada fœmineis insidiosa sonis,
75
Perque tuas, rex ime, domos, ubi sanguine nigro
Dicitur umbrarum detinuisse greges.
Diis etenim sacer est vates, divûmque sacerdos,
Spirat et occultum pectus, et ora Jovem.
At tu siquid agam, scitabere (si modò saltern
80
Esse putas tanti noscere siquid agam)
Paciferum canimus cælesti semine regem,18
Faustaque sacratis sæcula pacta libris,
Vagitumque Dei, et stabulantem paupere tecto
Qui suprema suo cum patre regna colit;
85
Stelliparumque polum, modulantesque æthere turmas,
Et subitò elisos ad sua fana Deos.
Dona quidem dedimus Christi natalibus illa,
Illa sub auroram lux mihi prima tulit.
Te quoque pressa manent patriis meditata cicutis,
90
Tu mihi, cui recitem, judicis instar eris.
Elegy 6
TO CHARLES DIODATI, SOJOURNING IN THE COUNTRY1
Who, when he wrote on the thirteenth of December and asked that his verses be excused if they were less estimable than usual, being in the midst of the splendors with which he had been received by his friends, declared himself to be able to produce by no means sufficiently auspicious work for the Muses, thus had this answer.
On an empty stomach I send you a wish for health, / which you, stuffed full, can perhaps do without. / But why does your Muse provoke mine, / and not permit it to be able to pursue its chosen obscurity? / You would like to know by song how I return your love and revere you; [5] / believe me, you can scarcely learn this from song, / for my love is not confined by brief measures, / nor does it itself proceed unimpaired on halting feet.2 / How well you report the customary sumptuous feasts and jovial December / and festivals that have honored the heaven-fleeing god,3 [10] / the sports and pleasures of winter in the country, / and the French wines consumed beside agreeable fires. / Why do you complain that poetry is a fugitive from wine and feasts? / Song loves Bacchus, Bacchus loves songs.4 / Nor did it shame Apollo to wear the green leaves of ivy [15] / and to prefer ivy to his own laurel.5 / On the Aonian hills the assembled ninefold band / has often evoked Euoe from the Thyonean troop.6 / Ovid sent poor verses from the Corallian fields;7 / in that land there were no banquets, nor had the grape been planted. [20] / What but wine and roses and Lyaeus wreathed with clusters / did the Teian poet8 sing in his shortened measures? / And Teumasian Euan inspires Pindaric odes, / and every page is redolent of the consumed wine, / while the laden chariot clatters on its back from an upset axle, [25] / and the horseman speeds on, darkened with Elean dust; / and the Roman lyricist,9 wet with four-year-old wine, / sang of sweet Glycera and golden-haired Chloe. / Indeed your table bathed in generous provision also / nourishes the powers of your mind and encourages your genius. [30] / The Massican10 cups foam out productive strength, / and you decant your verses contained within the wine-flask itself. / To this we add the arts and outpouring of Apollo through your inmost / heart; Bacchus, Apollo, Ceres together are favorable.11 / No wonder then that it is not doubted, for the three gods [35] / through you have created their delightful songs with combined divinity. / Now also for you the Thracian lyre12 with inlaid gold / is sounding, gently plucked by a melodious hand; / and the lyre is heard about the hanging tapestries, / which rules the maiden feet by its rhythmic art. [40] / At the least let these scenes detain your Muses / and recall whatever sluggish intoxication drives away. / Believe me, while the ivory plays on and the lyre / regales the perfumed halls with attendant festive dance, / you will feel silent Apollo creep through your breast [45] / like a sudden heat that permeates to the bones; / and through maiden eyes and sounding finger / gliding Thalia13 will invade all bosoms. / For gay Elegy is the concern of many gods / and she calls those whom she wishes to her measures; [50] / liber gives attention to elegiac verse, and Erato, Ceres, and Venus, / and with his rosy mother is delicate Lo
ve. / For such poets thereafter great banquets are allowed / and often to become soft with old wine. / But who records wars and heaven under mature Jove, [55] / and pious heroes and half-divine leaders, / and now who sings the sacred counsels of the supreme gods, / now the infernal realms bayed by the fierce dog,14 / let him live indeed frugally in the fashion / of the Samian teacher,15 and let herbage furnish his harmless food. [60] / Let the clear water near at hand stand in its bowl of beech wood, / and let him drink nonintoxicating potions from the pure spring. / His youth void of crime and chaste is joined to this / by stern morals and without stain of hand. / With like nature, shining with sacred vestment and lustral waters, [65] / does the priest rise to go to the hostile gods. / By this rule it is said wise Tiresias lived / after his eyes were put out, and Ogygian Linus,16 / and Calchas fugitive from his appointed house, and old / Orpheus with the vanquished beasts among the forsaken caves. [70] / Thus the one poor of feast, thus Homer, drinker of water, / carried the man of Ithaca through the vast seas / and through the monster-making palace of the daughter17 of Perseis and Apollo, / and shallows dangerous with Siren songs, / and through your mansions, infernal king, where by dark blood [75] / he is said to have engaged the trooping shades. / For truly the poet is sacred to the gods, and priest of the gods, / and his hidden heart and lips breathe Jove. / But if you will know what I am doing (if only at least / you consider it to be important to know whether I am doing anything) [80] / I am singing the King, bringer of peace by his divine origin,18 / and the blessed times promised in the sacred books, / and the crying of our God and his stabling under the meagre roof, / who with his Father inhabits the heavenly realms; / and the heavens insufficient of stars and the hosts singing in the air, [85] / and the gods suddenly destroyed in their temples. / I dedicate these gifts in truth to the birthday of Christ, / gifts which the first light of dawn brought to me. / For you these thoughts formed on my native pipes are also waiting; / you, when I recite them, will be the judge for me of their worth. [90]
(Dec. 1629)
* * *
1 For Diodati, see. El. 1, n. 1.
2 the elegiac couplet.
3 that is, becoming man on earth.
4 As god of wine, who loosens care, Bacchus inspired music and poetry.
5 See El. 5, n. 3.
6 See El. 4, n. 10. Thyoneus is Bacchus, also called Lyaeus (l. 21), meaning “deliverer from care,” and Teumesian Euan (l. 23), “Euoe” being a shout heard at his festivals.
7 See El. 1, n. 3. Reference is to Epistles from Pontus, IV, viii, 80–83.
8 Anacreon.
9 Horace in his Odes.
10 Mt. Massicus in Campania, which was celebrated for its excellent wine.
11 Bacchus because of the wine-filled festivals, Apollo because Diodati was preparing for a medical career, and Ceres because of the feasts.
12 referring to Orpheus.
13 Muse of comedy and bucolic poetry; Erato (l. 51) is the Muse of lyric and amatory poetry. Liber, a god of vine-growers, was identified with Bacchus; but he also was a spirit of creativeness.
14 Cerberus, guardian of Hades.
15 Pythagoras and his school practised asceticism, particularly in eating.
16 The Theban Linus instructed Orpheus and Hercules on the lyre; Calchas (l. 69) was the Greek seer at Troy.
17 Circe.
18 the Nativity Ode, written in English (“on my native pipes,” l. 89) around Christmas 1629.
The Passion1
I
Ere-while of Musick, and Ethereal mirth,
Wherwith the stage of Ayr and Earth did ring,
And joyous news of heav’nly Infants birth,
My muse with Angels did divide2 to sing;
5
But headlong joy is ever on the wing,
In Wintry solstice like the short’n’d light
Soon swallow’d up in dark and long out-living night.
II
For now to sorrow must I tune my song,
And set my Harp to notes of saddest wo,
10
Which on our dearest Lord did sease e’re long
Dangers, and snares, and wrongs, and worse then so,
Which he for us did freely undergo:
Most perfect Heroe,3 try’d in heaviest plight
Of labours huge and hard, too hard for human wight.
III
15
He sov’ran Priest stooping his regall head
That dropt with odorous oil down his fair eyes,4
Poor fleshly Tabernacle entered,
His starry front low-rooft beneath the skies;
O what a Mask5 was there, what a disguise!
20
Yet more; the stroke of death he must abide,
Then lies him meekly down fast by his Brethrens side.
IV
These latter scenes confine my roving vers,
To this Horizon is my Phœbus6 bound;
His Godlike acts, and his temptations fierce,
25
And former sufferings other where are found;
Loud o’re the rest Cremona’s Trump7 doth sound;
Me softer airs befit, and softer strings
Of Lute, or Viol still, more apt for mournful things.
V
Befriend me night, best Patroness of grief,
30
Over the Pole thy thickest mantle throw,
And work my flatter’d fancy to belief,
That Heav’n and Earth are colour’d with my wo;
My sorrows are too dark for day to know:
The leaves should all be black wheron I write,
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And letters where my tears have washt a wannish white.8
VI
See, see the Chariot, and those rushing wheels
That whirl’d the Prophet9 up at Chebar flood;
My spirit som transporting Cherub feels,
To bear me where the Towers of Salem10 stood,
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Once glorious Towers, now sunk in guiltles blood;
There doth my soul in holy vision sit
In pensive trance, and anguish, and ecstatick fit.
VII
Mine eye hath found that sad Sepulchral rock
That was the Casket of Heav’ns richest store,
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And here though grief my feeble hands up-lock,
Yet on the soft’n’d Quarry would I score
My plaining vers as lively as before;
For sure so well instructed are my tears,
That they would fitly fall in order’d Characters.
VIII
50
Or should I thence hurried on viewles wing,
Take up a weeping on the Mountains wild,11
The gentle neighbourhood of grove and spring
Would soon unboosom all thir Echoes mild,
And I (for grief is easily beguil’d)
55
Might think th’ infection of my sorrows loud
Had got a race of mourners on som pregnant cloud.
(Unfinished, Mar. 1630)
* * *
1 Intended as a kind of sequel to the Nativity Ode, which is mentioned in the first stanza, these verses seem to be only an induction to the main subject, Jesus’ suffering and crucifixion. An appended note indicates why the poem was not completed: “This Subject the Author finding to be above the yeers he had, when he wrote it, and nothing satisfi’d with what was begun, left it unfinisht.”
2 a musical term meaning to make musical divisions (measures); but perhaps “divide into parts between them.”
3 Here Christ is paralleled with Hercules.
4 “Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle” was by God “anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows” (Heb. ix. 11, i. 9).
5 the persona of the drama, used for the person of the Incarnation.
6 Muse.
7 the Christiad, an epic on the life of Christ by M
arco Girolamo Vida, native of Cremona, which Milton praises over similar religious works.
8 A Jacobean printing practice was the use of black title pages with white letters.
9 Ezekiel (Ezek. i. 1–16).
10 Jerusalem was the home of sacred poetry, for David, reputed author of the psalms, reigned there thirty-three years (2 Sam. v. 5).
11 Jer. ix. 10: “For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation.”
Elegia septima
Nondum blanda tuas leges, Amathusia,1 norâm,
Et Paphio vacuum pectus ab igne fuit.
Sæpe cupidineas, puerilia tela, sagittas,
Atque tuum sprevi maxime, numen, Amor.
5
Tu puer imbelles, dixi, transfige columbas,
Conveniunt tenero mollia bella duci.
Aut de passeribus tumidos age, parve, triumphos,
Hæc sunt militiæ digna trophæa tuæ.
In genus humanum quid inania dirigis arma?
10
Non valet in fortes ista pharetra viros.
Non tulit hoc Cyprius (neque enim Deus ullus ad iras
Promptior), et duplici jam ferus igne calet.
Ver erat, et summæ radians per culmina villæ
Attulerat primam lux tibi, Maie, diem:
15
At mihi adhuc refugam quærebant lumina noctem
Nec matutinum sustinuere jubar.
Astat Amor lecto, pictis Amor impiger alis,
Prodidit astantem mota pharetra Deum:
Prodidit et facies, et dulce minantis ocelli,
20
Et quicquid puero, dignum et Amore fuit
Talis in æterno juvenis Sigeius2 Olympo
Miscet amatori pocula plena Jovi;
Aut qui formosas pellexit ad oscula nymphas
Thiodamantæus Naiade raptus Hylas;3