John Milton, the most illustrious of English poets, was born in London in 1608. In 1637 he set out for Italy, and three years after returned to take part in the great struggle then commencing between the King and the Parliament. He actively opposed the King, and on the establishment of the Commonwealth became secretary to Cromwell. This office he held till the death of the Protector in 1658. At the Restoration (1660) he retired into obscurity, blind and poor, and five years later he finished the most sublime, and of its kind the most perfect poem in our language-Paradise Lost.' For this magnificent work he received the miserable sum of 5l., with the promise of more if it were successful. He also wrote 'Paradise Regained,'' Comus,' 'Lycidas,' and prose works on various subjects. His death took place in London, 1674.

COME, pensive nun, devout and pure,

Sober, steadfast, and demure,2

1 Il Penseroso' means the sad or sorrowful man, and 'L'Allegro ' the cheerful man. Melancholy is addressed in the first extract, and Mirth in the second.

2 Demure, grave.

All in a robe of darkest grain
Flowing with majestic train,
And sable stole of Cyprus lawn 1
Over thy decent shoulders drawn-
Come, but keep thy wonted state
With even step and musing gait,
And looks commercing 2 with the skies,
Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes:
There held in holy passion still,
Forget thyself to marble, till

With a sad, leaden, downward cast
Thou fix them on the earth as fast:

And join with thee calm Peace and Quiet,
Spare Fast, that oft with gods doth diet,
And hears the Muses 3 in a ring

Aye round about Jove's altar sing :
And add to these retired Leisure,

That in trim gardens takes his pleasure;
But first and chiefest, with thee bring
Him that yon soars on golden wing,
Guiding the fiery-wheeled throne,
The cherub Contemplation;
And the mute Silence hist along,
'Less Philomel 5 should deign a song,
In her sweetest, saddest plight,
Smoothing the rugged brow of Night,

1 Cyprus lawn, fine linen, probably made in Cyprus. 2 Commercing, turned towards the skies.

3 Muses. The ancients believed in the existence of nine sister goddesses, who presided over the different branches of science and art, as well as music, poetry, dancing, &c.

4 Jove, Jupiter or Zeus, was regarded by the ancient Greeks and Romans as the presiding deity of the universe. 5 Philomel, the nightingale.

M

1

While Cynthia checks her dragon yoke
Gently o'er the accustomed oak.

Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of folly,
Most musical, most melancholy :

Thee, chantress, oft the woods among
I woo, to hear thy evening song,
And missing thee, I walk unseen
On the dry, smooth, shaven green,
To behold the wandering moon
Riding near her highest noon,
Like one that hath been led astray
Through the heaven's wide, pathless way,
And oft, as if her head she bowed,
Stooping through a fleecy cloud.
Oft on a plat of rising ground
I hear the far-off curfew 2 sound
Over some wide-watered shore,
Swinging slow with sullen roar,
Or if the air will not permit,
Some still, removed place will fit,
Where glowing embers through the room
Teach light to counterfeit 3 a gloom;

Far from all resort of mirth,

Save the cricket on the hearth,
Or the bellman's 4 drowsy charm,

To bless the doors from nightly harm.

1 Cynthia, the moon.

Refers to the ancient belief that the moon

was a goddess, and drove a chariot to which dragons were yoked.

2 Curfew, the bell rung at eight o'clock in the evening as the signal o put out all fires.

3 To counterfeit, to pretend to be like.

4 Bellman, the night-watchman.

Thus, Night, oft see me in thy pale career,
Till civil-suited 1 Morn appear,

Not tricked and frounced as she was wont
With the Attic boy 2 to hunt,

But kerchieft 3 in a comely cloud
While rocking winds are piping loud,

Or ushered with a shower still
When the gust hath blown his fill,
Ending on the rustling leaves

With minute drops from off the eaves.
And when the sun begins to fling
His flaring beams, me, goddess, bring
To arched walls of twilight groves
And shadows brown that Sylvan 4 loves
Of pine or monumental oak,

Where the rude axe with heavy stroke
Was never heard the nymphs to daunt,
Or fright them from their hallowed haunt;
There in close covert, by some brook
Where no profaner eye may look,
Hide me from day's garish eye
While the bee with honeyed thigh,
That at her flowery work doth sing,
And the waters murmuring,
With such concert as they keep,

Entice the dewy-feathered sleep;

5

1 Civil-suited, quietly dressed; not tricked and frounced.

2 The Attic boy. Aurora, the goddess of morning, was said to love an Athenian youth, who is here referred to as the Attic boy.

5 Kerchieft, having a covering over the head.

4 Sylvan. Sylvanus was the Roman deity who presided over woods and forests.

5 Dewy-feathered sleep. Sleep is here spoken of as a being with wings.

And let some strange, mysterious dream
Wave at his wings, in airy stream
Of lively portraiture displayed,
Softly on my eyelids laid.

And as I wake sweet music breathe
Above, about, or underneath,

Sent by some spirit to mortals good,
Or the unseen genius of the wood.
But let my due feet never fail
To walk the studious cloisters pale,
And love the high embowèd roof,
With antique pillars massy proof,
And storied windows richly dight,
Casting a dim, religious light.
There let the pealing organ blow,
To the full-voiced choir below,
In service high and anthem clear,

As may with sweetness through mine ear
Dissolve me into ecstasies,

And bring all heaven before mine eyes!
And may at last my weary age
Find out the peaceful hermitage,
The hairy gown and mossy cell
Where I may sit and rightly spell
Of every star that heaven doth show
And every herb that sips the dew;
Till old Experience do attain
To something like prophetic strain.

These pleasures, Melancholy, give,
And I with thee will choose to live.