Lycidas: Poetry and Death Essay -- Milton Lycidas Essays

Lycidas: Poetry and Death  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   Living in a period of important religious and cultural flux, John Milton's poetry reflects the many influences he found both in history and in the contemporary world. 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 strong 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 gap 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. Opening the poem in a setting rich with mythological figures and scen ery, then deliberately moving into a distinctly Christian setting, Milton touches upon two personally relevant 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 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 King 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." Milton's Lycidas: The Tradition and the Poem. Ed. C. A. Patrides. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 1983. 92-110. Hanford, James H. "The Pastoral Elegy and Milton's Lycidas." Milton's 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." Milton's 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." Milton's Lycidas: The Tradition and the Poem. Ed. C. A. Patrides. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 1983. 303-18.