P. [167]. haud procul a littore Britannico: 'the ship having struck on a rock not far from the British shore and been ruptured by the shock, he, while the other passengers were fruitlessly busy about their mortal lives, having fallen forward upon his knees, and breathing a life which was immortal, in the act of prayer going down with the vessel, rendered up his soul to God, August 10, 1637, aged 25.'—Masson's translation.
[1-5]. Yet once more: these verses express the poet's sense of his unripeness for the exercise of the poetic gift. See his 'English Letter to a Friend,' p. 40; laurel, myrtle, and ivy are poetical emblems.
[5]. before the mellowing year: i.e. before the mellowing year or period of his own life; 'mellowing' is intransitive, growing or becoming mellow; 'year' is not a nominative, the subject of 'does' or 'shatters,' understood, as several editors make it, but is the object of the preposition 'before.'
[6]. dear: of intimate concernment; the word was formerly applied to what is precious, or painful, to the heart; it has here, of course, the latter application.
[7]. Compels me to disturb your season due: i.e. compels me to write a poem before I have attained to the requisite 'inward ripeness.'
The compound subject, 'bitter constraint and sad occasion dear,' is logically singular, and takes a singular verb. The placing of a noun between two epithets is usual with Milton, especially when the epithet following the noun qualifies the noun as qualified by the preceding epithet; e.g. 'hazel copses green,' v. 42; 'flower-inwoven tresses torn.'—Hymn on the Nativity, 187; 'beckoning shadows dire.'—Comus, 207.
[14]. melodious tear: 'tear' is used, by metonymy, for an elegiac poem.
[15]. sacred well: the Pierian spring.
[16]. the seat of Jove: Mount Olympus.
[17]. loudly: i.e. as Hunter explains, in lamentation; or, perhaps, in praises.