[134-151.] Milton is fond of thus collecting names of persons, places, and things, choosing them as well for their effect on the ear as for their significance. The botany of this passage is of little consequence: it matters not whether all these flowers could, or could not, be collected at the same season, or whether they could be found at the time of the year when Lycidas died. The passage offers a picture of exquisite beauty to the eye, and to the ear a strain of perfect melody.
[136. where the mild whispers use.] The verb use, in this intransitive sense, with only adverbial complement, and meaning dwell, is now obsolete.
[138. the swart star:] the star that makes swart, or swarthy; i.e. the sun.
[139. enamelled eyes] are the flowers generally, which are to be specified. Scattered over the turf, the flowers seem to be looking upward, like eyes.
[142. rathe] is the adjective whose comparative is our rather.
[149. amaranthus], by its etymology, means unfading.
[150. Daffadil] is derived from asphodel, with a curious, and altogether unusual, prefixed d.
[153. dally with false surmise.] King’s body was not found. There was no actual strewing of the laureate hearse with flowers.
[156. the stormy Hebrides:] islands off the northwest coast of Scotland.
[160. Sleep’st by the fable of Bellerus old.] The fable of Bellerus is the fabled Bellerus, or Bellerus of the fable. He was a mythical giant of Cornwall in old British legend. Bellerium was the name given to Land’s End, where he was supposed to live.