Poem 111.
The remark quoted in the note to No. 47 applies equally to these truly wonderful verses, which, like "Lycidas," may be regarded as a test of any reader's insight into the most poetical aspects of Poetry. The general differences between them are vast: but in imaginative intensity Marvell and Shelley are closely related. This poem is printed as a translation in Marvell's works: but the original Latin is obviously his own. The most striking verses in it, here quoted as the book is rare, answer more or less to stanzas 2 and 6:
Alma Quies, teneo te! et te, germana Quietis, Simplicitas! vos ergo diu per templa, per urbes Quaesivi, regum perque alta palatia, frustra: Sed vos hortorum per opaca silentia, longe Celarunt plantae virides, et concolor umbra.
Poems 112&113.
L'Allegro and Il Penseroso. It is a striking proof of Milton's astonishing power, that these, the earliest pure Descriptive Lyrics in our language, should still remain the best in a style which so many great poets have since attempted. The Bright and the Thoughtful aspects of Nature are their subjects: but each is preceded by a mythological introduction in a mixed Classical and Italian manner. The meaning of the first is that Gaiety is the child of Nature; of the second, that Pensiveness is the daughter of Sorrow and Genius.
112: Perverse ingenuity has conjectured that for Cerberus we should read Erebus, who in the Mythology is brother at once and husband of Night. But the issue of this union is not Sadness, but Day and Aether:—completing the circle of primary creation, as the parents are both children of Chaos, the first-begotten of all things. (Hesiod.)
the mountain nymph: compare Wordsworth's Sonnet, No. 210.
The clouds in thousand liveries dight: is in apposition to the preceding, by a grammatical license not uncommon with Milton.
tells his tale: counts his flock; Cynosure: the Pole Star; Corydon, Thyrsis, etc.: Shepherd names from the old Idylls; Jonson's learned sock: the gaiety of our age would find little pleasure in his elaborate comedies; Lydian airs: a light and festive style of ancient music.
113: bestead: avail.