Il Penseroso, by
John Milton, is the virtual opposite of his poem
L'Allegro. They follow each other completely; for each line that one is happy and merry, the other is somber and
melancholy. This poem seems to encourage a
ascetic,
monastic lifestyle spent in study, where its
counterpart takes after
Bacchus's partying, carefree crowd.
Il Penseroso
Hence vain deluding joyes,
The brood of folly without father bred,
How little you bested,
Or fill the fixèd mind with all your toyes;
Dwell in some idle brain,
And fancies fond with gaudy shapes possess,
As thick and numberless
As the gay
motes that poeple the Sun Beams,
Or likest hovering dreams
The fickle
Pensioners of
Morpheus train.
But hail thou Goddess, sage and holy,
Hail divinest
Melancholy,
Whose Saintly
visage is too bright
To hit the Sense of human sight;
And therefore to our weaker view,
Ore laid with black staid Wisdoms hue.
Black, but such as in esteem,
Prince Memnons sister might beseem,
Or that starr'd
Ethiope Queen that strove
To set her beauties praise above
The Sea
Nymphs, and their powers offended,
Yet thou art higher far descended,
Thee bright-hair'd
Vesta long of yore,
To solitary
Saturn bore;
His daughter she (in Saturns raign,
Such mixture was not held a stain)
Oft in glimmering Bowres, and glades
He met her, and in secret shades
Of woody
Ida's inmost grove,
While yet there was no fear of Jove.
Com pensive Nun, devout and pure,
Sober, stedfast, and demure,
All in a robe of darkest grain,
Flowing with majestick train,
And sable stole of
Cipres Lawn,
Over thy decent shoulders drawn.
Com, but keep thy wonted state,
With eev'n step, and musing gate,
And looks commercing with the skies,
Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes:
There held in holy passion still,
Forget thy self to
Marble, till
With a sad
Leaden downward cast,
Thou fix them on the earth as fast.
And joyn with thee calm Peace, and Quiet,
Spare Fast, that oft with gods doth diet,
And hears the
Muses in a ring,
Ay round about
Joves Altar sing.
And adde to these retired leasure,
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 will deign a Song,
In her sweetest, saddest plight,
Smoothing the rugged brow of night,
While
Cynthia checks her Dragon yoke,
Gently o're th' accustomed Oke;
Sweet Bird that shunn'st the noise of folly,
Most musical, most Melancholy!
Thee
Chauntress oft the Woods among,
I woo to hear thy Even-Song;
And missing thee, I walk unseen
On the dry smooth-shaven Green,
To behold the wandring Moon,
Riding neer her highest noon,
Like one that had bin led astray
Through the Heav'ns wide pathles way;
And oft, as if her head she bow'd,
Stooping through a fleecy cloud.
Oft on a Plat of rising ground,
I hear the far-off
Curfeu sound,
Over some wide-water'd shoar,
Swinging slow with sullen roar;
Or if the
Ayr will not permit,
Som still removed place will fit,
Where glowing Embers through the room
Teach light to counterfeit a gloom,
Far from all resort of mirth,
Save the Cricket on the hearth,
Or the
Belmans
drowsie charm
To bless the dores from nightly harm:
Or let my Lamp at midnight hour,
Be seen in some high lonely Towr,
Where I may oft out-watch
the Bear,
With thrice great
Hermes, or unsphear
The spirit of
Plato to unfold
What Worlds, or what vast Regions hold
The immortal mind that hath forsook
Her mansion in this fleshly nook:
And of those
Daemons that are found
In fire, air, flood, or under ground,
Whose power hath a true consent
With Planet, or with Element.
Som time let Gorgeous Tragedy
In Scepter'd
Pall com sweeping by,
Presenting
Thebs, or
Pelops line,
Or the
tale of Troy divine.
Or what (though rare) of later age,
Ennobled hath the
Buskind stage.
But, O sad Virgin, that thy power
Might raise
Musaeus from his bower,
Or bid the soul of
Orpheus sing
Such notes as warbled to the string,
Drew Iron tears down Pluto's cheek,
And made Hell grant what Love did seek.
Or call up him that left half told
The story of
Cambuscan bold,
Of
Camball, and of
Algarsife,
And who had
Canace to wife,
That own'd the vertuous Ring and Glass,
And of the wondrous Hors of Brass,
On which the Tartar King did ride.
And if ought els, great Bards beside,
In sage and solemn tunes have sung,
Of
Turneys and of Trophies hung;
Of Forests, and inchantments drear,
Where more is meant then meets the ear.
Thus night oft see me in thy pale career,
Till civil-suitèd Morn appeer,
Not trickt and frounc't as she was wont,
With the
Attick Boy to hunt,
But
Cherchef't in a comely Cloud,
While rocking Winds are Piping loud,
Or usher'd with a shower still,
When the gust hath blown his fill,
Ending on the russling Leaves,
With minute drops from off the Eaves.
And when the Sun begins to fling
His flaring beams, me Goddess bring
To archèd walks of twilight groves,
And shadows brown that
Sylvan loves
Of Pine, or monumental Oake,
Where the rude Ax with heaved stroke
Was never heard the
Nymphs to daunt,
Or fright them from their hallow'd haunt.
There in close covert by some Brook,
Where no prophaner eye may look,
Hide me from Day's garish eie,
While the Bee with Honied thie,
That at her flowry work doth sing,
And the Waters murmuring
With such consort as they keep,
Entice the dewy-feather'd Sleep;
And let some strange mysterious dream,
Wave at his Wings in Airy stream,
Of lively portrature display'd,
Softly on my eye-lids laid.
And as I wake, sweek musick breath
Above, about, or underneath,
Sent by som spirit to mortals good,
Or th'unseen
Genius of the Wood.
But let my due feet never fail,
To walk the studious
Cloysters pale.
And love the high embowed Roof,
With antick Pillars massy proof,
And storied Windows richly dight,
Casting a dimm religious light.
There let the pealing Organ blow,
To the full voic'd
Quire below,
In Service high, and Anthems cleer,
As may with sweetness, through mine ear,
Dissovle me into
extasies,
And bring all Heav'n before mine eyes.
And may at last my weary age
Find out the peacefull hermitage,
The Hairy Gown and Mossy Cell,
Where I may sit and rightly spell
Of every Star that heav'n doth shew,
And every Herb that sips the dew;
Till old experience do attain
To something like Prophetic strain.
These pleasures of Melancholy give,
And I with thee will choose to live