Show I t. t J V J W R KY P p. o 11 JU I J i t. t Milton as a Poet oJ ruu i iQue t- t l 0 lJ t IQue I. I Que jaime la que jaime les geus qui dis dissent ent exclaimed Voltaire The r. r superiority of Englishmen does nut not lie in their birth and fortune it lies precisely precisely precisely pre pre- in their having the courage to be what nature made them was the verdict verdict verdict ver ver- dict of Goethe after keen observation In the words of these two neighbors of England lies the principle that has thrown off the yoke of serfdom that has brought the truth out from the darkness darkness dark dark- ness of superstition that has freed the minds and filled failed the libraries of the world with the forceful thought of En En- In their biographies one reads the history of the English nation not not always pleasant to read but pul pul- sati sating g with the strong vital blood that might cannot control England's greatest thinkers have not come from th the ranks of the nobility her greatest benefactors have not closeted closeted closeted clos clos- eted themselves in the cloister the greatest great great- est poets have not lain on summer beds of ease and warbled their native woodnotes woodnotes wood notes wild Strenuous application to toa a lofty ideal was the price paid for dis dis- From the steady undercurrent of English English English Eng Eng- lish life have come the the- greatest apostles of English thought Ch Chaucer u r belonged to the tradesmen class Ben J Jonson was wasa a mason Spenser was born in a humble home Defoe was the son of a butcher Bunyan was Vas a tinker and Pope and Southey were sons of linen drapers Macauley's father was a merchant Shakespeare sprang from humble origin From the great middle class came another man whose life life life-is is an epic representation representation representation of the seventeenth seventeen h century in England and whose whose- whose name name is synon with beauty holiness and sublimity sublimity ity of thought In 1608 not far from the ol old old- Mermaid Tavern ravern made famous by Sh Shakespeare and his his fellows John Milton Milton- was Milton was born into a cultured puritan household Around his earl early life were thrown those influences which laid the foundation for forthe forthe forthe the greatest Christian epic in all litera litera- ture His parents were able to give the precocious boy every advantage They also gave him puritan ideas of living and the lessons he learned in the home- home school colored his whole life Milton's first instruction was received from private tutors with who whom he studied studied studied stud stud- language and philosophy There are not many boys of twelve who conceive conceive conceive con con- a lofty ideal of what their life shall be and forget their play to prepare for the realization of that ideal There is no more splendid example of long life-long consecration to singleness of purpose than Milton's life When a mere boy he realized the gift nature had bestowed upon him and appreciated what the life should be to accompany such a gift His thirst for knowledge was so g great eat that never after he was twelve did he leave his bonks books until after midnight In these early years was also cultivated his love for music None but an ardent lover of music could have written In notes with many a winding bout Of linked sweetness long drawn o out t With wanton heed and giddy cunning J The melting voice through mazes running Untwisting all the chains that tie The hidden soul of harmony None but hut a musician could have given to words the solemn strains of melody that delight the ear in Paradise Lost It After two or three years in the Grammar Grammar Grammar Gram Gram- mar School of St. St Paul he entered Christs Christ's College Cambridge where for seven years he continued his work of pf preparation His youth was beautiful in its purity and consecration The 41 Lady his college mates nick-named nick him because of his fair beauty beauty and and spotless spotless spotless spot spot- less life In him were curiously blended the severity ot of Puritanism and the gaiety and enjoyment of life of the Renascence Virtue was his goddess conscience his champion and with these the young singer could enjoy the jest and youthful youth youth- ful JollIty of life in pleasures pleas pleas- ures free From Cam Cambridge bridge he sang to the world his Hymn on the N Nativity which might be a fitting pr prelude lude to the exalted conceptions and magnificence of his great epic We see in it evidences of scholarship we hear the pealing organ blow j but best of all it breathes a prop prophecy ecy of what the result will be of diligence of a high idea of excellence of communion with nature and natures nature's God In it are no mutterings ot of the dark storm about to burst over England but there is a pathetic contrast between the strife and persecution of the following years of English history and the peace when Kings sat still with awful eye As if they surely knew their Sovereign Lord was by when Peaceful was the night Wherein the Prince of light His reign of peace upon the earth began During the last year of Milton's college college college col col- lege life his father retired to his country home at Ho Horton ton Here came the young Puritan with his college degree and a purpose of self dedication to that same lot however mean or high towards which h time leads me and the will of heaven He Here for five years he studied the classics of men and the classics of nat nature lre here was written ritten Comus which alone of all the mas masques ues of the time comes omes to us intact L Allegro II Il an and They all reflect the charm of English scenery the spirit of the times and Milton's delight delight delight de de- light in beauty and reverence for virtue Comus Com us s no doubt was intended to personify the corruptions of church and state and the Lady and her friends represent virtue and her companions Two hundred years ago Comus was terribly real as a warning against the danger upon which the ship of national life was drifting But the theme is true yesterday today and forever and the theart art with which it is set off remains undimmed undimmed undimmed un- un dimmed the wisdom unfading unfading- Love virtue It closed his Comus Com us It she alone is free L' L Allegro and II Il contradict contradict contradict con con- Johnsons Johnson's criticism that Milton never learned the art of doing little things with grace It They of all his poems are the most graceful the most picturesque In them we find none of the majesty of his greatest works but they take the reader to the English country to hear the lark startle the dull night while the cock with lively din scatters the rear of darkness there It We can hear the whistle of the plowman plowman plowman plow plow- man and the huntsman's horn see the milkmaid or listen to fairy stories in f some rura rural I cottage I Is S it not grace to toP P clothe these little things thing in garments that are are ever fresh each time we read them The world is the same in L Allegro and II but butth th the eyes of mirth see the flowers o of life and the nods and be becks ks of youthful jollity while contemplation lation visits with Plato or seeks the stud studious ious cloisters cloister's pale where he may sit and rightly spell of every star that heaven doth show In L L' L Allegro we see the beauty loving Puritan j in II Pense Pense- roso rosa the thoughtful Puritan j together these elements ate ale blended in the beauty loving thoughtful Milton was Milton's last utterance in English verse before the outbreak of the civil war From the happy life at Horton he threw himself into the contest contest contest con con- test for liberty and poetry was forgotten in the stern battle hattle for right In discussing Mil Milton ton as a poet much of f the grandeur of the man can be only touched upon To the stormy period of the noonday of his life belongs some of the most magnificent prose of English literature During the twenty years of his public life he stands as dS the apostle of freedom and to understand the loftiness loftiness loftiness lofti lofti- ness of his position one must understand understand understand under under- stand the times It is in his prose that we see the ardor of his convictions the fearlessness of his nature and the grandeur of his genius What the realm of poetry lost in these political and religious controversies Ii liberty berty and prose prose literature gained Nor or in such a discussion can we more than take a casual look into his home- home life j yet even a glance suffices to make us wish to draw the curtain over the scene for his was not an ideal home Neither Milton's nature nor his circumstances circumstances circumstances circum circum- stances created him him- for happiness After a short courtship he was married to Mary Powell the daughter of a Royalist She was a vivacious girl who had lived in an atmosphere of merri merri- ment and the studious habits and philosophical seclusion of her republican can husband proved distasteful to her In the latter years of public life his eyesight failed him owing to the midnight of his youth and his official duties as secretary to Crom Crom- well In 1652 he became totally blind and in the same year his wife died leaving three little girls With his second wife he enjoyed a portion of happiness though brief Elizabeth Min- Min shell his third wife who read to him himin himin himin in his blindness and soothed his last hours is touchingly and gratefully al alluded alluded al al- luned to in his Recapitulative Will In the triumph of the Stuarts the cause which had had John ohn Milton for its champion suffered defeat and we must follow him from Cromwell's court to the hum humble ble home in Fields Fields- the birth place of of- Paradise Lost Lost thankful that his life is spared Henceforth Hence Hence- forth he the most heroic and affecting figure in English literary his his- tory In his old age in his prison of continued continued continued con con- darkness in sorrow for the cause he had seen trampled under foot by men as unworthy as the rabble in Comus Camus he sought and found refuge in the great poem which had been maturing in his mind for tor years The design of Paradise Paradise Paradise Para dise Lost is the loftiest ever conceived by the mind of a p poet et The plans of ol the other great epics were laid on earth Milton's genius worked in a world of of- spirit The romance and wealth of imagery which he shared with the Elizabethan writers j the beauty of form that came from his association with classical literature the loftiness of conception conception conception con con- and sublimity of thought that he owed to his Bible were blended in inthe inthe inthe the story of mans man's first disobedience In II Paradise Lost we view the infinite universe universe Heaven Heaven and the suspended earth with their background of chaos We follow the action of this mysterious drama in its majestic form of blank verse verse from the rebellion of Satan to the creation of earth tarth to the birth of the therace therace therace race of man to his fall and to the promise promise promise pro pro- mise of redemption and we feel that he was a star that dwelt apart for none have scaled his heights Within a period of four years Paradise Lost Paradise Regained and Samson were published and the bl blind nd Puritan had taken his place above all epic poets Great excellence is not common Long ago a Greek poet said that excellence dwells among hardly accessible rocks and a man m must st almost wear his heart out before he can reach her Surely Shakespeare and Milton reached her fortress but of the two the latter i is the highest standard in melody of and faultless diction in this he stands with Virgil and Dante Excellence however is not like genius a gift Milton's flawless style from which he never departed came from his follow following ng nga a high ideal to make himself worthy of his genius from living with the great Hebrew poets and the greatest minds of Greece and Rome from his trials and from his sublime trust in the Giver of Gifts Peaceful as were the last years of his life so peaceful was his death Already while he was building the greatest monument to English poetry the murmur of the great sea was in his ears and the shadowy ships were waiting to spread their sable sails Laura Leonora Sam Sampson son |