Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year. Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer. Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme. Without the meed of some melodious tear. Begin, and somewhat loudly sweep the string. Hence with denial vain and coy excuse! And bid fair peace be to my sable shroud!

"Lycidas" (/ ˈ l ɪ s ɪ d ə s /) is a poem by John Milton, written in 1637 as a pastoral elegy. It first appeared in a 1638 collection of elegies, Justa Edouardo King Naufrago , dedicated to the memory of Edward King , a friend of Milton at Cambridge who drowned when his ship sank in the Irish Sea off the coast of Wales in August 1637.

For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime, Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer. Who would not sing for Lycidas? he knew Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme. He must not float upon his wat'ry bier Unwept, and welter to the parching wind, Without the meed of some melodious tear.

Fanning their joyous Leaves to thy soft layes. Such, Lycidas, thy loss to Shepherds ear. Clos'd o're the head of your lov'd Lycidas? Ay me, I fondly dream! Had ye bin there — for what could that have don? Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore. Alas! What boots it with uncessant care. Or with the tangles of Neæra's hair?

John Milton’s masterful ‘Lycidas’ is a pastoral elegy for his recently deceased friend, a thesis on the purpose of epic verse, and a piercing examination of religious truth. Milton draws upon a wealth of Greek mythological and Christian references to transform a traditional pastoral elegy into a deeper exploration of the form.

Who would not sing for Lycidas? he knew Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme. He must not float upon his watery bier Unwept, and welter to the parching wind, Without the meed of some melodious tear.

Lycidas study guide contains a biography of John Milton, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

Lycidas, poem by John Milton, written in 1637 for inclusion in a volume of elegies published in 1638 to commemorate the death of Edward King, Milton’s contemporary at the University of Cambridge who had drowned in a shipwreck in August 1637.

Lycidas is a pastoral elegy, a genre initiated by Theocritus, also put to famous use by Virgil and Spenser. Christopher Kendrick asserts that one's reading of Lycidas would be improved by treating the poem anachronistically, that is, as if it was one of the most original pastoral elegies.

Jul 8, 2020 · ‘Lycidas’ is brief, 193 lines in total, and, given the amount of intense critical scrutiny and scholarly decoding that has attended it, could claim to be the most complex and enigmatic short poem in English.