The Poetical Works Of John Milton

by John Milton

Overview

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Pomona Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781406793260
Publisher:	Pomona Press
Publication date:	01/01/2006
Pages:	644
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.42(d)

Read an Excerpt

luTiinTiiliiluiiirillSll'illllllllllllllll1l INTRODUCTIONS TO THE ENGLISH POEMS. Paraphrases On Psalms CXIV. And CXXXVI. These were done, as the author himself takes care to tell us, "at fifteen years old"—i.e. in 1624. They are, in fact, the only specimens now extant of Milton's muse before he went to Cambridge. They are the relics, doubtless, of a little collection of boyish performances, now lost, with which he amused himself, and perhaps pleased his father and his teachers, when he lived in his father's house in Bread Street, Cheapside, and attended the neighbouring school of St. Paul's. They prove him to have been even then a careful reader of contemporary English poetry, and, in particular, of Spenser, and of Sylvester's quaint and old-fashioned, but richly poetical, translation of the Divine Weehes and Workes of the French religious poet Du Bartas. This book, which had been published in 1605 by Humphrey Lownes, a well- known printer of Bread Street Hill, close to Milton's father's house, was as popular in England as the original was on the Continent. It went through several editions while Sylvester lived, and almost every pious English household of literary tastes possessed a copy. On The Death Of A Fair Infant Dying Of A Cough. Over this poem Milton has himself placed the words "Anno alatis 17," implying that it was written in his 17th year. Now, as Milton entered his seventeenth year on the gth of December 1624, and ended it on the pth of Decem- ber 1625, this would place the poem between those dates. But, when Milton placed Arabic figures after the phrase anno osteitis in those headings of his poems, it was his habit to give himself the benefit of a year byunderstanding the figures as noting cardinal and not ordinal numbers. "Anno atatis 17 " meant, ...

Table of Contents

	Biographical Sketch	iii
	Preface	xxi
	Paradise Lost
	Introduction
I.	Earliest Editions of the Poem	1
II.	Origin of the Poem and History of its Composition	9
III.	Scheme and Meaning of the Poem	18
	Author's Preface on "The Verse"	35
	Commendatory Verses, prefixed to the Second Edition	37
	Text of the Poem
Book I.43
Book II.61
Book III.84
Book IV.101
Book V.124
Book VI.144
Book VII.164
Book VIII.179
Book IX.194
Book X.220
Book XI.245
Book XII.265
	Paradise Regained
	Introduction	281
	Text of the Poem
Book I.291
Book II.303
Book III.314
Book IV.324
	Samson Agonistes
	Introduction	339
	The Author's Preface: "Of that sort of Dramatic Poem called Tragedy"	349
	The Argument and the Persons	351
	Text of the Poem	353
	Minor Poems
	General Introduction	393
	Introductions to the Poems Severally
Part I.	Introductions to the English Poems	397
Part II.	Introductions to the Latin Poems	445
	Moseley's Preface to the Edition of 1645	470
	Text of the Poems
Part I.	The English Poems
	Paraphrases on Psalms CXIV. and CXXXVI.	471
	On the Death of a Fair Infant dying of a Cough	474
	At a Vacation Exercise in the College	476
	On the Morning of Christ's Nativity	479
	Upon the Circumcision	486
	The Passion	487
	On Time	489
	At a Solemn Music	490
	Song on May Morning	490
	On Shakespeare	491
	On the University Carrier	491
	Another on the Same	492
	An Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester	492
	L'Allegro	494
	Il Penseroso	497
	Arcades	502
	Comus; a Masque presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634	505
	Lawes's Dedication of the Edition of 1637	505
	Sir Henry Wotton's Commendatory Letter of 1638	505
	The Persons	507
	Text of the Masque	508
	Lycidas	532
	Sonnets and Kindred Pieces
Sonnet I.	To the Nightingale	537
Sonnet II.	On his having arrived at the Age of Twenty-three	537
Sonnet III.	Donna leggiadra, &c.	538
Sonnet IV.	Qual in colle aspro, &c.	538
	Canzone	538
Sonnet V.	Diodati (e te 'l diro, &c.)	539
Sonnet VI.	Per certo, &c.	539
Sonnet VII.	Giovane, piano, &c.	539
Sonnet VIII.	When the Assault was intended to the City	540
Sonnet IX.	To a Lady	540
Sonnet X.	To the Lady Margaret Ley	541
Sonnet XI.	On the Detraction which followed upon my writing certain Treatises	541
Sonnet XII.	On the Same	541
	On the New Forcers of Conscience	542
Sonnet XIII.	To Mr. H. Lawes on His Airs	542
Sonnet XIV.	On the Religious Memory of Mrs. Catherine Thomson	543
Sonnet XV.	On the Lord General Fairfax	543
Sonnet XVI.	To the Lord General Cromwell	544
Sonnet XVII.	To Sir Henry Vane the Younger	544
Sonnet XVIII.	On the late Massacre in Piedmont	544
Sonnet XIX.	On His Blindness	545
Sonnet XX.	To Mr. Lawrence	545
Sonnet XXI.	To Cyriack Skinner	546
Sonnet XXII.	To the Same	546
Sonnet XXIII.	To the Memory of his Second Wife	546
	Translations
	The Fifth Ode of Horace, L:b.I.	548
	Nine of the Psalms done into Metre, 1648
Psalm LXXX.549
Psalm LXXXI.551
Psalm LXXXII.552
Psalm LXXXIII.553
Psalm LXXXIV.555
Psalm LXXXV.556
Psalm LXXXVI.557
Psalm LXXXVII.558
Psalm LXXXVIII.559
	Eight of the Psalms done into Verse, 1653
Psalm I.561
Psalm II.561
Psalm III.562
Psalm IV.563
Psalm V.564
Psalm VI.565
Psalm VII.565
Psalm VIII.567
	Scraps from the Prose Writings	568
Part II.	The Latin Poems
	De Auctore Testimonia	571
	Elegiarum Liber
Elegia I.	Ad Carolum Diodatum	575
Elegia II.	In obitum Praeconis Academici Cantabrigiensis	577
Elegia III.	In obitum Praesulis Wintoniensis	577
Elegia IV.	Ad Thomam Junium, Praeceptorem suum	579
Elegia V.	In Adventum Veris	582
Elegia VI.	Ad Carolum Diodatum, ruri commorantem	585
Elegia VII.	Anno aetatis undevigesimo	587
	In Proditionem Bombardicam	590
	In Eandem	590
	In Eandem	590
	In Eandem	591
	In Inventorum Bombardae	591
	Ad Leonoram Romae Canentem	591
	Ad Eandem	591
	Ad Eandem	592
	Apologus de Rustico et Hero	592
	De Moro	592
	Ad Christinam, Suecorum Reginam, nomine Cromwelli	592
	Sylvarum Liber
	In obitum Procancellarii Medici	593
	In Quintum Novembris	594
	In obitum Praesulis Eliensis	599
	Naturam non pati Senium	600
	De Idea Platonica quemadmodum Aristoteles intellexit	602
	Ad Patrem	603
	Greek Verses
	Psalm CXIV	606
	Philosophus ad Regem quendam	606
	In Effigiei ejus Sculptorem	606
	Ad Salsillum, Poetam Romanum, aegrotantem	607
	Mansus	608
	Epitaphium Damonis	610
	Ad Joannem Rousium, Oxoniensis Academiae Bibliothecarium	615
	In Salmasii Hundredam	618
	In Salmasium	618