“Lycidas” is a pastoral elegy by 17th-century English poet John Milton. The poem is a lament for the death of Edward King, a young fellow poet whom Milton knew at Cambridge University. King, who was three years younger than Milton, drowned in the Irish Sea on August 10, 1637, on his way to visit his family. The poem was first published in Juxta Edouardo King, a collection of elegies in Latin and English, in 1638. A slightly revised version, including Milton’s addition of a headnote, was published in 1645.

The poem adopts the conventions of the pastoral elegy, which is a literary form derived from ancient Greece. The speaker is a shepherd who uses imagery of an idyllic life in the country to lament the loss of his friend and fellow shepherd. The conventions of the pastoral form include recollections of the friendship, a parade of mourners, the gathering of flowers in remembrance, considerations of fate and destiny, and consolation. In “Lycidas,” Milton mingles pre-Christian and Christian elements and allusions, meditates on grief and the transience of life, and questions divine justice before finally affirming the resurrection and eternal life granted by the Christian faith. For centuries, “Lycidas” has been held in high esteem as one of the finest pastoral elegies in the English language.

Poet Biography

English poet John Milton is usually regarded as England’s greatest poet after William Shakespeare. He was born on December 9, 1608, in London. His father was a scrivener—he drew up legal documents and also had interests in real estate. Milton attended St. Paul’s School and then Christ’s College, Cambridge, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in 1629 and a master’s degree in 1632. He was known for his mastery of languages, including Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and modern European languages.

Following his graduation, he spent six years in private study at the family home, reading intensively. Among his best-known early poems are “On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity,” which he wrote at the age of 21 in 1629. The companion poems “L’Allegro” and “Il Penseroso,” which in a pastoral form contrast cheerfulness and thoughtfulness, were written around 1631, and Comus, a Masque, followed in 1634. In 1637, Milton wrote “Lycidas,” and it was published the following year. In that year also, Milton traveled in Continental Europe, mainly Italy, for 15 months.

In the 1640s, Milton developed a reputation as a pamphleteer with a radical outlook, denouncing what he saw as the corruption of the Anglican church hierarchy and supporting the anti-monarchical Puritan faction in the English Civil War (1642-1651) against Charles I. After his wife, Mary Powell, left him a few weeks after their marriage in 1642, he wrote a number of pamphlets from 1643 to 1645 arguing that divorce should be permissible on grounds of incompatibility. This was far from the norms of the day, people were shocked, and Milton’s position gained little support. The couple later reconciled and started a family.

In the pamphlet Areopagitica (1644), Milton called for freedom of the press, and in other pamphlets published after the 1649 execution of England’s King Charles I, he supported the execution. During the rule of Oliver Cromwell following the end of the English Civil War in 1651, Milton served as Latin Secretary in the Council of State. In 1660, the English monarchy was restored, and Charles II ascended the throne. Milton was briefly imprisoned, and much of his property was confiscated.

In 1652, Milton’s wife died. This was also the year that Milton developed complete blindness. His vision had been deteriorating from about 1644, according to Milton’s own account. Due to his blindness, Milton composed his post-1652 works via dictation to scribes. He married Katherine Woodcock in 1656, but two years later she died in childbirth.

Milton married for the third time, in 1663, this time to Elizabeth Minshull. He then set about completing his greatest work, the epic poem, Paradise Lost, which was published in 1667. Paradise Regained and the closet drama (that is, a play that is not intended to be performed on the stage) Samson Agonistes followed in 1671.

Milton died in London on November 8, 1674, at the age of 65.

Poem Text

Milton, John. “Lycidas.” 1638. Poetry Foundation.

Summary

In his guise as a shepherd or swain, which is a tradition of the pastoral elegy, the speaker announces that he will pluck laurels, myrtles, and ivy and mourn the death of his friend Lycidas, a fellow poet and singer. Lycidas is the name Milton gives to his friend at Cambridge, Edward King, who drowned.

The swain tells how much he and Lycidas once shared as they grew up together; they tended to their flocks all day long; they played their flutes and sang, and satyrs and fauns—mythological creatures—danced when they heard it. Now Lycidas is gone, and everything has changed. The swain asks the nymphs or nature deities where they were when Lycidas drowned, but he acknowledges that they could not have helped, even if they had been present. Even Orpheus, the mythological master of music and song, was a victim of drowning, and not even the Muse, one of the goddesses of Greek mythology, could save him.

What then is the purpose of being a poet? the swain asks. The poet labors hard, scorning simple pleasures, and hopes for fame, but he dies before he attains it. However, Phoebus Apollo, the god of poetry, corrects the swain, saying that the poet wins fame in heaven, courtesy of Jove. The swain addresses other mythological personages, and Neptune says he questioned wave and wind about what happened to Lycidas, but they knew nothing. Then the nymph Panope says that the small ship Lycidas was aboard had been built during an eclipse and was ill-fated.

The last to speak is St. Peter, one of the founders and first bishop of the Christian church, who holds the keys to heaven and hell. He regrets the death of Lycidas and complains that he could have better spared some of the many corrupt spiritual shepherds (bishops of the Anglican Church) who look after themselves but fail to protect their flock. Pastoral imagery returns as the swain calls for flowers to adorn the dead man’s bier. It is also time to stop weeping because Lycidas is not dead—through the power of Christ, he is now with the saints in the heavenly kingdom of love. In the final eight lines, another speaker comments on the swain’s narrative. The swain has told his story all day long, but on the following day he will move on, ready for new experiences.