Lycidas Symbolism, Imagery & Wordplay

Flowers and trees and bushes, oh my! There are blooming things in "Lycidas," and they're not just here to look pretty. Sometimes flowers are used to evoke early death, as in the opening of the poem...

As a pastoral elegy, "Lycidas" is practically required to pay homage to classical mythology. Milton does so by tipping his hat to just about every mythological figure ever. We're not kidding. Pract...

You can't have a pastoral without shepherds and their fuzzy friends. Are we right or are we right? The pastoral, or shepherding imagery in this poem partly works to idealize the speaker's relations...

The connection between music and poetry is an old one, and "Lycidas" finds itself squarely in that tradition. The speaker makes all kinds of connections between poems and songs, and often uses the...

Milton's best bud Edward King (Lycidas) drowned at sea, so it's no wonder that water plays such a big role in this poem. A boatload of bodies of water, both real and mythological, are mentioned. So...