post 1 for week # 8: MILTON'S POEMS

PROMPT: Contrast Milton's portrayal of happiness/contentment/pleasure in L'Allegro and Il Penseroso. In what does this state consist in each of the two poems? How do their representations resemble one another? How are they different? Are they compatible? Why or why not? As always, be sure to use plenty of specific details from the texts.

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At first look L'Allegro and Il Penseroso seem to be contrasting poems, the first about happiness/contentment/pleasure and the second about melancholy/sadness/displeasure. However, these poems are instead both about happiness and more specifically, the path one should take to contentment.

In L'Allegro, true joy is portrayed as opposite from melancholy. The opening lines state, "Hence loathed Melancholy...born...Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy." Later, the speaker says of the graces born of Zephyr and Aurora, "So buxom, blithe, and debonair./ Haste thee nymph, and bring with thee/ Jest and youthful Jollity." Melancholy is presented as worthy of loathing. The speaker also portrays Melancholy as foreign, scary, and evil. "Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy" the reader can imagine demons, murderers, and goblins. Thus, Melancholy is linked to all images and figures are unsightly and should be avoided and feared. This link occurs early in the poem, in lines 1-5.

In Il Penseroso, lines 1-5 read, "Hence vain deluding joys,/ The brood of Folly without father bred./ How little you bestead,/ Or fill the fixed mind with all your toys;/ Dwell in some idle brain." In the same way that L'Allegro presents melancholy in a negative light before moving on to an embrace of joy, Il Penseroso rejects joy as the product of delusion and folly. To this speaker, joyfullness is not a true state, rather joys are "likest hovering dreams" that trick people into believing they posess a contentment. But, the speaker says, people who believe this have idle minds. Line 12 begins, "Hail, divinest Melancholy,/ Whose saintly visage is too bright/ To hit the sense of human sight; And therefore to our weaker view,/ O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue." These lines express the speaker's view of Melancholy as the greater emotion. It seems the speaker nearly worships Melancholy, seeing it as divine-like. Much like a view of God or God's love for humans as beyond the comprehension of the human mind, this speaker believes that Melancholy is also often beyond comprehension. This speaker would certainly say that it is this inability to see the worth in melancholy that causes the speaker of L'Allegro to view Melancholy as evil or scary. But, for the speaker in Il Penseroso, Melancholy is the one pathway to wisdom, and without embracing Melancholy, one will dwell without wisdom in false happiness.

The two portrayals of the way to contentment contrast greatly. L'Allegro seems to present a view that centers on involvement with other people in a carefree state. The poem reads, "Mirth, admit me of thy crew/ To live with her and live with thee,/ In unreproved pleasures free;" Towards the middle of the poem, the speaker describes scenes including multiple persons and seems to find his joy in these scenes. He says, "...the plowman near at hand...And the milkmaid singeth blithe, and the mower whets his scythe...Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures...Where Corydon and Thyrsis met, Are at their savory dinner set...Which the neat-handed Phyllis dresses...To many a youth and many a maid, Dancing in the checkered shade; And young and old come forth to play..." These are all very social scenes where people enjoy each other while engaging in their daily duties or pastimes. This speaker seems to be saying that happiness comes from having fun and trying to move on from sorrow quickly.

One can imagine that the speaker of Il Penseroso would respond to the speaker of L'Allegro by saying his interactions with others are just a distraction from his true feelings. The speaker of Il Penseroso relies on a more introspective path to contentment. He advises, "Forget thyself to marble, till/ With a sad leaden downward cast,/ Thou fix them on the earth as fast./ And join with thee calm Peace and Quiet...But first, and chiefest, with thee bring,/ Him that yon soars on golden wing,/ Guiding the fiery-wheeled throne,/ The cherub Contemplation/ And the mute Silence hist along...Sweet bird that shunn'st the noise of folly,/ Most musical, most melancholy!"
This speaker's path to contentment is one that, unlike L'Allegro's speaker does not rely on anyone else. Instead of feeling like this speaker is taking part in jollity to reach contentment, the reader sees that he is instead removing himself from such things in order to observe the world and concentrate on how he truly feels about that world.

Because these two portrayals of contentment are so different, they are not compatible. As stated before, they are contrasting paths to a similar destination. But, it is also apparent that although the desired destination is contentment, each speaker sees his own state as more true than the others'. The speaker of L'Allegro chooses social exchange, the embrace of lighter subjects, and the rejection of melancholy ones as his path to happiness. But, the speaker of Il Penseroso sees the path to contentment as one that must embrace melancholic emotional states, instead of ignoring or overcoming them.