68:, were first published in 1645, and they are found within a manuscript that was not started before May 1634. They were composed during a time in which Milton became deeply concerned with Scripture but also one who still relies on myth. They were written during a time of experimentation in genre and subject for Milton. The poem was revised for the publication in the 1645 collection, but Milton found that he would be unable to finish the poem, leaving only three lines which emphasise his shortcomings at the time of writing the poem.
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writing elegiac poetry, which is a baroque technique similar to the work of
Bernini or Herbert in "Good Friday". However, the narrator constantly focuses on himself and his own grief, and this is a common trait in the contemporary Christian poetry of the poem. Unlike many of his contemporaries' works, each aspect of the poem emphasises that the narrator is unable to actually discuss Christ's crucifixion, and the poem was left incomplete.
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In the poem, he ignores the suffering by diverting attention to a discussion of himself and his own understanding of poetry in a similar way to Donne's "Goodfriday, 1613. Riding
Westward". Milton's emphasis is on the nature of Christian poetry, and Stanza V contains a self-referential discussion of
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form a set of poems that celebrates important
Christian events: Christ's birth, the feast of the Circumcision, and Good Friday. The topic of these poems places them within a genre of Christian literature popular during the 17th century and places Milton alongside poets like
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Attached to the 1645 publication of the poem are three lines which Milton wrote to state that the poem is incomplete and is abandoned because the poet was unable to deal with the
Crucifixion as the subject matter:
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The moment of the
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is of Christ's
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Although he is to introduce the
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The fourth stanza continues to ignore the
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but first two stanzas discuss how the narrator can no longer discuss the happiness of Christ's nativity:
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Corns, Thomas. "'On the
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The exact date of composition is unknown, but it is likely that Milton wrote the ode while attending
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The emphasis on poetry is dropped for an emphasis on the soul of the narrator in Stanza VI:
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that was possibly written in 1630 and was first published in 1645 or 1646 (see
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The fifth stanza continues this focus and discusses the printing of an elegy:
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Of lute, or viol still, more apt for mournful things. (lines 22–24, 27–28)
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In pensive trance, and anguish, and ecstatic fit. (lines 38–39, 41–42)
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The
Poetical Works of John Milton by John Milton at Project Gutenberg
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And letters where my tears have washed a wannish white. (lines 33–35)
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and anti-Church of England-based religious beliefs. The topic of
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The final stanza ends with the poet focusing on his own sorrow:
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That they would fitly fall in ordered characters. (lines 43–49)
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Kerrigan, William; Rumrich, John; and Fallon, Stephen (eds).
270:. However, Milton's poetry reflects the origins of his anti-
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And set my harp to notes of saddest woe (lines 2–4, 8–9)
427:. Ed. Thomas Corns. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2003.
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The Complete Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton
237:satisfied with what was begun, left it unfinished.
222:Had got a race of mourners on some pregnant cloud.
110:That dropped with odorous oil down his fair eyes,
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184:And here though grief my feeble hands uplock,
127:His Godlike acts, and his temptations fierce;
113:Poor fleshly tabernacle entered (lines 15–17)
37:. It is linked to two other poems of Milton:
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219:Might think th' infection of my sorrows loud
210:The gentle neighbourhood of grove and spring
178:Mine eye hath found that sad sepulchral rock
121:These latter scenes confine my roving verse,
107:He sov'reign priest, stopping his regal head
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234:years he had when he wrote it, and nothing
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87:And joyous news of Heav'nly infant's birth
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158:My spirit some transporting cherub feels,
213:Would soon unbosom all their echoes mild
207:Take up a weeping on the mountains wild,
187:Yet on the softened quarry would I score
144:My sorrows are too dark for day to know:
133:Me softer airs befit, and softer strings
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824:Methought I Saw my Late Espoused Saint
96:For now to sorrow must I tune my song,
90:My muse with angels did divide to sing
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434:. New York: The Modern Library, 2007.
190:My plaining verse as lively as before
167:There doth my soul in holy vision sit
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216:And I (for grief is easily beguiled)
124:To this horizon is my Phoebus bound,
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35:Incarnation
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33:with his
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310:Notes
249:with
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