Macmillan's Reading Books. Book V

John Stuart Mill · en
His flaring beams, me, Goddess, bring
    To archèd walks of twilight groves,
    And shadows brown, that Sylvan loves,
    Of pine or monumental oak,
    Where the rude axe, with heavèd stroke,
    Was never heard the nymphs to daunt,
    Or fright them from their hallowed haunt.
    There in close covert by some brook
    Where no profaner eye may look,
    Hide me from Day's garish eye,
    While the bee with honeyed thigh,
    That at her flowery work doth sing,
    And the waters murmuring,
    With such concert as they keep,
    Entice the dewy-feathered Sleep:
    And let some strange mysterious dream
    Wave at his wings in airy stream
    Of lively portraiture displayed,
    Softly on my eyelids laid:
    And as I wake sweet music breathe
    Above, about, or underneath,
    Sent by some spirit to mortals good,
    Or the unseen Genius of the wood.
      But let my due feet never fail,
    To walk the studious cloister's pale,
    And love the high embowed roof,
    With antique pillars massy proof,
    And storied windows richly dight,
    Casting a dim religious light.
    There let the pealing organ blow,
    To the full-voiced quire below,
    In service high, and anthems clear,
    As may with sweetness, through mine ear
    Dissolve me into ecstasies,
    And bring all Heaven before mine eyes.
      And may at last my weary age
    Find out the peaceful hermitage.
    The hairy gown and mossy cell
    Where I may sit and rightly spell
    Of every star that heaven doth show,
    And every herb that sips the dew;
    Till old Experience do attain
    To something like prophetic strain.
      These pleasures, Melancholy, give,
    And I with thee will choose to live.

                                     MILTON.



[Notes: _Il Penscioso_ = the thoughtful man.


_Bestead_ = help, stand in good stead.


_Fond_ = foolish; its old meaning.


_Pensioners_. A word taken from the name of Elizabeth's body-guard.
Compare "the cowslips tall her pensioners be" ('Midsummer Night's
Dream').


_Prince Memnon_, of Ethiopia, fairest of warriors, slain by Achilles
(Homer's Odyssey, Book xi.). His sister was Hemora.


_Starred Ethiop Queen_ = Cassiope, wife of King Cepheus, who was placed
among the stars.


_Sea-nymphs_ = Nereids.


Vesta_, the Goddess of the hearth; here for _Retirement. Saturn_, as
having introduced, according to the mythology, civilization, here stands
for _culture_.


_Commercing_ = holding communion with. Notice the accentuation.


_Forget thyself to marble_ = forget thyself till thou are still and
silent as marble.


_Hist along_ = bring along with a hush. _Hist_ is connected with _hush_.


_Philomel_ = the nightingale.


_Cynthia_ = the moon.


_Dragon yoke_. Compare "Night's swift dragons," ('Midsummer Night's
Dream').


_Removed place_ = remote or retired place. Compare "some removed ground"
in 'Hamlet.'


_Nightly_ = by night. Sometimes it means "every night successively."