Lycidas

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature | 2003 | 646 words | Copyright

Lycidas, a pastoral elegy by Milton, written 1637, published 1638. It is a pastoral elegy on the death of Edward King, a fellow student of Christ's College, Cambridge, though not, it would appear, a close friend of Milton. Like Milton himself, he had aspirations as a poet and as a clergyman. He was drowned while crossing from Chester Bay to Dublin, his ship having struck a rock and foundered in calm weather. Milton, in lamenting his premature death and the uncertainty of life, suggests deep anxieties about his own ambitions and unfulfilled promise. It is one of the finest elegies in the English language, and a work of great originality.

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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Lycidas." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 30 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Lycidas." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 30, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-Lycidas.html

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Lycidas." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved May 30, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-Lycidas.html

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