John Milton’s corresponding poems “L’Allegro” and “Il Penseroso” explore the value and the pleasures that people take in two competing but complementary lifestyles and the attractions of two competing sources of artistic inspiration. “L’Allegro” is a celebration of the beauty of rural nature and urban vitality and glorifies mirth and “Il Penseroso” is somewhat melancholic, describing the value of solitude, epic poetry, tragic drama, and contemplative life overall. While it can be argued that the two poems celebrate entirely different realms of human life, they can be analyzed together because they complement one another. The combination of the two poems as the juxtaposition between light and darkness as crucial components of life can prepare future poets.
The name of the poem “L’Allegro” is translated as a cheerful person, which immediately gives a clue about the piece’s content, tone, and mood. The lyric poem centers around the theme of enjoying one’s life and the delights that mother nature has to offer. It is set in the mind of the speaker as he is in anticipation of the pleasures he will enjoy when a warm and exciting spring day comes. The excitement with the coming of spring is illustrated in such lines as: “The frolic wind that breathes the spring, Zephyr, with Aurora playing, As he met her once a-Mating, There on beds of violets blue, And fresh-blown roses wash’d in dew” (Milton “L’Allegro”). In his desire to live through the days filled with joy and happiness, the poem’s protagonist pushes Melancholy away from his life, telling it to find a place among the Cimmerians, those who live in darkness and solitude. To replace Melancholy, the speaker invites Euphrosyne, the goddess of joy, who could bring him “heart-easing Mirth” (Milton “L’Allegro”). Spring comes and banishes darkness, bringing smiles and cheerfulness to people in idyllic small towns.
The snippets describing the joyful life in springtime are significant for transferring the mood and the tone of the poem. For example, the speaker notices a group of shepherds counting their sheep, imagining that “every shepherd tells his tale under the hawthorn in the dale” (Milton “L’Allegro”). The choice of language is illustrated in the description of meadows full of flowers, mountains covered with clouds, and people telling stories to one another over ale: “Meadows trim with Daisies pide, Shallow Brooks, and Rivers wide” (Milton “L’Allegro”). Overall, the descriptions of idyllic life in the countryside and the cities show that spring is the time to move away from sadness and Melancholy and start enjoying one’s life to the fullest extent.
Light and darkness go hand-in-hand, and “Il Penseroso,” being the companion poem to “L’Allegro,” explores the theme that is polarly opposite. The imagery of the poem is reflected in the wording that expresses a solemn tone: “And therefore to our weaker view, Ore laid with black staid Wisdom hue” (Milton “Il Penseroso”). Also, the speaker invokes the goddess Melancholy: “Hail most divine Melancholy,” and describes the value that one can get from solitude, music, and other things that are not joyful but rather sad and dramatic (Milton “Il Penseroso”). In the poem, the speaker starts by calling the “vain deluding joys” to leave him, with Melancholy coming forth and bringing Peace, Quiet, Leisure, Fast, and Contemplation. A nightingale song that can interrupt the silence would be welcome after the celebration and joy. Therefore, the central theme of the poem is to embrace melancholy as a “sober, steadfast, and demure, all in a robe of darkest grain, Flowing with majestic train” (Milton “Il Penseroso”). In the poem, the speaker hails melancholy and invites it to become a significant part of his life as it replaces joy.
Both poems are filled with classical allusions in their language, mainly to the concepts of Greek and Roman mythology. However, in “Il Penseroso,” there is a distinct progression into the predominantly Christian realm by the end of the poem. It is considered symbolic of the author’s struggle with his education in the Greco-Roman pieces and his own Christian identity, and the predominantly Christian lifestyle to which he was used. To a great extent, the struggle is not exclusive to Milton but was rather inherent to many people living in Britain in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries who wanted to live in the new Roman Empire. Thus, the allusions signify the author’s keen interest in the works of antiquity and the scholarly strife rectifying the ‘heathen’ with the devout.
A hint of such a dilemma may be found in the language disparity of language in the last lines of the two poems. For example, “L’Allegro” ends with “These delights, if though canst give, Mirth with thee, I mean to live” (Milton “L’Allegro”). “Il Penseroso,” on the other hand, ends with “These pleasures Melancholy give, And I with thee will choose to live” (Milton “Il Penseroso”). The main difference here is the separation between the ‘mean to live’ and the ‘choose to live,’ which shows the deep contrast between the two poems. The difference in language use is also illustrated in the names of the poems: while “L’Allegro” is translated as a happy man, “Il Penseroso” is translated as a melancholy man.
To conclude, Milton’s “Il Penseroso” and “L’Allegro” cannot be read independently from one another because the true revelation comes from the power that is brought when the pair is considered. The meaning of the two contrasting moods allows for reaching a state of balanced harmony: where there is joy, there will ultimately be sadness. As with human nature, which only becomes whole when two sides are considered, the two poems represent the completed picture of the world, which cannot always be joyful and bright, nor can it be always dramatic and sad.
Works Cited
Milton, John. “Il Penseroso.” Poetry Foundation.
— “L’Allegro.” Poetry Foundation.