Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/382

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��LATIN POEMS

��ELEGIA SEPTIMA

Anno tetatis undevigesimo ELEGY VII

��This elegy constitutes a personal confession of an unusually intimate kind, a confession of " love at first sight " for a girl whom the poet encountered by chance in some public place in London. Though conceived in a tone of whimsical extravagance and with the conven- tional sentimental machinery of the pseudo- classic poet, it indubitably records a real ex- perience, and one which is significant in the understanding of Milton's character. The un- usual form of the date attached, in which the ordinal is put in place of the numeral, seems to imply that the poem was written before his

NONDUM blanda tuas leges, Amathusia,

noram,

Et Paphio vacuum pectus ab igne fuit. Saepe cupidineas, puerilia tela, sagittas,

Atquetuum sprevi maxime numen, Amor. " Tu puer imbelles " dixi " transfige colum-

bas;

Conveniunt tenero mollia bella duel: Aut de passeribus tumidos age, parve, tri-

umphos;

Hsec suut militise digna trophaea tuse. In genus humanum quid inania dirigis

arma?

Non valet in fortes ista pharetra viros." 10 Non tulit hoc Cyprius (neque euim Deus

ullus ad iras Promptior), et duplici jam ferus igne

calet. Ver erat, et summae radians per culmina

villae

Attulerat primam lux tibi, Maie, diem ; At niihi adhuc refugam quaerebant lumina

noctem,

Nee matutinum sustinuere jubar. Astat Amor lecto, pictis Amor impiger

alis;

Prodidit astantem mota pharetra Deum ; Prodidit et facies, et dulce minantis ocelli, Et quicquid puero dignum et Amore

fuit. Talis in aeterno juvenis Sigeius Olympo 20

Miscet amatori pocula plena Jovi; Aut, qui formosas pellexit ad oscula nym-

phas, Thiodamantaeus Naiade raptus Hylas.

��nineteenth year was completed, i. e., sometime between May 1 and December 9, 1627.

The postscript which follows the poem prob- ably is to be taken with this elegy alone, though from the manner in which it is printed in the original editions, it may be taken to have a general application to the entire seven. It was written at a later date than the elegies to which it is appended, in some mood of strenn- ousness when the technical shortcomings of the verse and its occasional rather lax Ovidian tone made an apology seem necessary.

��I DID not yet know thy laws, bland Aph- rodite, and my heart was still free from Paphian fire. Often I spoke scorn, Love, of thy great name, and disdained Cupid's arrows as puerile weapons. " Boy unfit for war," I said, " go shoot doves; only easy battles suit so delicate a chieftain. Or make a swelling triumph, poor child, over a conquest of sparrows. These are trophies worthy of thy warrior-ship. Why take up thy silly arms against mankind ? That quiver of thine avails not against strong men." The Cyprian boy could not endure this (there is no god swifter to an- ger), and at my words he burned with a double fire of rage.

It was spring, and shining over the roofs of the town, dawn had brought the May- day; but my eyes were turned toward re- treating night, and could not endure the radiance of morning. Suddenly Love stood by my bed, Love with painted wings for speed. The swaying quiver betrayed the god where he stood; his torch betrayed him, and his eyes sweetly menacing, and whatever else about him was boyish and lovely. So Ganymede looks, as he brims the cups of amorous Jove in ever-during Olympus; or Hylas, who lured the beau- tiful nymphs to his kisses, and who was stolen away by the Naiad. Wrath was on

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