Il Penseroso Research Articles

Bright Pilgrimage: William Blake's Designs For “L'Allegro” and “Il Penseroso”

ABSTRACT Blake's twelve illustrations for L'Allegro and Il Penseroso constitute a vigorous critical interpretation of Milton's twin lyrics. Completed after Blake had made most of his other Milton illustrations, this set of designs is the first to depict Milton extensively and presents Blake's judgment both of the poems and of the poet. Blake visually associates the poet of L'Allegro with the material, physical world of experience and with the inferior, conventionalized poetry of the merely average versifier. He associates the poet of Il Penseroso with the imaginatively superior world of higher innocence and directly with the poetic genius of Milton. The designs for Il Penseroso develop Blake's assessment of Milton's ascent into this higher state, the apotheosis of which appears in the prophetic Milton of the final design. Blake reveals the vast difference between the “young poet” and Milton most clearly in his depictions of each poet's dream, each of which reflects the individual poet's mental and physical state, the former conventional and restricted, the latter imaginatively free.

WHAT IT'S LIKE TO READ "L'ALLEGRO" AND "IL PENSEROSO"

ABSTRACT Rosemond Tuve has written that the pleasures enumerated in L'Allegro all have "the flat absence of any relationship to responsibility which we sometimes call innocence." This paper argues that the experience of reading the poem is itself such a pleasure, involving just that absence. L'Allegro is so structured that at no point is the reader held responsible for an action or an image or a unit of thought beyond the moment of its fleeting appearance in a line or couplet. Rather than compelling attention, the verse operates to diffuse attention, and, as a result, we move from linguistic event to linguistic event with almost no hostages from our previous experiences and therefore with no obligation to relate what we are reading to what we have read. In the act of reading the poem, we experience as a gift (from Milton) the care-less freedom which is its subject. In contrast, the activities required of us in the act of reading Il Penseroso are consistently and self-consciously strenuous. Rather than permitting us to move from one discrete unit to another, the verse of the second poem binds us to the cares of consecutive thought—the care of attending to implications, the care of carrying into one line or couplet the syntax or sense of previous lines and couplets, the care of rendering judgments and drawing conclusions. Here, then, is a new answer to an old question: who or what are L'Allegro and Il Penseroso? L'Allegro and Il Penseroso are the reader: that is, they stand for modes of being which the reader realizes in his response to the poems bearing their names. This analysis can be supported by the previous criticism if it is regarded as a disguised report of what readers have all the while been doing as they negotiate these poems.

ABSTRACTS

Masahiko Agari. “The Structure and Meaning of L'Allegro and Il Penseroso.” Journal of the Faculty of Liberal Arts, Saga University, V (March, 1973), 65–76.Akira Arai. “Milton's Divorce Tracts: The Exodus from Paradise.”The Bulletin of the Tokyo University of Education, XCIII (March, 1973), 23–36.A. Robin Bowers. “Milton and Salmasius: The Rhetorical Imperatives.”PQ, LII, i (January, 1973), 55–68.Douglas Bush. “Three More Views of PL.”MLQ, XXXIV, i (March, 1973), 78–84.Ann Gossman. “Evil in PL, Book IV: The Sublime, the Grotesque, and the Glamorous.” Paper presented to the North Central Conference of The Renaissance Society of America, May 25 and 26, 1973, University of Toledo.J. C. Keogh. “Milton's PL, II. 552.”Explic. XXXI, 8 (April, 1973), 61.Thomas Kranidas. “Manoa's Role in Samson Agonistes.” SEL, XIII, i (Winter, 1973), 95–109.Jon S. Lawry. “'The Faithful Herdman's Art’ in Lycidas.” SEL, XIII, i (Winter, 1973), 111–25.Leo Miller. “Milton, Salmasius and Hammond: The History of an Insult.”Renaissance and Reformation, IX (1973), 108–15.John T. Onuska, Jr. “The Equation of Action and Passion in SA.” PQ, LII, i Ganuary, 1973), 69–84.John M. Perlette. “Anthony Ascham's ‘Of Marriage.'”ELR, ii (Spring, 1973), 284–305.Wayne Rebhorn. “The Humanist Tradition and Milton's Satan: The Conservative as Revolutionary.”SEL, XIII, i (Winter, 1973), 81–93.Luther L. Scales, Jr. “The Poet as Miltonic Adam in Alastor.” Keats‐Shelley Journal, XXI–XXII, (1972–73) 126–44.John Shawcross. “The Structure of PR as Meaning.” Paper presented to North Central Conference of the Renaissance Society of America held at the University of Toledo, May, 1973.E. W. Tayler. “Milton's Samson: The Form of Christian Tragedy.”ELR, III, ii (Spring, 1973), 306–21.Irene Tayler. “Say First! What Mov'd Blake?: Blake's Comus Designs and Milton.” Blake's Sublime Allegory: Essays on The Four Zoas, Milton, and Jerusalem. Ed. Stuart Curran and Joseph Wittreich, Jr. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1973. 233–58.Hugh Trevor‐Roper. “The Political Milton.”TLS, (June 1, 1973), 1–3.Mary S. Weinkauf. “Dalila: The Worst of All Possible Wives.”SEL, XIII, i (Winter, 1973), 135–47.Robert B. White, Jr. “Milton's Allegory of Sin and Death: A Comment on Backgrounds.”MP, LXX, 4 (May, 1973), 337–41.Joseph A. Wittreich, Jr. “Opening the Seals: Blake's Epics and the Milton Tradition.”Blake's Sublime Allegory: Essays on The Four Zoas, Milton and Jerusalem. Ed. Stuart Curran and Joseph A. Wittreich, Jr. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1973. 23–58.

ABSTRACTS

Robert M. Adams. “Contra Hartman: Possible and Impossible Structures of Miltonic Imagery,” in Seventeenth Century Imagery: Essays on Uses of Figurative Language from Donne to FarquharAkira Arai. “The Trial of Christ in PR.” Otsuka ReviewJohn Arthos. “Milton and the Passions: A Study of SA.“MPA. M. Cinquemani. “Milton's PL.”David R. Clark. “Asmodeus and the Fishy Fume: PLStanley Fish. “Reasons that Imply Themselves: Imagery, Argument, and the Reader in Milton's Reason of Church Government,“Michael Fixler. “The Orphic Technique of ‘L'Allegro’ and ‘IL Penseroso.’”Christopher Grose. “Milton on Ramist Similitude,”Lawrence W. Hyman. “Belief and Disbelief in Lycidas.“CEPhilip C. Kolin. “Milton's SA, 393–412.”Deane Keldey McColley. “Free Will and Obedience in the Separation Scene of PL.” SELCharles L. Regan. “Milton's PL.” ExplJason P. Rosenblatt. “Structural Unity and Temporal Concordance: The War in Heaven in PL.” PMLALynn Veach Sadler. “Regeneration and Typology: Samson Agonistes and Its Relation to De Doctrina Christiana, Paradise Lost, and Paradise Regained.Irene Samuel. “Milton on Comedy and Satire.”William E. Sheidley. “‘Lycidas’: An Early Elisabe‐than Analogue by George Turbervile.”Kathleen M. Swaim. “The Art of the Maze in Book IX of PL.”

The Myth of Orpheus in “L'Allegro” And “Il Penseroso”

The Myth of Orpheus in “L'Allegro” And “Il Penseroso”

The Orphic Technique of “L’Allegro” and “Il Penseroso”

Previous articleNext article No AccessOriginal ArticleThe Orphic Technique of “L’Allegro” and “Il Penseroso”MICHAEL FIXLERMICHAEL FIXLERTUFTS UNIVERSITY MEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS Search for more articles by this author TUFTS UNIVERSITY MEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTSPDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by English Literary Renaissance Volume 1, Number 2Spring 1971 Published in association with the Arthur F. Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6757.1971.tb00774.x Views: 15Total views on this site PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

ABSTRACTS

Lawrence W. Hyman. “The Publication of PL: 1667–1674.”JHS, I, i (1967), 50–64.Julia A. Humphreys‐Edwards, “Milton's ‘Il Penseroso,’ 93–94.”N&Q XVI:3 (March, 1969), p. 93.B. Eugene McCarthy, “More Imitations of Milton before 1750.”N&Q XVI, iv (May, 1969), pp. 182–3.Mother M. Christopher Pecheux, O.S.U. “Spenser's Red Cross and Milton's Adam.”ELN, VI, iv (June, 1969), 246–251.A. Kent Hieatt. “Milton's Comus and Spenser's False Genius.” UTQ XXXVIII, iv (July, 1969), pp. 313–318.Ira Clark. “Milton and the Image of God.”JEGP, LXIII. iii (July, 1969) pp. 422–431.James G. Taffe. “Michaelmas, The ‘Lawless Hour,’ and the Occasion of Milton's Comus.” ELN VI, iv (June, 1969), pp. 257–262.“A man's coumge depends, not upon his body, but upon his reason, which is man's strongest protection and defense. This is clear from the fact that a’ man by this single support of reason has dominion over all the animals, even the strongest, and is able to hurt them if it pleases him to do so.”

MILTON'S “IL PENSEROSO”, 93–4

Journal Article MILTON'S “IL PENSEROSO”, 93–4 Get access JULIA A. HUMPHREYS-EDWARDS JULIA A. HUMPHREYS-EDWARDS Edinburgh University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Notes and Queries, Volume 16, Issue 3, March 1969, Pages 93-a–93, https://doi.org/10.1093/nq/16-3-93a Published: 01 March 1969

The Plot Against the Patient

Here we go again. The a cappella choir of<i>The Plot</i>sings<i>l'allegro</i>about the modern barber surgeons who conspire against the patient for the sake of his money and without sincere regard for his health. The ending,<i>il penseroso</i>, is the plea for the total welfare state in medicine. Ho hum. For more than 300 pages the book repeats all the shoddy history of the American Medical Association, the private health insurance scandal, the shocking sink tests run by the best hospitals, and the burial of the hospital's and the physician's mistakes. The situation is dreadful, including the "huge publications projects centered about the<i>AMA Journal...</i>" In lucid English this book has quoted condemnatory records of the past generation or more, indicting American medicine, and occasionally praising foreign medicine as better than that in the United States. Taking the book at its face value, it is necessary to conclude

ON BEING SERIOUS.

Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal. . . —<i>Longfellow</i> <h3>I</h3> PRESUMABLY there is an optimum level of seriousness^*on which one should deal with life. To be a jester arouses the suspicion that one is avoiding the consequences of his intended behavior or, worse, that he is attempting to ensnare others into playing his little game.²To be optimistic suggests that one's superego is unrealistically friendly and protective; pessimism, on the other hand, alerts to oral deprivation.¹Certainly one should be realistic, and certainly life is in reality no overall laughing matter; yet we are made uneasy by "yon Cassius" with his "lean and hungry look," we reject Milton's "Il Penseroso" as possibly dyspeptic, and we may not linger overly long before Rodin's "Thinker." Excessive seriousness is not attractive to the healthy adult. Yet some people seem to

Milton's "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso"-Balance, Progression, or Dichotomy

Milton's "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso"-Balance, Progression, or Dichotomy

Light and Work in “L’Allegro” and “IL Penseroso”

Research Article| January 01 1959 Light and Work in “L’Allegro” and “IL Penseroso” J. Milton French J. Milton French Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google South Atlantic Quarterly (1959) 58 (1): 123–127. https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-58-1-123 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation J. Milton French; Light and Work in “L’Allegro” and “IL Penseroso”. South Atlantic Quarterly 1 January 1959; 58 (1): 123–127. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-58-1-123 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search Books & JournalsAll JournalsSouth Atlantic Quarterly Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright © 1959 by Duke University Press1959 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Spenser's " Epithalamion " as inspiration for Milton's "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso"

Spenser's " Epithalamion " as inspiration for Milton's "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso"

Metre and chronology in Milton's "epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester," "l'allegro" and "Il penseroso"

Metre and chronology in Milton's "epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester," "l'allegro" and "Il penseroso"

Milton's Ideal Day: Its Development as a Pastoral Theme

Two of the dominant motives in pastoral literature are the “come-live-with-me” theme, which offers to the loved one as inducements gifts generally of a pastoral nature, and the ideal of the “golden age,” which is based upon a personal desire for a patterned idyllic life. The former has been carefully traced by R. S. Forsythe, but the latter has lain neglected in spite of the fact that two of the best known lyrics in the language, Milton's L'Allegro and Il Penseroso, utilize this theme. It is the purpose of this paper to demonstrate that the description of the ideal day is a significant and deeply rooted theme which developed gradually during the whole course of the pastoral tradition. Milton's two days derive from this evolution rather than from a few scattered lyrics which immediately preceded his work, as is generally stated.

Teaching Milton's "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso"

Teaching Milton's "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso"

The Travelogue Sections of "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso"

The Travelogue Sections of "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso"

The Question of Autobiographical Significance in "L'allegro" and "Il Penseroso"

Previous articleNext article No AccessThe Question of Autobiographical Significance in "L'allegro" and "Il Penseroso"Donald C. DorianDonald C. Dorian Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Modern Philology Volume 31, Number 2Nov., 1933 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/388085 PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

A Youth to Fortune and to Fame Unknown

Certain fundamental questions involving the structure and the very nature of Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard have never been squarely faced. What is the relation of the second part the first ? Is the young poet described in Part II, which begins with the twenty-fourth stanza, intended as a concrete example of that unacknowledged merit with which Part I deals in its major subdivision ? These problems cannot be intelligently considered until we have answered the crucial question, which scarcely any attention has been given: Who was the Youth Fortune and Fame Unknown ? Son of Warton's Enthusiast, grandson of Il Penseroso, lineal descendant of Democritus Junior and of Shakespeare's Jacques, this Youth is not an uninteresting person. What with his view-hunting, his sentimental humanitarianism, his solitude, and his nameless woe, he bears the chief stigmata of the lesser romantic poet of later years, and is something between a bucolic Byron and Henry Kirke White. Even if his identity were not the key the poem, he would still have the claim upon our interest that he has been thought represent the poet Gray himself. And yet, as though literally obeying the injunction not draw his frailties from their dread abode, editors and critics have preserved an almost total silence concerning him. In consequence, the Youth is still to fame unknown, and the Elegy, which has been called the typical piece of English verse, our poem of poems,' and which is unquestionably the most familiar poem in the language, still awaits interpretation. Remembering that familiarity is often an impediment full understanding, we may well concentrate attention upon this Youth

Milton's "Il Penseroso" ll. 17, 18

Milton's "Il Penseroso" ll. 17, 18