t of visualizing in delicious pictures the
various phases of his abstract theme. The poems are wholly poetical,
equally free from obscurity of thought and from obscurity of expression.

Each poem is prefaced with a vigorous exorcism of the spirit to which it
is hostile. This is couched in alternate three and five accent iambics,
preparing a delicious rhythmic effect when the metre changes, in the
invocation, to the octosyllable, with or without anacrusis.

In L'Allegro we accompany the mirthful man through an entire day of his
pleasures, from early morning to late evening. The melancholy man moves
through a programme less definitely and regularly planned. The scenes of
his delights are mostly in the hours of the night: when the sun is up, he
hides himself from day's garish eye.

L'Allegro.

2. Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born. Milton follows the example of
the ancient poets in announcing the parentage of the principal beings
whom he brings upon his stage. Moreover, he uses the ancient freedom in
assigning mythical pedigrees, not only adopting no authority as a canon,
but allowing his own fancy to invent origins as suits his purpose. He
knew the Greek and Latin poets, and assumed for himself the privilege
which they exercised of shaping the myths as they pleased. We are not
therefore to seek in Milton a reproduction of any system of mythology.
_Cerberus_ was the terrible three-headed dog of Pluto. His station was at
the entrance to the lower world, or the _Stygian cave_.

3. The Stygian cave is so called from the Styx, the infernal river, "the
flood of deadly hate."

5. some uncouth cell. _Uncouth_ may be used here in its original sense of
_unknown_, as in Par. Lost VIII 230.

10. In dark Cimmerian desert. The Cimmerians were a people fabled by the
ancients to live in perpetual darkness.

12. yclept is the participle of the obsolete verb _clepe_, with the
ancient prefix _y_, as in ychained, Hymn on the Nativity 155.

15. two sister Graces more. Hesiod names, as the three Graces,
Euphrosyne, Aglaia, and Thalia, but he makes them the daughters of Zeus
and Eurynome.

18. The frolic wind. See _frolic_ again as an adjective, Comus 59.

24. So buxom, blithe, and debonair. See Shakespeare's Pericles, I Gower
23. All these words are interesting to look up for etymologies and
changes of meaning.

25-36. We readily accept and understand the personification of Jest,
Jollity, Sp