Milton Treatment Of The Poet In Elegy 5 Poem Analysis

On Milton’s Treatment of the Poet in Elegy VI
Milton identifies two archetypes of poetry in Elegy VI: poetry which flows “out if the wine jar itself”, inspiring dancing, revelry and mirth; and that which flows from pensive sages who drink of sacred water and eat of innocent herbs, satiating their chaste bodies with the only the purest of substances. Milton clearly allies himself with the chaste poets, both in this poem and elsewhere, yet he isn’t as explicitly derisive towards the sumptuous poets as he is in Il Penseroso or other works. With this however, it is unsafe to suppose that Milton approves of these sumptuous poets in Elegy VI or, worse yet, that he envies them; it’s tempting to interpret Milton’s pleasant descriptions of these poets …show more content…
Moreover, it seems that Milton describes the sumptuous poets alluringly to glorify their conquest by their simpler and purer opposites, the chaste poets; in this sense, his indulgence is justified by the higher purpose of such an indulgence, namely to dramatize the conquest of the sumptuous poets by their chaste and sober opposites. In other words, because the sumptuous poets seem so happy and cheerful in Elegy VI, and because they perform with great sensual pleasantry—their perfumed halls appeal to the nose, the halls’ tapestried walls to the eye, and the rhythmic lyre to both their ears and hands— they make a superficially strong opponent to the seemingly barren, lonely and reclusive chaste poet. I call this opposition superficial because the sumptuous poets are incomparable to the chaste poets, being “fickle Pensioners of Morpheus’ train” and “idle brain[s]” (Il Penseroso) who write of mere material pleasantries and quotidien things, because the ideal chaste poet should be, in a sense, untempted by these pleasantries of the senses and, in a way, amused by them.With these general ideas in mind, …show more content…
Obviously Milton’s “empty stomach” hints at his supposed innocent and presumably small appetite, which he satiates only with the holiest of herbs and the most sacred of water, as do Pythagoras and Homer, the ideal figures of this work, while Diodati’s “full stomach” indicates his reliance on earthly food and festive eating; because Diodati’s stomach is full, he must have immodestly indulged in some food. (perhaps any, or all, of the foods Milton so colorfully describes in his Sportive