Summary: Paired poems about a happy and sad day, and contrasting a Nightingale to a Cuckoo.
Commentary: Milton continues to write like a middle schooler, full of forced rhymes. The initial pair "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso" are an interesting concept (contrasting poems about a banishing and embracing melancholy), but the imagery becomes repetitive and questionable by the midpoint of either. Compressing both down to a total of 50 or 100 lines (as opposed to the current 150+ each) would potentially leave an interesting pair. Might be a fun project.
The Nightingale sonnet is short and sweet (as sonnets more or less have to be), but doesn't really go anywhere. Milton praises the nightingale, and asks for its blessing, in contrast with the cuckoo, but we don't really get a reason why the nightingale is preferable. In a better poem, this could've been ironic (everyone loves the nightingale/hates the cuckoo for no reason). Such a twist would've been within Milton's oeuvre (Satan in Paradise Lost), though he wouldn't get there for a few more decades.
Also, I looked them both up, cuckoo calls are much nicer than nightingales. They sound just like cuckoo clocks (unsurprising) while nightingales are generic and kind of grating.
Finally, "Warbl'st" is not a word you can put in anything other than a comedy poem. It's just too silly.
No comments:
Post a Comment