Johnson on Lycidas

A detailed Summary of Johnson on Lycidas

Samuel Johnson critiqued many author's works, but none were as harsh as the one he wrote about John Milton's "Lycidas". Every word within Johnson's critique shreds not only "Lycidas", but Milton as a man as well. However, Johnson was correct on many of the issues that he brought up. Yet on others, he drew conclusions too quickly, and failed to delve into the poem's true meanings.

Some of the first words the reader runs across when reading Johnson's critique of "Lycidas" are "the diction is harsh, the rhymes uncertain, and the numbers unpleasing." Throughout "Lycidas", there are parts that seemed to be rushed, and lack the flow that Milton commonly used in his other poems. The poem starts out in this manner, and might lose the interest of certain readers. "Yet once more, O ye laurels, and once more / Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere,". Many readers may be thrown off by the sound of this line due to its gaucheness.

Truth runs rampant through John Milton's "Lycidas", but Samuel Johnson won't have it. It may be written with an awkward tone, and its real meaning is vague, but there is no need for Johnson to rip it apart the way he did. His distaste for Milton, his poem, and it's meaning, should not have clouded his judgment when he wrote this critique.

Johnson had a great distaste for pastorals, as he thought that the "tradition had been worn threadbare." He discusses this idea when he says "Its form is that of a pastoral, easy, vulgar, and therefore disgusting: whatever images it can supply are long ago exhausted; and its inherent probability always forces dissatisfaction on the mind." This is one of the points that Johnson had incorrectly made. Pastoral poetry was very popular during Milton's time. However, many of them lacked the imagery of and meaning of "Lycidas". The corruption of the church was not something that many people

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Approximate Word count = 623
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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