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.
Milton used too many lines to convey an all together cluttered subject. If someone were to have picked up a copy of "Lycidas" that did not include footnotes, this would be an impossible idea to dig out of the poem. Johnson had a great distaste for pastorals, as he thought that the "tradition had been worn threadbare. " Only someone who studied British history could understand who the Druids were. His distaste for Milton, his poem, and it's meaning, should not have clouded his judgment when he wrote this critique. The corruption of the church was not something that many people wrote about in poems of that era. " 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. " Only someone who had studied mythology could understand who exactly Damoetas was. "Lycidas" is supposedly a pastoral poem about a man that drowned when a ship wrecked. Johnson refers to this fact as "remote allusions and obscure opinions. Johnson's religion convictions were different than Milton's, and it showed throughout his critique. It was so far from obvious that Milton was joining the two together. His message about the church was also very obscure, as the reader would have to read between the lines to figure this out. "And old Damoetas loved to hear our song.
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Acceptance Essays
