No More Learning

Poem 85.

Lady M. Ley was daughter to Sir J. Ley, afterwards Earl of Marlborough,
who died March, 1628-9, coincidently with the dissolution of the third
Parliament of Charles's reign. Hence Milton poetically compares his
death to that of the Orator Isocrates of Athens, after Philip's victory
in 328 B. C.


Poems 92, 93.

These are quite a Painter's poems.


Poem 99.

_From Prison_: to which his active support of Charles I. twice brought
the high-spirited writer.


Poem 105.

Inserted in Book II. as written in the character of a Soldier of Fortune
in the Seventeenth Century.


Poem 106.
_Waly waly_: an exclamation of sorrow, the root and the pronunciation of
which are preserved in the word _caterwaul_. _Brae_: hillside; _burn_:
brook; _busk_: adorn. _Saint Anton's Well_: at the foot of Arthur's Seat
by Edinburgh. _Cramasie_: crimson.


Poem 107.

_burd_: maiden.


Poem 108.

_corbies_: crows; _fail_: turf; _hause_: neck; _theek_: thatch.

If not in their origin, in their present form this and the two preceding
poems appear due to the Seventeenth Century, and have therefore been
placed in Book II.


Poem 111.

The remark quoted in the note to No. 47 applies equally to these truly
wonderful verses, which, like "Lycidas," may be regarded as a test of
any reader's insight into the most poetical aspects of Poetry. The
general differences between them are vast: but in imaginative intensity
Marvell and Shelley are closely related. This poem is printed as a
translation in Marvell's works: but the original Latin is obviously his
own. The most striking verses in it, here quoted as the book is rare,
answer more or less to stanzas 2 and 6:

Alma Quies, teneo te! et te, germana Quietis, Simplicitas!