Il Penseroso (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: John Milton
- First Published: 1645
- Type of Work: Pastoral
- Genres: Poetry, Pastoral
- Subjects: Nature, Gods or goddesses, Forests or forestry, Meditation, Learning or scholarship, Thought or thinking, Night, Walking
The Poem
The poem stands as the companion piece to “L’Allegro,” using the same non-stanzaic tetrameter form; at 176 lines, it is twenty-four lines longer than its companion. The title, meaning “the thinker” or “the contemplative man,” suggests its opposition to its companion piece. The poem expresses the joys of the solitary man walking abroad during the evening, sitting studying at night in the midst of quiet woodlands, or finding pleasure in tragic and heroic literature and in mystic churches.
The poem’s opening rejects mirth as delusion and triviality....
[The entire page is 1520 words long]
