The pastoral elements in Milton's "Lycidas" are immediately obvious, while the religious elements are often disguised. On the most basic level, "Lycidas" is a pastoral elegy, complete with shepherds tending their flocks, satyrs, fauns, and a profusion of bucolic greenery. These pastoral elements accord with the superficial references to pagan gods, but they also cover allegories of the artistic life, Milton's hopes for literary immortality, and of the corruption of the church.

The most explicit religious allegory comes from Saint Peter as he condemns the idleness and avarice of the clergy:

Blind mouths! that scarce themselves know how to hold
A sheep-hook, or have learn'd aught else the least
That to the faithful herdman's art belongs!
What recks it them? What need they? They are sped;
And when they list their lean and flashy songs
Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw,
The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed,
But, swoll'n with wind and the rank mist they draw,
Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread.

Lycidas is known as a pastoral elegy, or an expression of grief that revolves around shepherds, pastures, nature. The author is writing about the loss of a dear friend, Edward King, a college classmate, as well as mourning the loss of his youth and days gone by.

Pastoral elements in literature focus on creating an ideal picture of country life, simple life, the pastoral setting is easy to associate with religious images.  God exists in nature, the purity of a life lived close to the earth. Especially with regard to sheperds and sheep, easily connected to the Christian images of Jesus Christ as the sheperd and his followers his flock.

Pastoral life consists of being near the land, working close to nature, farm life, a rural existence.

"But O the heavy change, now thou art gon,
Now thou art gon, and never must return!
Thee Shepherd, thee the Woods, and desert Caves,
With wilde Thyme and the gadding Vine o'regrown, [ 40 ]
And all their echoes mourn.
The Willows, and the Hazle Copses green,
Shall now no more be seen,Fanning their joyous Leaves to thy soft layes." (Milton)

In this passage, Milton is recalling the pastoral nature of the environment that he feels he has lost along with his dear friend. Because the pastoral images tie in so well with Christian imagery, Milton includes religious elements in this poem

"So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high,
Through the dear might of him that walk'd the waves;
Where other groves, and other streams along,
With Nectar pure his oozy Lock's he laves, [ 175 ]
And hears the unexpressive nuptiall Song,
In the blest Kingdoms meek of joy and love.
There entertain him all the Saints above,
In solemn troops, and sweet Societies
That sing, and singing in their glory move, [ 180 ]
And wipe the tears for ever from his eyes."

In the final lines of the poem, Milton invokes the Christian God, Jesus Christ who walked on the waves, Jesus Christ walked on water, telling the reader that Lycidas is in heaven with the Lamb of God, who wipes away tears forever.

"The last two verse paragraphs establish the elegy’s Christian consolation and the poet’s readiness now to embark on his poetic career. Lycidas is not dead but resurrected in Christ (lines 172-73). Shifting into third-person narrative, the poem concludes with the “uncouth swain,” the shepherd-poet himself, rising and, in a gesture of hope, preparing to leave the pastures he shared with Lycidas for “fresh woods, and pastures new” (line 193)."

Describe the religious and pastoral elements in Milton's "Lycidas."

This is very definitely a fine example of pastoral poetry through the repeated reference to nature that Milton employs throughout the poem. However, it is also important to understand how Milton uses the genre of pastoral poetry for his own purposes, making it clear that the pastoral setting establishes an allegorical meaning that draws the reader's attention to the issues faced in his time and context. He does this through not solely relying on the motif of Greek and Roman mythology but also adding more domestic gods, who lie closer to home. For example, Camus, the god of the river Cam, that of course lies near Cambridge is referenced:

Next Camus, reverend Sire, went footing slow,
His Mantle hairy, and his Bonnet sedge,
Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge
Like to that sanguine flower inscrib'd with woe.

Repeatedly therefore pastoral elements are established through the use of natural description to highlight the purpose of Milton in raising certain debates and issues central to his context, such as what value is a virtuous life when death can come at any time.

In the same way, religous elements are raised in this poem through the speaker's inclusion of religion as a comfort to the reader who has to live in such an uncertain world where death can occur at any moment. For example, not the following religious allusion towards the end of the poem:

So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high,
Through the dear might of him that walk'd the waves...

The "him" is of course Jesus who famously walked on water as narrated in Matthew Chapter 14. Religion is therefore referenced through extensive Christian allusions that seek to offer the reader comfort and balm in response to the death of Lycidas but also the mortality that all humanity has to endure.

How does Milton use religious and pastoral elements in "Lycidas"?

Pastoral elements are important throughout John Milton’s poem titled “Lycidas,” but the combination of pastoral and religious elements becomes especially important beginning in line 76.  In the preceding lines, the speaker had been wondering about the worth of hard work and lofty goals, especially when death can strike at any moment, making all work and all goals seem insignificant.  In response, Phoebus, the god of poetry, declares that even more important than any fame a dedicated person might win on earth are the eternal fame and praise granted by God in the heavenly afterlife:

“Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soul . . .
But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes,
And perfect witness of all-judging Jove [that is, God].” (78, 81-82)

In these lines, the god of classical pastoral poetry (Jove) is clearly equated with the Christian God, and from this point forward, the blending of pastoral elements with elements of the Christian religion will be especially conspicuous.

This blending is particularly apparent when Milton attacks corrupt Christian clerics by describing them as selfish shepherds.  They the kind of shepherds who

. . . for their bellies’ sake
Creep and intrude and climb into the fold!
Of other care they little reckoning make
Than how to scramble at the shearers’ feast,
And shove away the worthy bidden guest. (115-18)

Rather than being true pastors (the Latin equivalent for “shepherds”), they have abandoned their flocks to “the grim wolf” (128), a phrase that Milton (a devout Protestant) would have equated both with Satan and with Roman Catholicism.  As a result of neglect by these selfish pastors, “The hungry sheep” (that is, the English people) “look up, and are not fed” (that is, are not given proper spiritual nourishment [125]). But what do these corrupt shepherds (pastors) care?  After all, their own material needs are well taken care of by the corrupted, exploitative church, so that they can indulge themselves in mere earthly pleasures (122-24).

It is in this passage dealing with the corruption of the contemporary Anglican church and its unworthy pastors that Milton most obviously combines pastoral and religious elements in his poem.