Stanley Fish disputes Robert Graves's assertion that the author of this poem misplaced its lines beginning "
Stanley Fish disputes Robert Graves's assertion that the author of this poem misplaced its lines beginning "Oft listn'inghow the hounds and horn / Clearly rouse the slumbering morn." This poem invokes Ariel's promise to Prospero in Act IV ofThe Tempest with its command "Come, and trip it as ye go / On the light fantastick toe." Characters in this poem exchange"Quips and Cranks, and wanton Wiles, Nods, and Becks, and wreathed Smiles," and tell stories over delicious glasses of "SpicyNut-brown Ale." The speaker of this poem wishes to be "lap[ped] in soft Lydian aires" so that he can, like Orpheus, makePluto "set free / His half-regain'd Eurydice." The bulk of this 152-line poem is in octosyllabic couplets, following the introductoryten-line stanza in which the speaker banishes his previous muse to "the dark Cimmerian desert." It ends with the couplet"These delights, if thou canst give, Mirth with thee, I mean to live." For 10 points, name this sprightly poem Milton wrote asa companion to "Il Penseroso."
Stanley Fish disputes Robert Graves's assertion that the author of this poem misplaced its lines beginning "
"L'Allegro"