2. School-Day Poems of John Milton

At the age of sixteen, Milton first appeared before the public eye as a promising young poet. These early verses, written while he was a boy in school, indicate his brilliant future.

Milton's Poems
Vol. 4, pp. 7-18

I have a natural aversion to religious themes, which may be a partial explanation of my reluctance to read some of these classics. I have to keep reminding myself to read them within the framework of literature, not church.

And I have to admit... Might as well do it now... I am not a great lover of poetry. I admire the talent and envy the creative gift. I would just rather be reading prose. But, I shall soldier on, as I know that this will not be the only reading assignment of poetry in this year-long project.

This selection contains two poems written by Milton as a young student at Cambridge. The first is titled On the Morning of Christ's Nativity, written in 1629. And it is about exactly what the title promises, the crossing of the Atlantic by Columbus. Just kidding.

One particular phrase did stand out for me:

That glorious Form, that Light unsufferable, 

Unsufferable light. I can relate to that, not in a spiritual way necessarily. But I do recognize the sensation of unbearable beauty. Of overly intense sensation. Of too, too much.

One thing about this poem: Milton called the Wise Men Wisards, and I will never not call them that from now on.

The next section of the poem is called The Hymn, which seems to be the real meat of it. Maybe this speaks to my woefully inadequate religious education, but I had a hard time following this one, with all of its references to different bible characters and places. I did see a Palestine in there, as well as some Egyptian references. But I couldn't really string them together.

The second poem in this selection was A Paraphrase on Psalm CXIV, written in 1624. Honestly, it feels like this poem might show up at some weird, progressive Seder at some Hillel chapter in the Midwest. But again, I am sensing my religious literature intolerance. I will work on that.

I will point out this description of the Jews escaping Egypt via the Red Sea:

The floods stood still, like walls of glass,
While the Hebrew bands did pass; 

Smooth glass walls were always what I pictured when I envisioned that scene. It was nice to see someone else had the same idea.

All in all, the poetry seemed, to me, very "student film". Early attempts. Precursors. But not to worry. Soon, Milton will write Paradise Lost and become an immortal fixture in undergraduate philosophy classes everywhere.