Milton
Milton - context Summary
Tribute in Voices of the Night
Written for Longfellow's 1833 collection Voices of the Night and dedicated to John Milton, this short poem honors Milton by comparing his verse to recurring ocean waves. The speaker watches a ninth, overpowering wave that transforms the shore, using that image to describe Milton’s "sightless bard" genius: towering, rhythmic, and cumulatively overwhelming in its emotional and intellectual effect. The poem registers admiration and poetic lineage.
Read Complete AnalysesI pace the sounding sea-beach and behold How the voluminous billows roll and run, Upheaving and subsiding, while the sun Shines through their sheeted emerald far unrolled, And the ninth wave, slow gathering fold by fold All its loose-flowing garments into one, Plunges upon the shore, and floods the dun Pale reach of sands, and changes them to gold. So in majestic cadence rise and fall The mighty undulations of thy song, O sightless bard, England's Mæonides! And ever and anon, high over all Uplifted, a ninth wave superb and strong, Floods all the soul with its melodious seas.
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