L’’Allegro, Il Penseroso, Comus, and Lycidas (Esprios Classics)

Il Penseroso (The Serious Man) is a vision of poetic melancholy by John Milton, first found in the 1645/1646 quarto of verses The Poems of Mr. John Milton, both English and Latin, published by Humphrey Moseley. It was presented as a companion piece to L’Allegro, a vision of poetic mirth. The speaker of this reflective ode dispels ＂vain deluding Joys＂ from his mind in a ten-line prelude, before invoking ＂divinest Melancholy＂ to inspire his future verses. The melancholic mood is idealised by the speaker as a means by which to ＂attain / To something like prophetic strain,＂ and for the central action of Il Penseroso - which, like L’Allegro, proceeds in couplets of iambic tetrameter.