When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
My mind locked in on the two versions of heaven in lines 3 & 12. The first, being a "deaf heaven" that hears no sorrow nor pain nor "bootless cries". The second heaven hears the hymns of song and rises within "love remembered"...wealth is restored to the soul and the human condition is separated from renewed belief in the eternal home. When I was in London I got the chance to walk by Shakespeare's Globe and see a lot of the famous churches there within close proximity and this poem really brings me back into thinking on the life and times of this religious influence in Britain. We can see such a battle within a lot of Shakespeare's poetry within the dual between church and personal life. It will be fun to learn more.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny you see a religious take, because of course I see Milton's Satan.
DeleteThe narrator is talking about changing her/his state of mind. The audiences love turns a deaf heaven into hymns at heaven's gate. A heaven of hell, and a hell of heaven. I wonder how this poem impacted Milton, his wife had left him at some point.
I have yet to read on Milton- will look up! Yes, I am quite immersed in a web of spiritual findings with all of my research on yoga...the lens keeps changing colors!!
Deletehttps://readgoodpoetry.blogspot.com/2016/11/better-to-reign-in-hell-than-to-serve.html
DeleteSee, this is one of the best examples of why you and Drew would make me cocoon up and cry on Pilots & Petards- my memory is a of a fleeting glance, emotion and present nature. LOL. I have read Milton after all! And even made a comment. Wow, Jimbo. Sometimes the nature of my brain deceives even me. I always laugh at talks on "delayed gratification"...I don't think that concept lives in me at all, but it's the instant that is most Present- points for that? :)Or is it the delay in which we appreciate the consistency of all things?
DeleteAnd of course, a wonderful reference you have mentioned! Milton could relate to a lot of the recent poems we have read relating to perspective- perhaps each and every one. We write from the eyes, ears, touch, smell and taste that we are. A heaven some days, a hell, another!!!
No way!
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