Such as hang on Hebe's cheek,
And love to live in dimple sleek;
Sport that wrinkled Care derides,
And Laughter holding both his sides.
Come, and trip it as ye go
On the light fantastic toe.
. . . . .
To hear the lark begin his flight,
And singing startle the dull night,
From his watch-tower in the skies,
Till the dappled dawn doth rise."
These are a few lines from the opening of the poem which you must
read for yourselves, for if I quoted all that is beautiful in it
I should quote the whole.
Il Penseroso pictures the thoughtful mood, or mood of gentle
Melancholy. Here Mirth is banished, "Hence fair deluding joys,
the brood of Folly, and hail divinest Melancholy." The poem
moves with more stately measure, "with even step, and musing
gait," from evening through the moonlit night till morn. It ends
with the poet's desire to live a peaceful studious life.
"But let my due feet never fail
To walk the studious cloisters pale;
And love the high embowed roof,
With antique pillars massy proof,
And storied windows richly dight,
Casting a dim religious light.
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