Lycidas

The question of divine justice underlies the poem, although the topic is approached in an oblique manner. Milton does not openly question or challenge God, but he does raise the issue of why Lycidas was permitted to drown. Lycidas, after all, was a blameless, gifted young man, a hard-working poet who was about to become a minister, and yet he perished “ere his prime” (Line 8).

After the initial expression of grief and mourning, the questioning begins at Line 50. The speaker asks the nymphs about their whereabouts when Lycidas was drowning. They were not in their usual haunts, where they might have offered him some protection. Then, a note almost of despair creeps in, as the swain thinks he is just indulging in wishful thinking: “Ay me! I fondly dream / Had ye bin there—for what could that have done?” (Lines 56-57). The swain remembers that even the supreme singer and poet Orpheus experienced a grievous and untimely death. What is the point, then, of laboring at one’s calling—the poet might as well abandon all thought of serving the Muse and amuse himself as others do by flirting with pretty shepherdesses. Why pursue fame when one of the Furies will likely come and cut off the thread of life?

Milton supplies an answer that seems to affirm divine justice, or at least divine reward, in Lines 76-84, in which Phoebus Apollo states that what happens on earth is not the final word, since Jove grants immortality and fame in heaven to those deserving of it. However, this answer seems not to have satisfied the speaker, as he explores his doubts and uncertainties further as the poem proceeds. This can be seen in the inquiry that begins in the next stanza, in which the speaker hears from Hippotades (Aeolus, god of the winds) that Lycidas simply had bad luck. The ship that carried him was built during an eclipse, an ill-fated time.

The flowers that are gathered to place on Lycidas’s bier add to the sense of loss and injustice, since there is no bier to place them on. The thought of the flower-strewn bier is simply, the swain admits, a “false surmise” designed to “interpose a little ease” into “our frail thoughts” (Lines 52-53). The false belief is that Lycidas’s body has been recovered and that he can thus be given a full Christian burial. The swain’s thoughts then turn to the harsh and brutal reality, that Lycidas’s bones have been scattered at sea and could be anywhere. The speaker can only wish that the dolphins can guide him home. Any divine justice seems far off at this point. The earlier appearance of St. Peter offers little comfort, since he promises only punishment for corrupt bishops—which is a kind of divine justice but has no relevance for the virtuous but doomed Lycidas.

The question is only resolved in the penultimate stanza, when Lycidas is granted eternal life in a Christian heaven. He may have met with misfortune in his earthly life, but he is to be compensated now, “in the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love” (Line 177). Thus, taken in its entirety, his life is under the direction of a just and merciful God who offers the reward of eternal life to compensate for undeserved suffering on Earth.