Elegia septima. English translation. Back to Latin text. Open Latin text in new window.

Introduction. Milton wanted us to believe this poem was composed in May 1627, and perhaps it was, though Merritt Y. Hughes (58) prefers 1630. The poem represents its author as, like Ovid and Virgil and many other great poets before him, a one-time victim of Love's arrows who plans now to leave love and love elegies behind for more a more serious muse. Though some critics take the story of being smitten by a young beauty as autobiographical, others regard it as entirely formulaic. Milton identifies himself as passing that stage between love poetry that all great poets before him once passed through. The final apology is equally formulaic.

The translation follows that of Walter MacKellar with a few changes based on consulting The Columbia Milton and Merritt Y. Hughes.

fuit. Both 1645 and 1673 misprint this as "suit".

æterno. 1645 misprints this word as "ærerno". It was corrected in 1673.

Amathusia. At Amathusia in Cyprus was a temple sacred to Venus; thus she sometimes is referred to as Amathusia. See Ovid's Amores 3.15.15.

Paphian fire. In Paphos on Cyprus was a famous temple of Venus. See Ovid's Amores 2.17.4.

scorned Cupid's arrows. The persona here and in the following speech imitates Ovid's Apollo in Metamorphoses 1.461-71. Adreas Alciati records precisely this familiar attitude in his Emblemata 94 (1531).

Sigeian youth. Ganymede, whose youthful beauty so attracted Jove that he took the form of an eagle and kidnpped him from Mount Ida; see Ovid's Metamorphoses 10.155-61.

Hylas. Hylas, the son of Theodamus, was also a youth famous for beauty. A naiad, or fountain nymph, seized him and carried him deep into the fountain from where he never returned. See Ovid's Ars Amatoria 2.110.

overcame Phoebus. Cupid here boasts of his power over Apollo when, scorned by Apollo in much the same terms as the persona uses here, he responded by causing Apollo to desire Daphne and Daphne to flee his embraces; see Ovid's Metamorphoses 1.463-568.

conquest of the serpent Python. Ovid tells the story of Apollo's victory over Python in Metamorphoses 1.438-522.

Peneus's daughter. Daphne.

Parthian horseman. Parthian horsemen were famous for conquering by shooting backwards from fleeing horses.

Cydonian hunter. Cydonians, or Cretans, were famous archers.

author of his own wife's death. Cephalus, out hunting, hurled his javelin at a rustling bush and killed Procris, his spouse. See Ovid's Metamorphoses 7.835-62.

Orion. The giant Orion, a mighty hunter, pined away for the nymph Lyrice. See Ovid's Ars Amatoria 1.829-38.

Heracles. Natale Conti's Mythology lists more than sixty marriages and amorous affairs for Hercules. He was the quintessential strongman overcome by love for women.

Heracles's friend. Merritt Hughes suggests this might refer to Jason who divorced Medea to marry Creusa; Walter MacKellar opts for Telamon, another of the argonauts.

his bolts. Andreas Alciati, in his 1531 Emblemata 73, represents Cupid as destroying one of Jove's thunderbolts.

serpent of Apollo. The emblem of healing that Apollo gave to his son Aesculapius. See Ovid's Metamorphoses 15.626-744.

Juno's son. Hephaestus (also known as Vulcan or Mulciber) was an embarrassment to his mother, Juno, on account of his lameness so she kicked him out of heaven.

Amphiaraus. Prince of Argos who reluctantly took part in the war against Thebes. As he fled Jove opened a hole in the earth that swallowed him up. See Apollodorus's Library 3.6.8. See also Ovid's Metamorphoses 9.406-7.

the shady Academy. That is, Plato and his teachings on love, chiefly in the Phaedrus and the Symposium. The poet plans to abandon elegy and its more carnal versions of love and prepares to embrace the more serious erotics of Plato and Xenophon, as Milton announced in his Apology for Smectymnuus (1642):

Thus from the Laureat fraternity of Poets, riper yeares, and the ceaselesse round of study and reading led me to the shady spaces of philosophy, but chiefly to the divine volumes of Plato, and his equall Xenophon. Where if I should tell ye what I learnt, of chastity and love, I meane that which is truly so, whose charming cup is only vertue which she bears in her hand to those who are worthy. The rest are cheated with a thick intoxicating potion which a certaine Sorceresse the abuser of loves name carries about.