Anno ætatis 17. English translation. Back to Latin text. Open Latin text in new window.

Introduction. Milton titled this collection of Latin and Greek verses, "Sylvarum," or "of the woods," indicating the variety of metrical forms included, even a variety of languages, since two are in Greek. The metrical forms employed here include iambics, hexameters and various kinds of Horatian modes, including alcaic stanzas. Milton arranged the poems in a roughly chronological order according to their dates of composition, probably to emphasize his progress as a poet from his earliest attempts to his more mature poems.

This poem laments the passing of Nicholas Felton, Bishop of Ely from 1619 until his death in 1626. He was, like Milton, educated at Cambridge, though at Pembroke College. he also served as Master of Pembroke from 1617-1619, when he was elevated to Ely to replace Lancelot Andrewes who was elevated to Winchester. Andrewes, as the poem indicates in lines 1-6, died just a few months before Felton.

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

irá. 1673 has a circumflex over the "a" (irâ) rather than an acute accent as in 1645.

fatal sisters. The three Fates personified as women: Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos.

isle that bears the name of Ely. The name means "Eel-island."

Naso. Ovid, whose full name was Publius Ovidius Naso, author of Ibis or The Crane, a satire on one of his enemies.

the Greek. Archilochus of Paros, according to common belief in Milton's day, wrote bitter satires against Lycambes after Lycambes refused to allow him to marry his daughter, Neobule.

the aged prophet. Elijah; see the story of his assumption in 2 Kings 2:11.

Boötes. The constellation Arcturus, the bear driver or ox-cart driver, depending upon the legend. According to Ovid's Metamorphoses 2.176, his team is notoriously slow.

the triform goddess. What Ovid in Metamorphoses 7.94 calls the "goddess of the triple form," Luna, also called Diana and Trivia.