...Lycidas : " Call the vale«, and bid them hither bring Their bells and flowerets of a thousand hups. Ye valleys low, where the mild whispers use Of shades,...gushing brooks, On whose fresh lap the swart star rarely looks, llring hither all your quaint, enamelled eyes That on the green turf »uck the honied...

...hot-bed of corruption. Milton turns his acquaintance with flowers to divine account in his Lycidas. Return, Sicilian Muse, And call the vales, and bid...cast Their bells and flowerets of a thousand hues. Ye vallies low, where the mild whispers use Of shades and wanton winds, and gushing brooks, On whose fresh...

...(worthy of Amos or Ezekiel), the poem yet once more drops back to the mode of pastoral: Return Alpheus, the dread voice is past, That shrunk thy streams;...And call the Vales, and bid them hither cast Their Bels, and Flourets of a thousand hues. [132-35] The power of this long floral offering arises from...

...streams; return, Sicilian Muse, And call the vales, and bid them hither cast Their bells and flowrets of a thousand hues. Ye valleys low, where the mild...quaint enamelled eyes, That on the green turf suck the honied showers, 140 And purple all the ground with vernal flowers. Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken...

...streams; retum Sicilian Muse. And call the vales, and bid them hither cast Their bells and flowrets of a thousand hues. Ye valleys low where the mild...swart star sparely looks. Throw hither all your quaint enamell'd eyes, That on the green turf suck the honied showers, 140 And purple all the ground with...

...Amaryllis: Return Sicilean Muse, And call the Vales, and bid them hither cast Their Bells and Flowrets of a thousand hues. Ye valleys low where the mild...swart Star sparely looks, Throw hither all your quaint enamell'd eyes, That on the green turf such the honied showers, And purple all the ground with vernal...

...added next a twenty-line catalogue of colourful flowers, beginning self-consciously: Return, Alpheus; the dread voice is past That shrunk thy streams. Return,...cast Their bells and flowerets of a thousand hues. (132-5) The flower passage (in the composition of the poem, a happy afterthought) is a pretty art1fice...

...the door Stands ready to smite once, and smites no more." Return, Alpheus, the dread voice is pass'd That shrunk thy streams; return, Sicilian Muse, And...swart star sparely looks, Throw hither all your quaint enamel'd eyes That on the green turf suck the honey'd showers, And purple all the ground with vernal...

...and bid them hither cast Their Bells, and Flourets of a thousand hues. Ye valleys low where the milde whispers use, Of shades and wanton winds and gushing...swart Star sparely looks, Throw hither all your quaint enameld eyes, That on the green terf suck the honied showres, And purple all the ground with vernal...

...streams; Return Sicilian Muse, And call the Vales, and bid them hither case Their Bells and Flowrets of a thousand hues. Ye valleys low where the mild...brooks, On whose fresh lap the swart Star sparely looks, Thrown hither all your quaint enamell'd eyes, That on the green turf suck the honied showers, And purple...