Question

As noted in the lecture "The Poetry of Grief and the Poetry of Death," Milton's elegy "Lycidias" is an example of a private elegy, in this case expressing Milton's deep personal grief for a close friend who had accidentally been thrown from his horse and killed. True or False?

Answer 1

The claim that Milton's 'Lycidas' is a private elegy about a close friend killed in a horse riding accident is false. Instead, it is a public and formal work commemorating a fellow student.

Step-by-step explanation:

The statement asserting that John Milton's elegy Lycidas expresses his deep personal grief for a close friend who died due to a horse riding accident is false. In reality, Lycidas is a traditional pastoral elegy written to commemorate the life and death of Edward King, a fellow Cambridge student but not a close friend of Milton's. The poem follows the elegiac convention of the time, which was to create a formal and public lament rather than a private expression of grief. Milton uses the name Lycidas as a pastoral name, honoring the academic and public life of King, rather than his personal connection to him.