Final answer:
John Milton's "On the Death of a Fair Infant Dying of a Cough" integrates images of Christian hope with notions of sorrow, decay, and death, reflecting a complex portrayal of grief common in literature of tumultuous times.
Step-by-step explanation:
In John Milton's elegy "On the Death of a Fair Infant Dying of a Cough," he intertwines images of Christian hope with reflections of sorrow, decay, and death. This combination of themes is a characteristic expression of grief in literature that emerged during periods of great upheaval, such as the aftermath of the Black Death. The use of contrasting imagery serves to capture the complexity of emotions experienced during mourning, with Christian hope providing solace alongside the melancholic acceptance of mortality.
Poets like Milton and contemporary John Donne often employed these elements in their work to grapple with the loss of certainty and the challenges of understanding one's place in the universe amidst great changes. The elegy's portrayal of grief, through this dual imagery, becomes a reflection of human existence and the tension between earthly suffering and the promise of spiritual transcendence.