Milton’s Lycidas

I read you Milton’s great elegy for a friend and fellow poet drowned at sea. It's quite a long poem but well worth your while. you can read the text here www.poetryfoun...
And you can, if you wish, encourage me with coffee and cake here www.buymeacoff...

[@peterboroughjoe1577]

“Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more…” What a hopeful moment that is - a truth to hold onto as Peter did Christ upon the wind and waves. Thanks Malcolm and may your star continue to rise as you spread the good and beautiful news and word.

[@selenaerkzan8969]

I cannot help but think of Chaucer's House of Fame when I read Lycidas. Thank you for this beautiful reading.

[@timothyallen6457]

Milton’s criticism of clergy in Lycidas makes me think of Chaucer’s parson of good renown in the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales. “He (by contrast) was a shepherd and no mercenary.”

[@ellen823ful]

❤ It’s a snowy day in Illinois. I can’t go anywhere today. This morning I stubbed my toe and must stay put as it throbs. Then, you read to me this poem by Milton. If it weren’t for my early misfortune I might’ve missed this gift. Thank you 🙏 Malcolm.

[@QHarefield]

Thank you, Malcolm. For my money, Milton is dense and sometimes all but impenetrable - much more so than Shakespeare. I had read this 2 or 3 times before but you have brought it more alive for me. I had to laugh when you said "It's printed among his minor poems - but only minor in the sense that it's not Paradise Lost." Not Paradise Lost! What a yardstick!

[@bigal2696]

Oh that all the world would appreciate and read poetry! Thank you for this too little appreciated piece of poetry

[@JohnRutherford205]

A really wonderful poem. One of my professors as an undergraduate was a big fan of Milton and would quote him regularly in conversation, particularly sonnet 19. I had the chance to meet with him this past weekend. It was lovely to see him.

[@midlander4]

Malcolm, every one of your videos is a total banger 🙏🏽

[@thekingcory]

Wound up here bc Edward King is apparently my 7th great-granduncle. We recently lost both my father and grandfather within three weeks of each other. Genealogical research after their deaths lead to this poem, but it would have been so fitting to have the penultimate stanza read at their burials.

[@caroledrury1411]

Oh my God! What a reading! Particularly for this very time we live in! Look homeward angel… You would also be great on the stage not just as a musician but a great actor! Thanks for Milton

[@Nighttrainpiper]

“Begin, and somewhat loudly sweep the string.” Wonderful reading and a reminder that in our loss there is still hope in our immortality. I love how poetry is so near in your mind that it speaks directly to life experiences. Be well, Malcom, appreciate you brother.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

You are so welcome

[@KenPierpont]

I did delight in the CT article and photos. I shared you with discerning friends, who immediately began to enjoy meeting you in your study... and in your Temple of Peace. I trust your rising star can have more than one poetic meaning... :)

[@johnmulvey5121]

Great reading of the poem. I'm going back to it later. Thanks

[@shaneball3493]

Thank you Mr. Guite, another morning filled with poetry , Thank you, I have taken suggestions of other poets and books from you and have been thrilled to read such a variety. Luci Shaw I thank you for.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

Thanks for listening

[@b-dogpiper1499]

Lovely, just a lovely reading. Admittedly I have never been much of a poetry reader, as I felt I would have to read and re-read - too many times - passages to understand the author’s intent; but when listening to your deliveries - your cadence, inflections and passion - I have a new appreciation. Thanks so much for this wonderful content, sir. And happy smokes to you.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

thanks!

[@davechittenden1657]

I know nothing of Lycidas or his place in literature, and in some ways that doesn't much matter to me. However in this poem there seems a microcosm of healthy human relationship at death..(of any human real of made up).. the love and respect in rememberance and celebration even in mourning for the twist and spark of the divine. Thank you for your excellent and illuminating reading Malcolm.

[@Catonius]

always a pleasure to pop in for a wee visit.

[@mrickenbacherwest]

Seems Keats must have also been inspired by this beautiful elegy. I hear it reflected in Ode to a Nightingale...thank you, Malcolm the Marvelous, for shining yet another light. cheers

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

Many thanks!

[@boogieboxmusic4331]

Wonderful to listen to you Malcolm, I enjoyed your appreciation of our great poet and your educated rendition.. glad to have shared the moments with you.. many thanks..

[@69erthx1138]

My mentor in literature Warren Myers introduced me to this poem. You read this in similar fashion Sir.

[@hardusdeklerk8993]

Always the highlight of my day when I see a new video from you, Sir. Bless you.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

Thanks again!

[@OHAREAVIATION]

Hello from Chicago! Another marvelous reading. Thanks much!!

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

You are so welcome

[@johnbirkett31]

Always enjoy your reading and take on a piece of poetry Malcolm and especially Milton s Lycidas . Quite moving and beautiful use of the English language. I will reread this poem again quietly to myself later.

[@timhower3628]

Seven nights and days. I by God's grace will see you with my own eyes here in Lancaster. Twenty five years ago I was in Vancouver BC and I went to Regents and I met briefly with JI Packer as he was leaving Regents. I was able to shake his hand. This was enough. In Christ Tim.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

see you soon!

[@brianheffernan8982]

Lovely video, Malcolm.

[@doorntreader7624]

Another gem. Thanks, Malcolm.

[@donaldcatton4028]

I once blurted out in addled state this poem was the greatest artifact of the English language…

[@cynthiaford6976]

Robert Bly, being a devotee of the Jungian (Jung, Marie Louise von Franz, James Hillman etc.), who became very famous, used to insist that positive projection was a palpable force, an energy, and sometimes it almost seems as if he used to try to shake it off, like a dog shaking off water, when he was speaking or reading. Christian Wiman tells a story about walking Mary Oliver (the only other American poet who gathered fame in these days) to a reading in Chicago. She saw a bloodied dead pigeon on the sidewalk amongst the flocking pigeons, picked it up, and described to him where the hawk's talons had struck. When he said they had to go, she put it in her pocket and kept it there throughout her reading before 800 people. Although it is what our materialist, technological,exteriority instead of interiority culture values, fame is described often as a trial by the famous. I loved hearing this read, having had a copy forever, but never having crack'ed it. And to find "look homeward angel" which Thomas Wolfe used as a title! Thank you!

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

Thanks

[@phillylifer]

Good stuff

[@crochanosullivan2157]

Line 60-63 in Lycidas refer to when Orpheus was torn to pieces by the Thracian Maenads and his head, still singing, floated down the river Hebrus until it reached the island of Lesbos where it was buried. Seamus Heaney also refers to this in Loughanure In second part (Human Chain) “Saw Orpheus/ Because he’d perished at the women’s hands/Choose rebirth as a swan”.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

yes indeed, there wasn't of course time in this reading to unravel all the poignant allusions in Lycidas

[@billcanonico6657]

"the hungry sheep look up and are not fed". i heard you read this phrase today and thought about certain shepherds i've known, about whom this, sadly, could be said.

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

yes, alas that line is still all too true

[@TheTunnellTake]

More ytpc awesomeness! Love ya man!

[@timothyallen6457]

Is the ‘two-handed engine at the door’ a reference to your motorbike, Malcolm?

[@dalenelson8254]

Sixteen seconds into the video, I see Behold, This Dreamer! on your shelf -- Walter de la Mare's anthology "Of Reverie, Night, Sleep, Dream, Love-Dreams, Nightmare, Death, the Unconscious, the Imagination, Divination, the Artist, and Kindred Subjects" -- !

[@MalcolmGuitespell]

yes its a great compilation

[@NuYiDao]

The language is so dense, and since I had not read this one before, it seemed to me Shakespeare-dense. So it needs much more slow vocal treatment. Also, apart from that terrible thing in me of drifting along utterly without comprehension for the most part, all of a sudden when you began acting the meaning came back out clearly again for the last section as a direct result I suppose.