Il Penseroso

Il Penseroso (it. "The thoughts Full " or " The Pensive " ) is a poem John Milton, which was published in 1645. Calling upon the personification of melancholy or sadness, it raises the retired, the meditation of life dedicated to the ideal. The melancholy harmony of the soul with the world is the opposite of the poem L' Allegro, which treats the joy in life and literature.

Poem

While L' Allegro describes the time spent in the rural idyll day, Il Penseroso evokes an antithesis. The narrator commits a nighttime scene in which a cloister and a tower appear as places of retreat. He is dedicated to classical spiritual and literary studies such as philosophy, allegory, or tragedy and anthemic songs that lead him to a final vision:

The time of origin of the poem is uncertain. Although it was published only in 1645 in the Juvenile poems, the fact remains that the form and content to the time shortly after leaving Cambridge, that is, to 1632 Il Penseroso falls -. Especially in its coupling with L' Allegro - apparently in the genre of bucolic poetry, how they herleitete of Theocritus. The research suggests further lines of tradition before, the Lobdichtung the Renaissance, the Homeric hymns or Pindaric odes. The poem learned a wide reception in renderings and other artistic implementation, especially in the 18th century. 1740 set to music George Frideric Handel 's oratorio L' Allegro for the texts, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, William Blake put the poem as well as L' Allegro 1816-1820 to images, as Thomas Cole in 1845. Il Penseroso also applies with his closing lines also populated as a key source of inspiration for the phenomenon of jewelry hermits, the English in the 18th and 19th century landscape parks.

Illustrations to Il Penseroso

Melancholy by William Blake

Il Penseroso by Thomas Cole