I need analyze these quotes from Milton's poem "Lycidas."Quote #1 "Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil" Line 78 Quote # 2 "Flames in...

John Milton in the poem, "Lycidas," is lamenting the loss
of a friend (Edward King, a classmate) who drowned. Milton is considered the second most
important English poet. With all those who had come before, Shakespeare and Jonson among
them, Milton was still able to leave his mark in a unique way. He was familiar with
classical literature and "works of the Judeo-Christian tradition." He was a strongly
religious person himself, and his writing embraced the "importance of the individual"—in
keeping with his most common topic:

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...the soul in ethical conflict—the wayfaring,
warfaring Christian.

In
"Lycidas," Milton spends a great part of the poem speaking to the past and how they
spent their time together and his bereavement that his friend is gone and will not
return. He then turns to his need for others to remember his
friend.

The first quote listed comes from the following
passage, which is in quotes, meaning that he cites it from another piece. It is quoted
from The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri By Dante Alighieri, also
known simply as href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_Comedy">The Divine
Comedy. It is not a comedy in the modern sense, and it basically
tracks Dante's progression to Hell, then to Purgatory, and finally to Heaven. So the
quotation is something Milton uses, originally written by Dante. The segment from which
Milton takes the first line referred to must be taken in context with the rest of the
passage. He is saying that one should not look for fame for our good deeds in
this world, but in Heaven. The fame of mankind is nothing, but the
fame pronounced of a life piously led should be sought upon meeting God. I believe he
infers that things of the earth pass away, but things of Heaven do
not.

"Fame is
no plant that grows on mortal soil,

Nor in the glistering
foil

Set off to the world, nor in broad rumour
lies,

But lives and spreads aloft by those pure
eyes

And perfect witness of all-judging
Jove;

As he pronounces lastly on each
deed,

Of so much fame in heaven expect thy
meed."

The second quote, also
read in context of the passage that it ends, states that those who mourn Lycidas should
not do so, for he is not dead, though he may have drowned "beneath the watery floor."
Milton then offers a metaphor comparing the drowning of Lycidas to the sun (the "day
star") that also sinks into the ocean every evening, only to rise again and burn
brightly in the sky, hence "flames in the forehead." The poem then continues to note
that Lycidas may have died (been "sunk low") but he is now in Heaven ("mounted high"),
so that one should not need to be sorrowful for him, but realize that he has been raised
up by Christ (who "walked on waves").

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Weep no more, woful Shepherds weep no
more,

For Lycidas your sorrow is not
dead,

Sunk though he be beneath the watery
floor,

So sinks the day-star in the Ocean
bed,

And yet anon repairs his drooping
head,

And tricks his beams, and with new spangled
Ore,

Flames in the forehead of the morning
sky…

So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted
high,

Through the dear might of Him that walked the
waves...

It is easy to see
Milton's concentration on the soul of mankind in reading his works. Here he laments the
loss of a friend, but comforts others (and himself) with his belief that Lycidas is now
in the presence of God.