...Irish Seas, 1637. And by occasion foretells the ruin of our corrupted Clergy then in their height. Yet once more, O ye Laurels, and once more Ye Myrtles...rude, Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year. 5 Bitter constraint, and sad occasion dear, Compels me to disturb your season due: For Lycidas is dead,...

...Lycidas is concerned with the self-projection of the ambitious poet and the drama of his composition: Yet once more, O ye Laurels, and once more Ye Myrtles...sere, I come to pluck your Berries harsh and crude . . . (1-3) Milton begins by announcing his unreadiness, his unripeness as a poet, despite his need...

...closed, and occasionally a tear would form but never fall in the corner of one or both of those eyes: Yet once more, O ye laurels, and once more / Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere... Strange eyes, large and striking but somehow distant: in yearbook photos he gave the impression of...

...tradition, and it is even possible that this mild violation is countenanced by the tradition itself: Yet once more, O ye Laurels, and once more Ye Myrtles...rude, Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year. (1-5)' A temporal ambiguity in the opening words, "Yet once more," immediately draws our attention....

...Institute, the University of Regina. CHRISTIAN RIEGEL Introduction The Literary Work of Mourning Yet once more, O ye Laurels, and once more Ye Myrtles brown, with Ivy never sere, I come to pluck you Berries harsh and crude, And with forc'd fingers rude, Shatter your leaves before the mellowing...

...(186-193) That passage sits very oddly (as most readers notice) with the famous beginning of the poem: "Yet once more, O ye Laurels, and once more, / Ye Myrtles brown, with Ivy never sear, / / com to pluck your Berries harsh and crude" ( 1-3, my emphasis). Lycidas opens, and has continued...