Prometheus
Byron’s “Prometheus” is a secular hymn to endurance — rebellion transfigured into human strengthening and proud dignity.
Theme
lyric (ode)
3 poems
lyric (ode)
L’Allegro (Selected Excerpts)
Milton’s ode to mirth celebrates festivity as a disciplined joy — pastoral song and theater shaping perception and virtue.
Il Penseroso (Selected Excerpts)
Milton’s companion ode to contemplation praises learned solitude, ritual, and vision as a humane counterbalance to mirth.