...Thee, Shepherd, thee the woods, and desart caves With wild thyme and the gadding vine o'ergrown, *° And all their echoes mourn : The willows, and the...ear. Where were ye, Nymphs, when the remorseless deep Clos'd o'er the head of your lov'd Lycidas ? 51 For neither were ye playing on the steep, 1 Where your...

...! Thee, Shepherd, thee the woods, and desert caves With wild thyme and the gadding vine o'ergrown, And all their echoes, mourn : The willows and the...soft lays : — As killing as the canker to the rose, Or taint-worm to the weanling herds that graze, Or frost to flowers, that their gay wardrobe wear When...

...Thee, Shepherd, thee the woods, and desert caves, With wild thyme, and the gadding vine o'ergrown, And all their echoes mourn : The willows and the hazel...thy soft lays. As killing as the canker to the rose, Or taint-worm to the weanling herds that graze, Or frost to flowers, that their gay wardrobe wear,...

...return! Thee, shepherd, thee the woods, and desert caves With wild thyme and the gadding vine o'ergrown, And all their echoes mourn. The willows, and the hazel...thy soft lays. As killing as the canker to the rose, Or taint-worm to the weanling herds that graze, Or frost to flowers, that their gay wardrobe wear,...

...presents a three-line passage from Milton's Lycidas which describes one consequence of Lycidas's death: The willows and the hazel copses green Shall now no...seen. Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays. Although, he tells us, it is "merely a coincidence" when a perceptual closure coincides with a formal...

...woods, and desert caves. With wild thyme and the gadding vine o'ergrown, 40 And all their echoes moum. The willows and the hazel copses green Shall now no...thy soft lays. As killing as the canker to the rose, Or taint-worm to the weanling herds that graze, Or frost to flowers, that their gay wardrobe wear....

...in a process of starts and stops. Thus, in reading the following lines from Milton's "Lycidas" — The Willows and the Hazel Copses green Shall now no...seen, Fanning their joyous Leaves to thy soft lays — Fish says that the reader is constrained to stop at "seen," so that he interprets the passage to...

...return! Thee shepherd, thee the woods and desert caves With wilde thyme and the gadding vine o'ergrown And all their echoes mourn. The willows and the hazel...thy soft lays. As killing as the canker to the rose, Or taint-worm to the weanling herds that graze, Or frost to flowers that their gay wardrobe wear When...

...unthinking joy, satyrs and fauns dancing to the human shepherds' pipes, has been definitively severed. The willows and the hazel copses green Shall now no...seen Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays. (42-44) Such dancing and music-making with natural divinities recalls the similar idyllic pasts of...

...return! Thee Shepherd, thee the Woods, and desert Caves, With wild Thyme and the gadding Vine o'ergrown, And all their echoes mourn. The Willows and the Hazel...thy soft lays. As killing as the Canker to the Rose, Or Taint-worm to the weanling Herds that graze, Or frost to Flowers, that their gay wardrobe wear,...