On Shakespeare - John Milton

 

📖 "On Shakespeare" by John Milton — Detailed Study

1. 📜 Introduction to the Poem

  • Poem: On Shakespeare (sometimes titled "On Shakespeare. 1630")

  • Poet: John Milton

  • Written: Around 1630 (when Milton was only 21 years old)

  • Type: A tribute or elegy (a poem honoring someone after death)

  • About:
    The poem is Milton’s way of honoring William Shakespeare after his death.
    Milton praises Shakespeare’s genius, saying that his words are enough to make him immortal — he doesn’t need a fancy tomb or monument.

2. 📚 Summary of the Poem

  • Shakespeare is so great that he doesn’t need a big statue or a tomb made of marble.

  • His works (plays and poems) are his real memorial.

  • People who read Shakespeare’s works feel emotional — their hearts beat faster, they cry, they are amazed.

  • His writing creates a living monument — more powerful and lasting than stone.

  • Milton suggests that art and literature can make a person immortal.

3. 🏛️ Form and Structure

🔵 Form

  • Type:

    • A short elegy (poem of praise for a dead person).

    • Looks like a sonnet because it’s short, but it’s not a true sonnet.

  • Style:

    • Very formal.

    • Classical style — serious, respectful, grand.

  • Address:

    • Directly addresses Shakespeare’s memory.

🔵 Structure

  • One continuous paragraph (no stanza breaks).

  • 16 lines total.

  • Feels a little like a mixture between a sonnet and a classical ode.

4. 🥁 Meter

  • Main Meter:

    • Iambic Pentameter
      (Each line usually has 10 syllables: unstressed-stressed pattern — da-DUM ×5)

Example of the beat:

"What needs my Shakespeare for his honoured bones"

  • Variations:

    • Some small changes (like extra stresses) are there to keep it musical and grand.

    • Milton was famous for bending strict meter rules to sound more powerful.

5. ✨ Key Poetic Devices

  • Apostrophe: Milton directly speaks to Shakespeare, treating him as if he were alive and could hear him. This creates a personal and emotional connection between the poet and Shakespeare.

  • Metaphor: Shakespeare’s works are compared to a "live-long monument," meaning his writings keep his memory alive forever, much better than a physical tomb could.

  • Alliteration: Milton uses the repetition of consonant sounds, such as in the line "Thou in our wonder and astonishment," which gives the poem a musical and flowing sound.

  • Imagery: Milton describes emotions like the beating of hearts and people turning to marble because of too much admiration. These images make the feelings of awe and wonder very vivid for the reader.

  • Hyperbole: Milton exaggerates the emotional effect Shakespeare’s works have on people by saying they are "struck with admiration" and overwhelmed to the point of becoming statues themselves.

  • Classical references: Milton talks about tombs, statues, and marble monuments, connecting Shakespeare’s honor to the ancient way of memorializing great people in history.









6. 🎭 Tone and Mood

  • Tone:

    • Admiring, respectful, grand, serious.

  • Mood:

    • Awe, deep respect, timeless admiration.

7. 🎯 Major Themes

  • Art and Immortality:
    True greatness lives on through creative works, not through physical monuments.

  • Power of Literature:
    Literature can move hearts and minds more deeply than any building or statue.

  • Respect for Genius:
    Shakespeare’s imagination made him greater than kings or warriors.

8. 🔥 Important Quotes and Meanings

  • "What needs my Shakespeare for his honored bones / The labor of an age in piled stones?"
    → Shakespeare doesn’t need a grand tomb built with stones.

  • "Thou in our wonder and astonishment / Hast built thyself a live-long monument."
    → Through our amazement, Shakespeare has built a living monument (his works).

  • "Our fancy of itself bereaving / Doth make us marble with too much conceiving"
    → Our imagination turns us to stone, overwhelmed by the greatness of his works.

9. 🏁 Conclusion

In "On Shakespeare," Milton honours Shakespeare by saying that true art makes a person immortal.
No grand statue or expensive tomb is needed, because Shakespeare’s plays and poems live forever.
Milton uses iambic pentameter, rich imagery, and a formal, classical style to create a short but powerful tribute to one of the greatest writers in English literature.


📖 "On Shakespeare" — Line-by-Line Explanation

1. What needs my Shakespeare for his honored bones
👉 Why does Shakespeare need a grand tomb or any huge monument for his remains?

2. The labor of an age in piled stones?
👉 Does he need people to spend years building a stone monument for him?

3. Or that his hallowed relics should be hid
👉 Should Shakespeare’s holy remains (his body) be hidden away

4. Under a star-ypointing pyramid?
👉 Under a giant pyramid that points up to the stars (like ancient Egyptian tombs)?

5. Dear son of Memory, great heir of Fame,
👉 Shakespeare, you are the beloved child of Memory (meaning you are remembered forever) and the true owner of everlasting fame.

6. What need’st thou such weak witness of thy name?
👉 Why do you need such weak proof (like a stone monument) to show your greatness?

7. Thou in our wonder and astonishment
👉 Through our amazement and admiration of your works,

8. Hast built thyself a live-long monument.
👉 You have built yourself a monument that will live forever — through your plays and poems!

9. For whilst to th' shame of slow-endeavoring art,
👉 Because while slow, ordinary art struggles to build monuments (like statues),

10. Thy easy numbers flow, and that each heart
👉 Your beautiful and effortless poetry flows out naturally, and every heart

11. Hath from the leaves of thy unvalued book
👉 Has received emotions by reading the pages of your priceless book (your writings).

12. Those Delphic lines with deep impression took;
👉 Your prophetic and wise lines (like the words from the Oracle of Delphi) have left a deep effect on everyone.

13. Then thou our fancy of itself bereaving,
👉 You have stolen our imagination away with your greatness,

14. Dost make us marble with too much conceiving;
👉 You make us frozen and still (like marble statues) because we are overwhelmed with so many thoughts and emotions.

15. And so sepulchered in such pomp dost lie,
👉 Therefore, you are buried (in memory) with great honor and glory,

16. That kings for such a tomb would wish to die.
👉 So grand is your living memorial that even kings would wish to have such a tomb for themselves!

🎯 In Short:

Milton says that Shakespeare’s genius and writing have made him immortal.
No need for a fancy tomb — his works are a better, living monument than any building!


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