132. Return, Alpheus. The Alpheus was a river of the Peloponnesus, said
to sink underground and to flow beneath the sea to Ortygia, near
Syracuse, where it attempted to mingle its waters with those of the
fountain Arethusa. See note on lines 85, 86. See also Shelley's poem,
Arethusa.

The pastoral tone of lightness and simplicity could not be maintained
while St. Peter spoke. But now the Sicilian Muse returns, all the more
lovely for the contrast with the stern malediction that has gone before.

134-151. Milton is fond of thus collecting names of persons, places, and
things, choosing them as well for their effect on the ear as for their
significance. The botany of this passage is of little consequence: it
matters not whether all these flowers could, or could not, be collected
at the same season, or whether they could be found at the time of the
year when Lycidas died. The passage offers a picture of exquisite beauty
to the eye, and to the ear a strain of perfect melody.

136. where the mild whispers use. The verb _use_, in this intransitive
sense, with only adverbial complement, and meaning _dwell_, is now
obsolete.

138. the swart star: the star that makes _swart_, or _swarthy; i.e._ the
sun.

139. enamelled eyes are the flowers generally, which are to be specified.
Scattered over the turf, the flowers seem to be looking upward, like
eyes.

142. rathe is the adjective whose comparative is our _rather_.

149. amaranthus, by its etymology, means _unfading_.

150. Daffadil is derived from _asphodel_, with a curious, and altogether
unusual, prefixed _d_.

153. dally with false surmise. King's body was not found. There was no
actual strewing of the laureate hearse with flowers.

156. the stormy Hebrides: islands off the northwest coast of Scotland.

160. Sleep'st by the fable of Bellerus old. The fable of Bellerus is the
fabled Bellerus, or Bellerus of the fable. He was a mythical giant of
Cornwall in old British legend. Bellerium was the name given to Land's
End, where he was supposed to live.

161. the great Vision of the guarded mount. St. Michael's Mount is a
pyramidal rock in Mounts Bay on the coast of Cornwall. This was guarded
by the angel, St. Michael, whose gaze was directed seaward, toward
Namancos and Bayona, in northwestern Spain. In some unknown place between
these widely sundered limits, the body of Lycidas is tossed.

170. with new-spangled ore. _Ore_, from its original meaning of metal in
the