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Je n'aime pas dans les vieux films américains quand les conducteurs ne regardent pas la route. Et de ratage en ratage, on s'habitue à ne jamais dépasser le stade du brouillon. La vie n'est que l'interminable répétition d'une représentation qui n'aura jamais lieu.

L'Allegro (1645) - John Milton

These delights, if thee can give

Mirth with thee, I mean to live. 

Milton wrote this poem in concert with another that is of more melancholy bent; more on that later.  For now, I’ll just say that I find this poem to be less impressive than a lot of people do.  It’s essentially an exploration of a kind of joyous celebration and it’s hard to do that kind of thing in poetry without coming off as a little precious or twee.  Milton is talented enough to still get off some good lines and give most of the poem a genuinely happy feeling though, but it is kind of limited by the fact that there’s no real tension in the poem and no variation in the mood or tone.  This poem was probably written right after Milton’s graduation from college, so he was young and able to get carried away with exuberance, I suppose, but it’s just significantly a lesser poem than any of his other early classics.  2 ½ stars.

tl;dr – early Milton has some nice moments, but the exploration of happiness has no real tension or variation in tone to recommend it; definitely a lesser work, even among his early output.  2 ½ stars.   

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