ii Echo

John MiltonSeventeenth-century EnglishPoem

SWEET Echo, sweetest Nymph that liv’st unseen
Within thy airy shell
By slow Meander’s margent green,
And in the violet imbroider’d vale
Where the love-lorn Nightingale
Nightly to thee her sad Song mourneth well.
Canst thou not tell me of a gentle Pair
That likest thy Narcissus are?
O if thou have
Hid them in som flowry Cave,
Tell me but where
Sweet Queen of Parly, Daughter of the Sphear!
So maist thou be translated to the skies,
And give resounding grace to all Heav’ns Harmonies?

Cultural reading

Reading the poem

A singer calls on the nymph Echo, lists the green and violet places where she may be hidden, and asks her to tell where a 'gentle Pair' has been concealed, promising her a place among the harmonies of heaven.

Language notes

Text and edition

The heading 'ii Echo' combines an anthology section number with a label rather than an authorial title; the supplied text is a self-contained song presented as an anthology extract, without its surrounding context.