The speaker celebrates Vane, comparing him to a Roman senator who repelled enemies with "gowns not arms" (XVII, 3), as opposed to Cromwell and Fairfax, who preferred arms. Indeed, though Cromwell was champion of Puritanism on the battlefield, it was "on [Vane's] firm hand religion leans/In peace" (13-14). The speaker uses enjambment between 13 and 14 to emphasize the weight of religion leaning over one line into the next.
Vane, sharp in council, helped decide "whether to settle peace" (5) and "how war may be best, upheld" (8). Both his knowledge of peace and war come from an ability to balance what the speaker posits are the main "nerves" of each: for war, "Iron and Gold" (8), and for peace both "spiritual power and civil" (10). It's the wisdom and balance of both pairs that makes religion "[reckon him] her eldest son" (14).
-Conor
Continuing with the poem on "Vane"
ReplyDeleteThe very beginning of Milton's "To Sir Henry Vane the Younger" seems a contradiction. In his title Milton suggests that this poem is for Sir Vane, or that he is writing the poem for Vane, but the very first line starts with "Vane, young in years, but in sage counsel old". The title seems to be an address, but this poem is clearly not a personal piece of writing. Milton is writing a poem of praise for Vane or about Vane rather than directly writing to Vane.
Vane, although not a general, has a mastery of war. He is praised as having the ability to manipulate the "Iron and Gold" (8) of war, which also makes him an instrument of peace as he also knows how to stop the war.
Compared to the other two poems Vane is treated kindly. In the other two, Milton disillusions the reader with war and forces them to come to terms with the reality of war whereas in Vane's ode he keeps his praising tone sincere.