To Milton
MILTON! I think thy spirit hath passed away From these white cliffs, and high-embattled towers; This gorgeous fiery-coloured world of ours Seems fallen into ashes dull and grey, And the age changed unto a mimic play Wherein we waste our else too-crowded hours: For all our pomp and pageantry and powers We are but fit to delve the common clay, Seeing this little isle on which we stand, This England, this sea-lion of the sea, By ignorant demagogues is held in fee, Who love her not: Dear God! is this the land Which bare a triple empire in her hand When Cromwell spake the word Democracy!
To Milton - meaning Summary
England's Faded Grandeur
Addressing Milton, Wilde laments England’s decline from a once-magnificent, fiery world to a dull, diminished stage. He sees national grandeur reduced to ash by ignorant demagogues who rule without love for the country. The poem contrasts past imperial power and moral seriousness with a present triviality and decay, invoking Cromwell and the concept of democracy as markers of historical change and loss.
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