Il Penseroso

Il Penseroso a lyric poem by John Milton is about melancholy reflection. Milton views melancholy as being so crucial to the creation of poetry that he likens it to a goddess whose beauty human senses are unable to discern. Instead she is depicted as having dark skin and wearing all-black clothing. Milton next describes Melancholy's heavenly pedigree asserting that she is the daughter of the Roman hearth goddess Vesta and her father Saturn who had ties to the element lead. This is done in a manner befitting of the Classical predecessors he emulates.