It is nearly impossible to understand and appreciate John Milton's Il Penseroso without also having read its companion piece, L'Allegro. Many critics have speculated that Milton prefers the pensive melancholy celebrated in Il Penseroso because it represents the ascetic life of study, as opposed to L'Allegro 's emphasis on a Dionysian, pleasure-seeking lifestyle. Pure as the priest's, when robed in white he stands The fresh lustration ready in his hands. The poet who seeks to attain the highest level of creative expression must embrace the divine, which can only be accomplished by following the path set out in Il Penseroso.
Partial truth is inferior to complete truth.
Milton's invocation of the goddess Melancholy is reminiscent of his salutation to Mirth in L'Allegro, and sets up the parallel structure of the two poems. It is significant, then, that Il Penseroso has a companion. Katherine Lynch Il Penseroso. A brooding or melancholy person or personality. Hence vain deluding joyes.