SOURCE: Carpenter, Nan Cooke. “Milton and Music: Henry Lawes, Dante, and Casella.” English Literary Renaissance 2 (spring 1972): 237-42.

In the following essay, Carpenter offers an interpretation of Milton's sonnet in praise of Lawes, arguing that the poem likens Lawes to Casella and the poet himself to Dante.

Several of Milton's sonnets, Italian and English, rely for effect upon musical allusions and overtones; only one (XIII) is completely musical—“To Mr. H. Lawes, on his Aires.” Although, at first reading, the sonnet seems to be typical laudatory verse, couched in the classical imagery beloved of Milton, closer attention to the poem reveals several puzzling matters never fully explained. If one looks deeply at the last three lines, especially, one finds ideas and techniques beneath the surface, which add immensely to the overall interest of the poem.

Facts of composition and publication of the poem, first of all, present something of...