On this day in 1637 Edward King, college friend of John Milton, was drowned at sea; three months later, Milton published his commemorative poem, "Lycidas." This is one of the major contributions to the elegiac tradition -- in the manner of Shelley's "Adonais" and Tennyson's "In Memoriam" -- but it may be most widely known for giving Thomas Wolfe the title to his first and most famous novel, three centuries later. Wolfe's title was almost Alone, Alone, borrowed, he said, "from the poem I like best, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner; then it evolved to O, Lost!; finally, when his publisher asked for something more inspired, Wolfe went to Milton ... FULL STORY »
