Such strains as would have won the ear
Of Pluto, to have quite set free
His half-regain’d Eurydice.
These delights, if thou canst give,
Mirth, with thee, I mean to live.

These lines come from John Milton’s early lyric poem “L’Allegro” (c. 1631), a companion piece to “Il Penseroso.” In “L’Allegro,” Milton invokes the spirit of Mirth and imagines an ideal day of cheerful, sociable pleasures—music, pastoral scenes, and festive entertainments—set against the learned, contemplative solitude praised in the paired poem. The quoted passage occurs as Milton turns to the power of music and song, imagining performances so moving they could rival the mythic musician Orpheus, whose playing nearly persuaded Pluto to release Eurydice from the underworld. Milton uses this classical allusion to elevate ordinary “delights” into a high poetic vision of joy.

Milton measures the height of mirthful art by comparing it to Orpheus’s legendary music—“strains” capable of softening even Pluto, ruler of the dead. The reference to Eurydice “half-regain’d” underscores how close beauty and pleasure can come to overcoming loss, while also hinting at the fragility of such victories. The closing couplet is a conditional vow: if Mirth can provide these refined pleasures—especially music with near-supernatural emotional force—then the speaker will choose a life aligned with joy, sociability, and aesthetic delight. The passage thus frames mirth not as mere frivolity but as an ennobling, civilizing power that can momentarily suspend the harshest realities.