“Lycidas,” as an elegy, explores the nature of grief endured by the speaker, who is mourning the death of his friend. In recounting his loss and his memories of his friend, the speaker offers a portrait of both personal bereavement and a general meditation on the transience of life.

The expression of grief and a sense of loss are prominent in the elegy from the beginning. It is a “sad occasion” (Line 6) that prompts the speaker—the country swain—to pluck the laurels, myrtles, and ivy before they are ripe. Lycidas, taken before his time, must not go unmourned. The speaker identifies with Lycidas, recalling their shared memories: “For we were nurs’d upon the self-same hill / Fed the same flock, by fountain, shade, and rill” (Lines 23-24). The word “nurs’d” suggests from a very early age on; the word “Together” follows immediately (“Together both” [Line 25]) and is repeated just two lines later: “We drove afield, and both together heard / What time the gray-fly winds her sultry horn” (Lines 27-28). The emphasis is on their closeness, even inseparability, as the swain nostalgically recalls the happy, carefree days of youth as they tended their flocks and played their pipes (i.e., composed their poetry).