Shepherd
The shepherd speaks for the majority of the poem, singing about his grief for his dead friend, Lycidas. Milton models him off of the shepherds in pastoral poetry who enter into singing competitions with each other while mourning lost loves.
Lycidas
Lycidas is the subject of the speaker’s eulogy and Milton’s stand-in for his dead friend, Edward King. The name Lycidas comes from pastoral poetry. In the poems of Theocritus and Virgil, Lycidas often appears as a shepherd in singing competitions.
Phoebus
Phoebus is the Roman name for Apollo, a god in Greek mythology. He arrives to console the speaker, who wonders whether he should continue to write poetry. Though the speaker's poetry may or may not achieve fame on Earth, Apollo tells him that his poetry will be rewarded by fame in Heaven. Though Apollo is a Greek god, Milton uses him to articulate a Christian idea. This is one of many Christian-pagan fusions in “Lycidas.”
The Pilot
The "Pilot of the Galilean Lake" who arrives at the end of the funeral procession is St. Peter, one of Jesus's disciples. He’s identifiable by the two keys St. Peter always carries, which unlock the gates to Heaven and Hell. After St. Peter arrives, he delivers a tirade on the corruption of the church, describing the English clergy as bad shepherds. Many have found his speech strange and out of place in an elegy for the dead.
Second Speaker
In the last eight lines of the poem, the shepherd falls silent and a new speaker takes his place. The implication is that the second speaker has been there observing the entire scene. It is possible that he has narrated everything, quoting the shepherd’s song, or that he only begins speaking in the final stanza of the poem. Milton changes the meter of the poem to match the new speaker, switching from canzone to ottava rima (an eight-line stanza with 10 or 11 syllables per line).
