It seems that Milton intentionally crafted Lycidas to have parallels with Orpheus. He identified that in spite Orpheus' pastoral practice and virtue, he met a tragic fate. This essay seems to assert that Milton was grappling with the purpose of practicing pastoral virtue as a poet at the time and intended to express his plight in Lycidas while dedicating it to a fellow poet who also suffered a tragic fate that was of no moral consequence. I imagine these thoughts were pondered even more after Milton became blind.