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OF man’s first disobedience and the fruit | |
| Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste | |
| Brought death into the world and all our woe, | |
| With loss of Eden, till one greater Man | |
| Restore us and regain the blissful seat, | 5 |
| Sing, heavenly Muse, that on the secret top | |
| Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire | |
| That shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed, | |
| In the beginning how the heavens and earth | |
| Rose out of Chaos; or if Sion hill | 10 |
| Delight thee more, and Siloa’s brook that flowed | |
| Fast by the oracle of God; I thence | |
| Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song, | |
| That with no middle flight intends to soar | |
| Above the Aonian mount, while it pursues | 15 |
| Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. | |
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| And chiefly thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer | |
| Before all temples the upright heart and pure, | |
| Instruct me, for thou know’st; thou from the first | |
| Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread | 20 |
| Dove-like sat’st brooding on the vast abyss, | |
| And mad’st it pregnant: what in me is dark | |
| Illumine, what is low raise and support; | |
| That to the height of this great argument | |
| I may assert eternal Providence, | 25 |
| And justify the ways of God to men. | |
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