John Milton. (1608–1674). Complete Poems.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| A Paraphrase on Psalm CXIV |
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| (1624) |
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| WHEN the blest seed of Terah’s faithful Son | |
| After long toil their liberty had won, | |
| And passed from Pharian fields to Canaanland, | |
| Led by the strength of the Almighty’s hand, | |
| Jehovah’s wonders were in Israel shown, | 5 |
| His praise and glory was in Israel known. | |
| That saw the troubled sea, and shivering fled, | |
| And sought to hide his froth-becurlèd head | |
| Low in the earth; Jordan’s clear streams recoil, | |
| As a faint host that hath received the foil. | 10 |
| The high huge-bellied mountains skip like rams | |
| Amongst their ewes, the little hills like lambs. | |
| Why fled the ocean? and why skipped the mountains? | |
| Why turnèd Jordan toward his crystal fountains? | |
| Shake, Earth, and at the presence be aghast | 15 |
| Of Him that ever was and aye shall last, | |
| That glassy floods from rugged rocks can crush, | |
| And make soft rills from fiery flint-stones gush. | |
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