|
OF MANS 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 Siloas brook that flowed | |
Fast by the oracle of God, I thence | |
Invoke thy aid to my adventrous song, | |
That with no middle flight intends to soar | |
Above the Aonian mount, while it pursues | 15 |
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. | |
And chiefly Thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer | |
Before all temples the upright heart and pure, | |
Instruct me, for Thou knowst; Thou from the first | |
Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread, | 20 |
Dove-like satst brooding on the vast Abyss, | |
And madst it pregnant: what in me is dark | |
Illumine, what is low raise and support; | |
That, to the highth of this great argument, | |
I may assert Eternal Providence, | 25 |
And justify the ways of God to men. | |
Say firstfor Heaven hides nothing from thy view, | |
Nor the deep tract of Hellsay first what cause | |
Moved our grand Parents, in that happy state, | |
Favoured of Heaven so highly, to fall off | 30 |
From their Creator, and transgress his will | |
For one restraint, lords of the World besides. | |
Who first seduced them to that foul revolt? | |
The infernal Serpent; he it was whose guile, | |
Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived | 35 |
The mother of mankind, what time his pride | |
Had cast him out from Heaven, with all his host | |
Of rebel Angels, by whose aid, aspiring | |
To set himself in glory above his peers, | |
He trusted to have equalled the Most High, | 40 |
If he opposed, and, with ambitious aim | |
Against the throne and monarchy of God, | |
Raised impious war in Heaven and battle proud, | |
With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power | |
Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky, | 45 |
With hideous ruin and combustion, down | |
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell | |
In adamantine chains and penal fire, | |
Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms. | |
Nine times the space that measures day and night | 50 |
To mortal men, he, with his horrid crew, | |
Lay vanquished, rowling in the fiery gulf, | |
Confounded, though immortal. But his doom | |
Reserved him to more wrath; for now the thought | |
Both of lost happiness and lasting pain | 55 |
Torments him: round he throws his baleful eyes, | |
That witnessed huge affliction and dismay, | |
Mixed with obdurate pride and steadfast hate. | |
At once, as far as Angels ken, he views | |
The dismal situation waste and wild. | 60 |
A dungeon horrible, on all sides round, | |
As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames | |
No light; but rather darkness visible | |
Served only to discover sights of woe, | |
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace | 65 |
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes | |
That comes to all, but torture without end | |
Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed | |
With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed. | |
Such place Eternal Justice had prepared | 70 |
For those rebellious; here their prison ordained | |
In utter darkness, and their portion set, | |
As far removed from God and light of Heaven | |
As from the centre thrice to the utmost pole. | |
Oh how unlike the place from whence they fell! | 75 |
There the companions of his fall, oerwhelmed | |
With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire, | |
He soon discerns; and, weltering by his side, | |
One next himself in power, and next in crime, | |
Long after known in Palestine, and named | 80 |
Beëlzebub. To whom the Arch-Enemy, | |
And thence in Heaven called Satan, with bold words | |
Breaking the horrid silence, thus began: | |
If thou beest hebut Oh how fallen! how changed | |
From him!who, in the happy realms of light, | 85 |
Clothed with transcendent brightness, didst outshine | |
Myriads, though brightif he whom mutual league, | |
United thoughts and counsels, equal hope | |
And hazard in the glorious enterprise, | |
Joined with me once, now misery hath joined | 90 |
In equal ruin; into what pit thou seest | |
From what highth fallen: so much the stronger proved | |
He with his thunder: and till then who knew | |
The force of those dire arms? Yet not for those, | |
Nor what the potent Victor in his rage | 95 |
Can else inflict, do I repent, or change, | |
Though changed in outward lustre, that fixed mind, | |
And high disdain from sense of injured merit, | |
That with the Mightiest raised me to contend, | |
And to the fierce contention brought along | 100 |
Innumerable force of Spirits armed, | |
That durst dislike his reign, and, me preferring, | |
His utmost power with adverse power opposed | |
In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven, | |
And shook his throne. What though the field be lost? | 105 |
All is not lostthe unconquerable will, | |
And study of revenge, immortal hate, | |
And courage never to submit or yield: | |
And what is else not to be overcome. | |
That glory never shall his wrath or might | 110 |
Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace | |
With suppliant knee, and deify his power | |
Who, from the terror of this arm, so late | |
Doubted his empirethat were low indeed; | |
That were an ignominy and shame beneath | 115 |
This downfall; since, by fate, the strength of Gods, | |
And this empyreal substance, cannot fail; | |
Since, through experience of this great event, | |
In arms not worse, in foresight much advanced, | |
We may with more successful hope resolve | 120 |
To wage by force or guile eternal war, | |
Irreconcilable to our grand Foe, | |
Who now triumphs, and in the excess of joy | |
Sole reigning holds the tyranny of Heaven. | |
So spake the apostate Angel, though in pain, | 125 |
Vaunting aloud, but racked with deep despair; | |
And him thus answered soon his bold Compeer; | |
O Prince, O Chief of many thronèd Powers | |
That led the embattled Seraphim to war | |
Under thy conduct, and, in dreadful deeds | 130 |
Fearless, endangered Heavens perpetual King, | |
And put to proof his high supremacy, | |
Whether upheld by strength, or chance, or fate! | |
Too well I see and rue the dire event | |
That, with sad overthrow and foul defeat, | 135 |
Hath lost us Heaven, and all this mighty host | |
In horrible destruction laid thus low, | |
As far as Gods and Heavenly Essences | |
Can perish: for the mind and spirit remains | |
Invincible, and vigour soon returns, | 140 |
Though all our glory extinct, and happy state | |
Here swallowed up in endless misery. | |
But what if He our Conqueror (whom I now | |
Of force believe Almighty, since no less | |
Than such could have oerpowered such force as ours) | 145 |
Have left us this our spirit and strength entire, | |
Strongly to suffer and support our pains, | |
That we may so suffice his vengeful ire, | |
Or do him mightier service as his thralls | |
By right of war, whateer his business be, | 150 |
Here in the heart of Hell to work in fire, | |
Or do errands in the gloomy Deep? | |
What can it then avail though yet we feel | |
Strength undiminished, or eternal being | |
To undergo eternal punishment? | 155 |
Whereto with speedy words the Arch-Fiend replied: | |
Fallen Cherub, to be weak is miserable, | |
Doing or suffering: but of this be sure | |
To do aught good never will be our task, | |
But ever to do ill our sole delight, | 160 |
As being the contrary to His high will | |
Whom we resist. If then His providence | |
Out of our evil seek to bring forth good, | |
Our labour must be to pervert that end, | |
And out of good still to find means of evil; | 165 |
Which ofttimes may succeed so as perhaps | |
Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb | |
His inmost counsels from their destined aim. | |
But see! the angry Victor hath recalled | |
His ministers of vengeance and pursuit | 170 |
Back to the gates of Heaven: the sulphurous hail, | |
Shot after us in storm, oerblown hath laid | |
The fiery surge that from the precipice | |
Of Heaven received us falling; and the thunder, | |
Winged with red lightning and impetuous rage, | 175 |
Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now | |
To bellow through the vast and boundless Deep. | |
Let us not slip the occasion, whether scorn | |
Or satiate fury yield it from our Foe. | |
Seest thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild, | 180 |
The seat of desolation, void of light, | |
Save what the glimmering of these livid flames | |
Casts pale and dreadful? Thither let us tend | |
From off the tossing of these fiery waves; | |
There rest, if any rest can harbour there; | 185 |
And, re-assembling our afflicted powers, | |
Consult how we may henceforth most offend | |
Our Enemy, our own loss how repair, | |
How overcome this dire calamity, | |
What reinforcement we may gain from hope, | 190 |
If not what resolution from despair. | |
Thus Satan, talking to his nearest Mate, | |
With head uplift above the wave, and eyes | |
That sparkling blazed; his other parts besides | |
Prone on the flood, extended long and large, | 195 |
Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as huge | |
As whom the fables name of monstrous size, | |
Titanian or Earth-born, that warred on Jove, | |
Briareos or Typhon, whom the den | |
By ancient Tarsus held, or that sea-beast | 200 |
Leviathan, which God of all his works | |
Created hugest that swim the ocean-stream. | |
Him, haply slumbering on the Norway foam, | |
The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff, | |
Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell, | 205 |
With fixèd anchor in his scaly rind, | |
Moors by his side under the lee, while night | |
Invests the sea, and wishèd morn delays. | |
So stretched out huge in length the Arch-Fiend lay, | |
Chained on the burning lake; nor ever thence | 210 |
Had risen, or heaved his head, but that the will | |
And high permission of all-ruling Heaven | |
Left him at large to his own dark designs, | |
That with reiterated crimes he might | |
Heap on himself damnation, while he sought | 215 |
Evil to others, and enraged might see | |
How all his malice served but to bring forth | |
Infinite goodness, grace, and mercy, shewn | |
On Man by him seduced, but on himself | |
Treble confusion, wrath, and vengeance poured. | 220 |
Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool | |
His mighty stature; on each hand the flames | |
Driven backward slope their pointing spires, and, rowled | |
In billows, leave i the midst a horrid vale. | |
Then with expanded wings he steers his flight | 225 |
Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air, | |
That felt unusual weight; till on dry land | |
He lightsif it were land that ever burned | |
With solid, as the lake with liquid fire, | |
And such appeared in hue as when the force | 230 |
Of subterranean wind transports a hill | |
Torn from Pelorus, or the shattered side | |
Of thundering Ætna, whose combustible | |
And fuelled entrails, thence conceiving fire, | |
Sublimed with mineral fury, aid the winds, | 235 |
And leave a singèd bottom all involved | |
With stench and smoke. Such resting found the sole | |
Of unblest feet. Him followed his next Mate; | |
Both glorying to have scaped the Stygian flood | |
As gods, and by their own recovered strength, | 240 |
Not by the sufferance of supernal power. | |
Is this the region, this the soil, the clime, | |
Said then the lost Archangel, this the seat | |
That we must change for Heaven?this mournful gloom | |
For that celestial light? Be it so, since He | 245 |
Who now is sovran can dispose and bid | |
What shall be right: fardest from Him is best, | |
Whom reason hath equalled, force hath made supreme | |
Above his equals. Farewell, happy fields, | |
Where joy forever dwells! Hail, horrors! hail, | 250 |
Infernal World! and thou, profoundest Hell, | |
Receive thy new possessorone who brings | |
A mind not to be changed by place or time. | |
The mind is its own place, and in itself | |
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. | 255 |
What matter where, if I be still the same, | |
And what I should be, all but less than he | |
Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least | |
We shall be free; the Almighty hath not built | |
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: | 260 |
Here we may reign secure; and, in my choice, | |
To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell: | |
Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. | |
But wherefore let we then our faithful friends, | |
The associates and co-partners of our loss, | 265 |
Lie thus astonished on the oblivious pool, | |
And call them not to share with us their part | |
In this unhappy mansion, or once more | |
With rallied arms to try what may be yet | |
Regained in Heaven, or what more lost in Hell? | 270 |
So Satan spake; and him Beëlzebub | |
Thus answered:Leader of those armies bright | |
Which, but the Omnipotent, none could have foiled! | |
If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge | |
Of hope in fears and dangersheard so oft | 275 |
In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge | |
Of battle, when it raged, in all assaults | |
Their surest signalthey will soon resume | |
New courage and revive, though now they lie | |
Grovelling and prostrate on yon lake of fire, | 280 |
As we erewhile, astounded and amazed; | |
No wonder, fallen such a pernicious highth! | |
He scarce had ceased when the superior Fiend | |
Was moving toward the shore; his ponderous shield, | |
Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round, | 285 |
Behind him cast. The broad circumference | |
Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb | |
Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views | |
At evening, from the top of Fesolè, | |
Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, | 290 |
Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe. | |
His spearto equal which the tallest pine | |
Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast | |
Of some great Ammiral, were but a wand | |
He walked with, to support uneasy steps | 295 |
Over the burning marle, not like those steps | |
On Heavens azure; and the torrid clime | |
Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with fire. | |
Nathless he so endured, till on the beach | |
Of that inflamèd sea he stood, and called | 300 |
His legionsAngel Forms, who lay entranced | |
Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks | |
In Vallombrosa, where the Etrurian shades | |
High over-arched imbower; or scattered sedge | |
Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion armed | 305 |
Hath vexed the Red-Sea coast, whose waves oerthrew | |
Busiris and his Memphian chivalry, | |
While with perfidious hatred they pursued | |
The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld | |
From the safe shore their floating carcases | 310 |
And broken chariot-wheels. So thick bestrown, | |
Abject and lost, lay these, covering the flood, | |
Under amazement of their hideous change. | |
He called so loud that all the hollow deep | |
Of Hell resounded:Princes, Potentates, | 315 |
Warriors, the Flower of Heavenonce yours; now lost, | |
If such astonishment as this can seize | |
Eternal Spirits! Or have ye chosen this place | |
After the toil of battle to repose | |
Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find | 320 |
To slumber here, as in the vales of Heaven? | |
Or in this abject posture have ye sworn | |
To adore the Conqueror, who now beholds | |
Cherub and Seraph rowling in the flood | |
With scattered arms and ensigns, till anon | 325 |
His swift pursuers from Heaven-gates discern | |
The advantage, and, descending tread us down | |
Thus drooping, or with linkèd thunderbolts | |
Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf? | |
Awake, arise, or be for ever fallen! | 330 |
They heard, and were abashed, and up they sprung | |
Upon the wing, as when men wont to watch, | |
On duty sleeping found by whom they dread, | |
Rouse and bestir themselves ere well awake. | |
Nor did they not perceive the evil plight | 335 |
In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel; | |
Yet to their Generals voice they soon obeyed | |
Innumerable. As when the potent rod | |
Of Amrams son, in Egypts evil day, | |
Waved round the coast, up-called a pitchy cloud | 340 |
Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind, | |
That oer the realm of impious Pharaoh hung | |
Like Night, and darkened all the land of Nile; | |
So numberless were those bad Angels seen | |
Hovering on wing under the cope of Hell, | 345 |
Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding fires; | |
Till, as a signal given, the uplifted spear | |
Of their great Sultan waving to direct | |
Their course, in even balance down they light | |
On the firm brimstone, and fill the plain: | 350 |
A multitude like which the populous North | |
Poured never from her frozen loins to pass | |
Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous sons | |
Came like a deluge on the South, and spread | |
Beneath Gibraltar to the Libyan sands. | 355 |
Forthwith, from every squadron and each band, | |
The heads and leaders thither haste where stood | |
Their great Commandergodlike Shapes, and Forms | |
Excelling human; princely Dignities; | |
And powers that erst in Heaven sat on thrones, | 360 |
Though of their names in Heavenly records now | |
Be no memorial, blotted out and rased | |
By their rebellion from the Books of Life. | |
Nor had they yet among the sons of Eve | |
Got them new names, till, wondering oer the earth, | 365 |
Through Gods high sufferance for the trial of man, | |
By falsities and lies the greatest part | |
Of mankind they corrupted to forsake | |
God their Creator, and the invisible | |
Glory of Him that made them to transform | 370 |
Oft to the image of a brute, adorned | |
With gay religions full of pomp and gold, | |
And devils to adore for deities: | |
Then were they known to men by various names, | |
And various idols through the heathen world. | 375 |
Say, Muse, their names then known, who first, who last, | |
Roused from the slumber on that fiery couch, | |
At their great Emperors call, as next in worth | |
Came singly where he stood on the bare strand, | |
While the promiscuous crowd stood yet aloof. | 380 |
The chief were those who, from the pit of Hell | |
Roaming to seek their prey on Earth, durst fix | |
Their seats, long after, next the seat of God, | |
Their altars by His altar, gods adored | |
Among the nations round, and durst abide | 385 |
Jehovah thundering out of Sion, throned | |
Between the Cherubim; yea, often placed | |
Within His sanctuary itself their shrines, | |
Abominations; and with cursed things | |
His holy rites and solemn feasts profaned, | 390 |
And with their darkness durst affront His light. | |
First, Moloch, horrid King, besmeared with blood | |
Of human sacrifice, and parents tears; | |
Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud, | |
Their childrens cries unheard that passed through fire | 395 |
To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite | |
Worshiped in Rabba and her watery plain, | |
In Argob and in Basan, to the stream | |
Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such | |
Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart | 400 |
Of Solomon he led by fraud to build | |
His temple right against the temple of God | |
On that opprobrious hill, and made his grove | |
The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence | |
And black Gehenna called, the type of Hell. | 405 |
Next Chemos, the obscene dread of Moabs sons, | |
From Aroar to Nebo and the wild | |
Of southmost Abarim; in Hesebon | |
And Horonaim, Seons realm, beyond | |
The flowery dale of Sibma clad with vines, | 410 |
And Elealè to the Asphaltick Pool: | |
Peor his other name, when he enticed | |
Israel in Sittim, on their march from Nile, | |
To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe. | |
Yet thence his lustful orgies he enlarged | 415 |
Even to that hill of scandal, by the grove | |
Of Moloch homicide, lust hard by hate, | |
Till good Josiah drove them thence to Hell. | |
With these came they who, from the bordering flood | |
Of old Euphrates to the brook that parts | 420 |
Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names | |
Of Baalim and Ashtaroththose male, | |
These feminine. For Spirits, when they please, | |
Can either sex assume, or both; so soft | |
And uncompounded is their essence pure, | 425 |
Not tied or manacled with joint or limb, | |
Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones, | |
Like cumbrous flesh; but, in what shape they choose, | |
Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure, | |
Can execute their aery purposes, | 430 |
And works of love or enmity fulfil. | |
For those the race of Israel oft forsook | |
Their Living Strength, and unfrequented left | |
His righteous altar, bowing lowly down | |
To bestial gods; for which their heads, as low | 435 |
Bowed down in battle, sunk before the spear | |
Of despicable foes. With these in troop | |
Came Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians called | |
Astarte, queen of heaven, with cresent horns; | |
To whose bright image nightly by the moon | 440 |
Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs; | |
In Sion also not unsung, where stood | |
Her temple on the offensive mountain, built | |
By that uxorious king whose heart, though large, | |
Beguiled by fair idolatresses, fell | 445 |
To idols foul. Thammuz came next behind, | |
Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured | |
The Syrian damsels to lament his fate | |
In amorous ditties all a summers day, | |
While smooth Adonis from his native rock | 450 |
Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood | |
Of Thammuz yearly wounded: the love-tale | |
Infected Sions daughters with like heat, | |
Whose wanton passions in the sacred porch | |
Ezekiel saw, when, by the vision led, | 455 |
His eye surveyed the dark idolatries | |
Of alienated Judah. Next came one | |
Who mourned in earnest, when the captive Ark | |
Maimed his brute image, head and hands lopt off, | |
In his own temple, on the grunsel-edge, | 460 |
Where he fell flat and shamed his worshipers: | |
Dagon his name, sea-monster, upward man | |
And downward fish; yet had his temple high | |
Reared in Azotus, dreaded through the coast | |
Of Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon, | 465 |
And Accaron and Gazas frontier bounds. | |
Him followed Rimmon, whose delightful seat | |
Was fair Damascus, on the fertile banks | |
Of Abbana and Pharphar, lucid streams. | |
He also against the house of God was bold: | 470 |
A leper once he lost, and gained a king | |
Ahaz, his sottish conqueror, whom he drew | |
Gods altar to disparage and displace | |
For one of Syrian mode, whereon to burn | |
His odious offerings, and adore the gods | 475 |
Whom he had vanquished. After these appeared | |
A crew who, under names of old renown | |
Osiris, Isis, Orus, and their train | |
With monstrous shapes and sorceries abused | |
Fanatic Egypt and her priests to seek | 480 |
Their wandering gods disguised in brutish forms | |
Rather than human. Nor did Israel scape | |
The infection, when their borrowed gold composed | |
The calf in Oreb; and the rebel king | |
Doubled that sin in Bethel and in Dan, | 485 |
Likening his Maker to the grazèd ox | |
Jehovah, who, in one night, when he passed | |
From Egypt marching, equalled with one stroke | |
Both her first-born and all her bleating gods. | |
Belial came last; than whom a Spirit more lewd | 490 |
Fell not from Heaven, or more gross to love, | |
Vice for itself. To him no temple stood | |
Or altar smoked; yet who more oft than he | |
In temples and at altars, when the priest | |
Turns atheist, as did Elis sons, who filled | 495 |
With lust and violence the house of God? | |
In courts and palaces he also reigns, | |
And in luxurious cities, where the noise | |
Of riot ascends above their loftiest towers, | |
And injury and outrage; and, when night | 500 |
Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons | |
Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine. | |
Witness the streets of Sodom, and that night | |
In Gibeah, when the hospitable door | |
Exposed a matron, to avoid worse rape. | 505 |
These were the prime in order and in might: | |
The rest were long to tell; though far renowned | |
The Ionian godsof Javans issue held | |
Gods, yet confessed later than Heaven and Earth, | |
Their boasted parents;Titan, Heavens first-born, | 510 |
With his enormous brood, and birthright seized | |
By younger Saturn: he from mightier Jove, | |
His own and Rheas son, like measure found; | |
So Jove unsurping reigned. These, first in Crete | |
And Ida known, thence on the snowy top | 515 |
Of cold Olympus ruled the middle air, | |
Their highest heaven; or on the Delphian cliff, | |
Or in Dodona, and through all the bounds | |
Of Doric land; or who with Saturn old | |
Fled over Adria to the Hesperian fields, | 520 |
And oer the Celtic roamed the utmost Isles. | |
All these and more came flocking; but with looks | |
Downcast and damp; yet such wherein appeared | |
Obscure some glimpse of joy to have found their Chief | |
Not in despair, to have found themselves not lost | 525 |
In loss itself; which on his countenance cast | |
Like doubtful hue. But he, his wonted pride | |
Soon recollecting, with high words, that bore | |
Semblance of worth, nor substance, gently raised | |
Their fainting courage, and dispelled their fears: | 530 |
Then straight commands that, at the war-like sound | |
Of trumpets loud and clarions, be upreared | |
His mighty standard. That proud honour claimed | |
Azazel as his right, a Cherub tall: | |
Who forthwith from the glittering staff unfurled | 535 |
The imperial ensign; which, full high advanced, | |
Shon like a meteor streaming to the wind, | |
With gems and golden lustre rich imblazed, | |
Seraphic arms and trophies; all the while | |
Sonorous metal blowing martial sounds: | 540 |
At which the universal host up-sent | |
A shout that tore Hells concave, and beyond | |
Frighted the reign of Chaos and old Night. | |
All in a moment through the gloom were seen | |
Ten thousand banners rise into the air, | 545 |
With orient colours waving: with them rose | |
A forest huge of spears; and thronging helms | |
Appeared, and serried shields in thick array | |
Of depth immeasurable. Anon they move | |
In perfect phalanx to the Dorian mood | 550 |
Of flutes and soft recorderssuch as raised | |
To highth of noblest temper heroes old | |
Arming to battle, and instead of rage | |
Deliberate valour breathed, firm, and unmoved | |
With dread of death to flight or foul retreat; | 555 |
Nor wanting power to mitigate and swage | |
With solemn touches troubled thoughts, and chase | |
Anguish and doubt and fear and sorrow and pain | |
From mortal or immortal minds. Thus they, | |
Breathing united force with fixed thought, | 560 |
Moved on in silence to soft pipes that charmed | |
Their painful steps oer the burnt soil. And now | |
Advanced in view they standa horrid front | |
Of dreadful length and dazzling arms, in guise | |
Of warriors old, with ordered spear and shield, | 565 |
Awaiting what command their mighty Chief | |
Had to impose. He through the armed files | |
Darts his experienced eye, and soon traverse | |
The whole battalion viewstheir order due, | |
Their visages and stature as of Gods; | 570 |
Their number last he sums. And now his heart | |
Distends with pride, and, hardening in his strength, | |
Glories: for never, since created Man, | |
Met such imbodied force as, named with these, | |
Could merit more than that small infantry | 575 |
Warred on by cranesthough all the giant brood | |
Of Phlegra with the heroic race were joined | |
That fought at Thebes and Ilium, on each side | |
Mixed with auxiliar gods; and what resounds | |
In fable or romance of Uthers son, | 580 |
Begirt with British and Armoric knights; | |
And all who since, baptized or infidel, | |
Jousted in Aspramont, or Montalban, | |
Damasco, or Marocco, or Trebisond, | |
Or whom Biserta sent from Afric shore | 585 |
When Charlemain with all his peerage fell | |
By Fontarabbia. Thus far these beyond | |
Compare of mortal prowess, yet observed | |
Their dread Commander. He, above the rest | |
In shape and gesture proudly eminent, | 590 |
Stood like a tower. His form had yet not lost | |
All her original brightness, nor appeared | |
Less than Archangel ruined, and the excess | |
Of glory obscured: as when the sun new-risen | |
Looks through the horizontal misty air | 595 |
Shorn of his beams, or, from behind the moon, | |
In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds | |
On half the nations, and with fear of change | |
Perplexes monarchs. Darkened so, yet shon | |
Above them all the Archangel: but his face | 600 |
Deep scars of thunder had intrenched, and care | |
Sat on his faded cheek, but under brows | |
Of dauntless courage, and considerate pride | |
Waiting revenge. Cruel his eye, but cast | |
Signs of remorse and passion, to behold | 605 |
The fellows of his crime, the followers rather | |
(Far other once beheld in bliss), condemned | |
For ever now to have their lot in pain | |
Millions of Spirits for his fault amerced | |
Of Heaven, and from eternal splendours flung | 610 |
For his revoltyet faithful how they stood, | |
Their glory withered; as, when heavens fire | |
Hath scathed the forest oaks or mountain pines, | |
With singèd top their stately growth, though bare, | |
Stands on the blasted heath. He now prepared | 615 |
To speak; whereat their doubled ranks they bend | |
From wing to wing, and half enclose him round | |
With all his peers: Attention held them mute. | |
Thrice he assayed, and thrice, in spite of scorn, | |
Tears, such as Angels weep, burst forth: at last | 620 |
Words interwove with sighs found out their way: | |
O myriads of immortal Spirits! O Powers | |
Matchless, but with the Almighty!and that strife | |
Was not inglorious, though the event was dire, | |
As this place testifies, and this dire change, | 625 |
Hateful to utter. But what power of mind, | |
Foreseeing or presaging, from the depth | |
Of knowledge past or present, could have feared | |
How such united force of gods, how such | |
As stood like these, could ever know repulse? | 630 |
For who can yet believe, though after loss, | |
That all these puissant legions, whose exile | |
Hath emptied Heaven, shall fail to reascend, | |
Self-raised, and re-possess their native seat? | |
For me, be witness all the host of Heaven, | 635 |
If counsels different, or danger shunned | |
By me, have lost our hopes. But he who reigns | |
Monarch in Heaven till then as one secure | |
Sat on his throne, upheld by old repute, | |
Consent or custom, and his regal state | 640 |
Put forth at full, but still his strength concealed | |
Which tempted our attempt, and wrought our fall. | |
Henceforth his might we know, and know our own, | |
So as not either to provoke, or dread | |
New war provoked: our better part remains | 645 |
To work in close design, by fraud or guile, | |
What force effected not; that he no less | |
At length from us may find, Who overcomes | |
By force hath overcome but half his foe. | |
Space may produce new Worlds; whereof so rife | 650 |
There went a fame in Heaven that He ere long | |
Intended to create, and therein plant | |
A generation whom his choice regard | |
Should favour equal to the Sons of Heaven. | |
Thither, if but to pry, shall be perhaps | 655 |
Our first eruptionthither, or elsewhere; | |
For this infernal pit shall never hold | |
Cælestial Spirits in bondage, nor the Abyss | |
Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts | |
Full counsel must mature. Peace is despaired; | 660 |
For who can think submission? War, then, war | |
Open or understood, must be resolved. | |
He spake; and, to confirm his words, out-flew | |
Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs | |
Of mighty Cherubim; the sudden blaze | 665 |
Far around illumined Hell. Highly they raged | |
Again the Highest and fierce with graspèd arms | |
Clashed on their sounding shields the din of war, | |
Hurling defiance toward the vault of Heaven. | |
There stood a hill not far, whose griesly top | 670 |
Belched fire and rowling smoke; the rest entire | |
Shown with a glossy scurfundoubted sign | |
That in his womb was hid metallic ore, | |
The work of sulphur. Thither, winged with speed, | |
A numerous brigad hastened: as when bands | 675 |
Of pioners, with spade and pickaxe armed, | |
Forerun the royal camp, to trench a field, | |
Or cast a rampart. Mammon led them on | |
Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell | |
From Heaven; for even in Heaven his looks and thoughts | 680 |
Were always downward bent, admiring more | |
The riches of Heavens pavement, trodden gold, | |
Than aught divine or holy else enjoyed | |
In vision beatific. By him first | |
Men also, and by suggestion taught | 685 |
Ransacked the Centre, and with impious hands | |
Rifled the bowels of their mother Earth | |
For treasures better hid. Soon had his crew | |
Opened into the hill a spacious wound, | |
And digged out ribs of gold. Let none admire | 690 |
That riches grow in Hell: that soil may best | |
Deserve the pretious bane. And here let those | |
Who boast in mortal things, and wondering tell | |
Of Babel and the works of Memphian kings, | |
Learn how their greatest monuments of fame, | 695 |
And strength, and art, are easily outdone | |
By Spirits reprobate, and in an hour | |
What in an age they, with incessant toil | |
And hands innumerable, scarce perform. | |
Nigh on the plain, in many cells prepared, | 700 |
That underneath had veins of liquid fire | |
Sluiced from the lake, a second multitude | |
With wondrous art founded the massy ore, | |
Severing each kind, and scummed the bullion-dross. | |
A third as soon had formed within the ground | 705 |
A various mould, and from the boiling cells | |
By strange conveyance filled each hollow nook; | |
As in an organ, from one blast of wind, | |
To many a row of pipes the sound-board breathes. | |
Anon out of the earth a fabric huge | 710 |
Rose like an exhalation, with the sound | |
Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet | |
Built like a temple, where pilasters round | |
Were set, and Doric pillars overlaid | |
With golden architrave; nor did there want | 715 |
Cornice or frieze, with bossy sculptures graven: | |
The roof was fretted gold. Not Babilon | |
Nor great Alcairo such magnificence | |
Equalled in all their glories, to inshrine | |
Belus or Serapis their gods, or seat | 720 |
Their kings, when Ægypt with Assyria strove | |
In wealth and luxury. The ascending pile | |
Stood fixed her stately highth; and straight the doors | |
Opening their brazen folds, discover, wide | |
Within, her ample spaces oer the smooth | 725 |
And level pavement: from the arched roof, | |
Pendent by subtle magic, many a row | |
Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed | |
With naphtha and asphaltus, yielded light | |
As from a sky. The hasty multitude | 730 |
Admiring entered; and the work some praise, | |
And some the Architect. His hand was known | |
In Heaven by many a towered structure high, | |
Where sceptred Angels held their residence, | |
And sat as Princes, whom the supreme King | 735 |
Exalted to such power, and gave to rule, | |
Each in his hierarchy, the Orders bright. | |
Nor was his name unheard or unadored | |
In ancient Greece; and in Ausonian land | |
Men called him Mulciber; and how he fell | 740 |
From Heaven they fabled, thrown by angry Jove | |
Sheer oer the crystal battlements: from morn | |
To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, | |
A summers day, and with the setting sun | |
Dropt from the zenith, like a falling star, | 745 |
On Lemnos, the Ægæan isle. Thus they relate, | |
Erring; for he with this rebellious rout | |
Fell long before; nor aught availed him now | |
To have built in Heaven high towers; nor did he scape | |
By all his engines, but was headlong sent, | 750 |
With his industrious crew, to build in Hell. | |
Meanwhile the wingèd Haralds, by command | |
Of sovran power, with awful ceremony | |
And trumpets sound, throughout the host proclaim | |
A solemn council forthwith to be held | 755 |
At Pandæmonium, the high capital | |
Of Satan and his peers. Their summons called | |
From every band and squarèd regiment | |
By place or choice the worthiest: they anon | |
With hundreds and with thousands trooping came | 760 |
Attended. All access was thronged; the gates | |
And porches wide, but chief the spacious hall | |
(Though like a covered field, where champions bold | |
Wont ride in armed, and at the Soldans chair | |
Defied the best of Panim chivalry | 765 |
To mortal combat, or career with lance), | |
Thick swarmed, both on the ground and in the air, | |
Brushed with the hiss of rustling wings. As bees | |
In spring-time, when the Sun with Taurus rides, | |
Pour forth their populous youth about the hive | 770 |
In clusters; they among fresh dews and flowers | |
Fly to and fro, or on the smoothèd plank, | |
The suburb of their straw-built citadel, | |
New rubbed with balm, expatiate, and confer | |
Their state-affairs: so thick the aerie crowd | 775 |
Swarmed and were straitened; till, the signal given, | |
Behold a wonder! They but now who seemed | |
In bigness to surpass Earths giant sons, | |
Now less than smallest dwarfs, in narrow room | |
Throng numberlesslike that pygmean race | 780 |
Beyond the Indian mount; or faery elves, | |
Whose midnight revels, by a forest-side | |
Or fountain, some belated peasant sees, | |
Or dreams he sees, while overhead the Moon | |
Sits arbitress, and nearer to the Earth | 785 |
Wheels her pale course: they, on their mirth and dance | |
Intent, with jocond music charm his ear; | |
At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds. | |
Thus incorporeal Spirits to smallest forms | |
Reduced their shapes immense, and were at large, | 790 |
Though without number still, amidst the hall | |
Of that infernal court. But far within, | |
And in their own dimensions like themselves, | |
The great Seraphic Lords and Cherubim | |
In close recess and secret conclave sat, | 795 |
A thousand demi-gods on golden seats, | |
Frequent and full. After short silence then, | |
And summons read, the great consult began. | |
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