Tunes her nocturnal note. Thus with the year Seasons return; but not to me returns
Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn, Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose, Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine; But cloud instead, and everduring dark Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair, Presented with a universal blank
Of nature's works to me expunged and rased, And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out. So much the rather thou, celestial light,
Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers Irradiate; there plant eyes, all mist from thence Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell
Of things invisible to mortal sight.
SATAN'S SOLILOQUY ON VIEWING PARADISE AT A
Sometimes towards Eden, which now in his view
Lay pleasant, his grieved look he fixéd sad; Sometimes towards heaven, and the full blazing sun, Which now sat high in his meridian tower :
Then, much revolving, thus in sighs began:
"O thou, that, with surpassing glory crowned, Lookest from thy sole dominion like the god Of this new world: at whose sight all the stars Hide their diminished heads; to thee I call, But with no friendly voice, and add thy name, O sun! to tell thee how I hate thy beams, That bring to my remembrance from what state
I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere;
Till pride and worse ambition threw me down Warring in heaven against heaven's matchless King: Ah, wherefore? he deserved no such return From me whom he created what I was
In that bright eminence, and with his good Upbraided none; nor was his service hard. What could be less than to afford him praise, The easiest recompense, and pay him thanks, How due! yet all his good proved ill in me, And wrought but malice; lifted up so high I'sdained subjection, and thought one step higher Would set me highest, and in a moment quit The debt immense of endless gratitude, So burdensome still paying, still to owe; Forgetful what from him I still received, And understood not that a grateful mind By owing owes not, but still pays, at once Indebted and discharged; what burden then? O had his powerful destiny ordained Me some inferior angel, I had stood
Then happy; no unbounded hope had raised Ambition. Yet why not? some other power As great might have aspired, and me, though mean, Drawn to his part; but other powers as great Fell not, but stand unshaken, from within
Or from without, to all temptations armed.
Hadst thou the same free will and power to stand? Thou hadst whom hast thou then or what to accuse,
But heaven's free love dealt equally to all? Be then his love accursed, since love or hate, To me alike, it deals eternal woe.
Nay, cursed be thou; since against his thy will Chose freely what it now so justly rues. Me miserable! which way shall I fly Infinite wrath, and infinite despair? Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell; And, in the lowest deep, a lower deep Still threatening to devour me opens wide, To which the hell I suffer seems a heaven. O, then, at last relent: is there no place Left for repentance, none for pardon left? None left but by submission; and that word Disdain forbids me, and my dread of shame Among the spirits beneath, whom I seduced With other promises and other vaunts Than to submit, boasting I could subdue The Omnipotent. Ay me! they little know How dearly I abide that boast so vain, Under what torments inwardly I groan, While they adore me on the throne of hell, With diadem and sceptre high advanced, The lower still I fall, only supreme
In misery: such joy ambition finds.
say I could repent, and could obtain,
By act of grace, my former state; how soon
Would highth recall high thoughts, how soon unsay
What feigned submission swore! Ease would recant
Vows made in pain, as violent and void.
For never can true reconcilement grow,
Where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep: Which would but lead me to a worse relapse And heavier fall: so should I purchase dear Short intermission bought with double smart.
This knows my punisher; therefore as far From granting he, as I from begging, peace: All hope excluded thus, behold, instead Of us out-cast, exiled, his new delight, Mankind created, and for him this world. So farewell hope, and with hope farewell fear, Farewell remorse: all good to me is lost; Evil, be thou my good: by thee at least Divided empire with heaven's King I hold,
By thee, and more than half perhaps will reign; As man ere long, and this new world, shall know."
Now nearer, crowns with her enclosure green, As with a rural mound, the champaign head Of a steep wilderness, whose hairy sides With thicket overgrown, grotesque and wild, Access denied; and over-head up-grew Insuperable highth of loftiest shade,
Cedar and pine, and fir, and branching palm, A sylvan scene; and, as the ranks ascend Shade above shade, a woody theatre
Of stateliest view. Yet higher than their tops The verdurous wall of Paradise up-sprung: Which to our general sire gave prospect large Into his nether empire neighbouring round: And higher than tha. wall a circling row Of goodliest trees, loaden with fairest fruit, Blossoms and fruits at once of golden hue,
Appeared, with gay enamelled colours mixed:
On which the sun more glad impressed his beams Than in fair evening cloud, or humid bow,
When God hath showered the earth; so lovely seemed That landscape: and of pure, now purer air Meets his approach, and to the heart inspires Vernal delight and joy, able to drive
All sadness but despair; now gentle gales, Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole Those balmy spoils. As when to them who sail Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past Mozambic, off at sea north-east winds blow Sabean odours from the spicy shore
Of Araby the Blest; with such delay
Well pleased they slack their course, and many a league Cheered with the grateful smell old Ocean smiles:
So entertained those odorous sweets the fiend,
INTERNAL VIEW OF PARADISE.
His far more pleasant garden God ordained: Out of the fertile ground he caused to grow All trees of noblest kind for sight, smell, taste: And all amid them stood the tree of life, High eminent, blooming ambrosial fruit
Of vegetable gold; and next to life,
Our death, the tree of knowledge, grew fast by, Knowledge of good, bought dear by knowing ill. Southward through Eden went a river large, Nor changed his course, but through the shaggy hill
« PreviousContinue » |