The Complete Poetry of John Milton (95 page)
Read The Complete Poetry of John Milton Online
Authors: John Milton
Tags: #English; Irish; Scottish; Welsh, #Poetry, #European
900
With
Satan
, hee who envies now thy state,
Who now is plotting how he may seduce
Thee also from obedience, that with him
Bereav’d of happiness thou maist partake
His punishment, Eternal miserie;
905
Which would be all his solace and revenge,
As a despite don against the most High,
Thee once to gain Companion of his woe.
But list’n not to his Temptations, warn
Thy weaker;
62
let it profit thee t’ have heard
910
By terrible Example the reward
Of disobedience; firm they might have stood,
Yet fell; remember, and fear to transgress.
1
“change, variety, movement, the mark of vitality and joy characteristic of both the divine and the human master artist’s work” (Joseph H. Summers,
The Muse’s Method
, p. 71).
2
compliantly following.
3
readiness.
4
the literal meaning of Abdiel.
5
(a maneuver in the shape of a) square.
6
lying in the way.
7
narrowing.
8
inscription.
9
fighting of hosts (of angels).
10
loyalty.
11
tested and found.
12
trial.
13
the angels who sing God’s hymns and whom Satan calls servile.
14
canopy of the sky.
15
lines of warriors.
16
the mechanical tendency to move.
17
prepared.
18
(the outcome).
19
advantage; “prevention” (l. 320) means “anticipation.”
20
cutting, thus “discontinuing” or separating the flesh.
21
not subject to injury.
22
dominant, victorious.
23
an Assyrian deity; see 2 Kings xix. 37.
24
incapable of feeling.
25
foam of air and fire (acting below the earth); see l. 512.
26
countenance.
27
cooked together and burned.
28
destruction from propelled matter; the “reed” is the match which will light the fuse.
29
halt (NED cites only in phrase “to make alt”); most editors emend to “halt.”
30
literally, “spy of God.”
31
firmly established.
32
without anxiety.
33
hemmed in.
34
agreement.
35
material (of the earth).
36
hanging in wonder and curiosity.
37
wondering.
38
most fastidious.
39
filled.
40
discharge.
41
unification, mutual agreement.
42
Compare the piling of Mt. Pelion on Mt. Ossa by the Giants of earth.
43
both nonmilitary and civilized.
44
after having thought it out.
45
sharer.
46
anointing; see
PL
III, 317.
47
See
PL
III, n. 18.
48
inward torment. Mark ix. 44: “Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”
49
See Ezek. i, a foreshadowing of the Last Day.
50
imbued.
51
running at full speed.
52
the jewels of Aaron’s breastplate (Exod. xxviii. 30); see n. to III, 598. Undoubtedly significant is the first word of the next line, “Ascended”: it was the central word of the 1667 edition since 5275 lines precede it and follow it.
53
quivering.
54
Compare Matt. xxiv. 30: “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”
55
led back.
56
diffused around.
57
intractable.
58
blows.
59
Compare Hosea x. 8 (“The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed … and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us”) and Rev. vi. 16 (“And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb”), alluding to the Last Day.
60
a reference to the swine that perished with the devils expelled by Jesus (Matt. viii. 28-34); see Mother M. Christopher Pecheux’s discussion in
SEL
, III (1963), 109-17.
61
falling.
62
Eve.
THE ARGUMENT
Raphael
at the request of
Adam
relates how and wherefore this world was first created; that God, after the expelling of
Satan
and his Angels out of Heaven, declar’d his pleasure to create another World and other Creatures to dwell therein; sends his Son with Glory and attendance of Angels to perform the work of Creation in six dayes: the Angels celebrate with Hymns the performance thereof, and his reascention into Heaven.
Descend from Heav’n
Urania
,
1
by that name
If rightly thou art call’d, whose Voice divine
Following, above th’
Olympian
Hill I soar,
Above the flight of
Pegasean
2
wing.
5
The meaning, not the Name I call: for thou
Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top
Of old
Olympus
dwell’st, but Heav’nlie born,
Before the Hills appeerd, or Fountain flow’d,
Thou with Eternal wisdom didst converse,
3
10
Wisdom thy Sister, and with her didst play
In presence of th’ Almightie Father, pleas’d
With thy Celestial Song. Up led by thee
Into the Heav’n of Heav’ns I have presum’d,
An Earthlie Guest, and drawn Empyreal Air,
15
Thy tempring; with like safetie guided down
Return me to my Native Element:
Least from this flying Steed unrein’d (as once
Bellerophon
, though from a lower Clime),
Dismounted, on th’
Aleian
Field
4
I fall
20
Erroneous
5
there to wander and forlorn.
Half yet remains unsung but narrower bound
Within the visible Diurnal Sphear;
6
Standing on Earth, not rapt above the Pole,
7
More safe I sing with mortal voice, unchang’d
25
To hoarce or mute, though fall’n on evil dayes,
On evil dayes though fall’n, and evil tongues;
8
In darkness, and with dangers compast round,
And solitude; yet not alone, while thou
Visit’st my slumbers Nightly, or when Morn
30
Purples the East: still govern thou my Song,
Urania
, and fit audience find, though few.
But drive farr off the barbarous dissonance
Of
Bacchus
and his revellers, the Race
Of that wild Rout that tore the
Thracian
Bard
9
35
In
Rhodope
, where Woods and Rocks had Eares
To rapture, till the savage clamor dround
Both Harp and Voice; nor could the Muse defend
Her Son. So fail not thou, who thee implores:
For thou art Heav’nlie, shee an empty dream.
40
Say Goddess, what ensu’d when
Raphael
,
The affable Arch-Angel, had forewarn’d
Adam
by dire example to beware
Apostasie, by what befell in Heav’n
To those Apostates, least the like befall
45
In Paradise to
Adam
or his Race,
Charg’d not to touch the interdicted Tree,
If they transgress, and slight that sole command,
So easily obeyd amid the choice
Of all tasts else to please thir appetite,
50
Though wandring. He with his consorted
10
Eve
The storie heard attentive, and was fill’d
With admiration, and deep Muse to hear
Of things so high and strange, things to thir thought
So unimaginable as hate in Heav’n,
55
And Warr so neer the Peace of God in bliss
With such confusion: but the evil soon
Driv’n back redounded
11
as a flood on those
From whom it sprung, impossible to mix
With Blessedness. Whence
Adam
soon repeal’d
12
60
The doubts that in his heart arose: and now
Led on, yet sinless, with desire to know
What neerer might concern him, how this World
Of Heav’n and Earth conspicuous first began,
When, and whereof created, for what cause,
65
What within
Eden
or without was done
Before his memorie, as one whose drouth
Yet scarce allay’d still eyes the current stream,
Whose liquid murmur heard new thirst excites,
Proceeded thus to ask his Heav’nly Guest.
70
Great things, and full of wonder in our eares,
Farr differing from this World, thou hast reveal’d
Divine interpreter, by favour sent
Down from the Empyrean to forewarn
Us timely of what might else have bin our loss,
75
Unknown, which human knowledge could not reach:
For which to th’ infinitly Good we owe
Immortal thanks, and his admonishment
Receave with solemn purpose to observe
Immutably his sovran will, the end
80
Of what we are. But since thou hast voutsaf’t
Gently for our instruction to impart
Things above Earthly thought, which yet concernd
Our knowing, as to highest wisdom seemd,
Deign to descend now lower, and relate