The Complete Poetry of John Milton (97 page)

   245     
Sprung from the Deep, and from her Native East

               
To journie through the airie gloom began,

               
Sphear’d in a radiant Cloud, for yet the Sun

               
Was not; shee in a cloudie Tabernacle
²⁹

               
Sojourn’d the while. God saw the Light was good;

   250     
And light from darkness by the Hemisphere

               
Divided: Light the Day, and Darkness Night

               
He nam’d. Thus was the first Day Eev’n and Morn:

               
Nor past uncelebrated, nor unsung

               
By the Celestial Quires, when Orient Light

   255     
Exhaling first from Darkness they beheld;

               
Birth-day of Heav’n and Earth; with joy and shout

               
The hollow Universal Orb they fill’d,

               
And touch’t thir Golden Harps, and hymning prais’d

               
God and his works, Creatour him they sung,

   260     
Both when first Eevning was, and when first Morn.

           
      
       Again, God said, let ther be Firmament
³⁰

               
Amid the Waters, and let it divide

               
The Waters from the Waters: and God made

               
The Firmament, expanse of liquid, pure,

   265     
Transparent, Elemental Air, diffus’d

               
In circuit to the uttermost convex

               
Of this great Round: partition firm and sure,

               
The Waters underneath from those above

               
Dividing: for as Earth, so he the World

   270     
Built on circumfluous Waters calm, in wide

               
Crystallin Ocean, and the loud misrule

               
Of
Chaos
farr remov’d, least fierce extreams

               
Contiguous might distemper the whole frame:

               
And Heav’n he nam’d the Firmament: So Eev’n

   275     
And Morning
Chorus
sung the second Day.

           
      
       The Earth was form’d, but in the Womb as yet

               
Of Waters, Embryon immature involv’d,
³¹

               
Appeer’d not: over all the face of Earth

               
Main
³²
Ocean flow’d, not idle, but with warm

   280     
Prolific humour soft’ning all her Globe,

               
Fermented the great Mother to conceave,

               
Satiate with genial
³³
moisture, when God said

               
Be gather’d now ye Waters under Heav’n

               
Into one place, and let dry Land appeer.

   285     
Immediately the Mountains huge appeer

               
Emergent, and thir broad bare backs upheave

               
Into the Clouds, thir tops ascend the Skie:

               
So high as heav’d the tumid Hills, so low

               
Down sunk a hollow bottom broad and deep,

   290     
Capacious bed of Waters: thither they

               
Hasted with glad precipitance,
³⁴
uprowl’d

               
As drops on dust conglobing from the drie;

               
Part rise in crystal Wall, or ridge direct,

               
For haste; such flight the great command impress’d

   295     
On the swift flouds: as Armies at the call

               
Of Trumpet (for of Armies thou hast heard)

               
Troop to thir Standard, so the watrie throng,

               
Wave rowling after Wave, where way they found,

               
If steep, with torrent rapture,
³⁵
if through Plain,

   300     
Soft-ebbing; nor withstood them Rock or Hill,

               
But they, or under ground, or circuit wide

               
With Serpent errour
³⁶
wandring, found thir way,

               
And on the washie Oose deep Channels wore;

               
Easie, e’re God had bid the ground be drie,

   305     
All but within those banks, where Rivers now

               
Stream, and perpetual draw thir humid train.
³⁷

               
The dry Land, Earth, and the great receptacle

               
Of congregated Waters he call’d Seas:

               
And saw that it was good, and said, Let th’ Earth

   310     
Put forth the verdant Grass, Herb yeilding Seed,

               
And Fruit Tree yeilding Fruit after her kind;

               
Whose Seed is in her self upon the Earth.

               
He scarce had said, when the bare Earth, till then

               
Desert and bare, unsightly, unadorn’d,

   315     
Brought forth the tender Grass, whose verdure clad

               
Her Universal Face with pleasant green,

               
Then Herbs of every leaf, that sudden flowr’d

               
Op’ning thir various colours, and made gay

               
Her bosom smelling sweet: and these scarce blown,

   320     
Forth flourish’t thick the clustring Vine, forth crept

               
The smelling Gourd, up stood the cornie Reed

               
Embattell’d in her field: and the humble Shrub,

               
And Bush with frizl’d hair implicit:
³⁸
last

               
Rose as in Dance the stately Trees, and spred

   325     
Thir branches hung with copious Fruit; or gemm’d
³⁹

               
Thir blossoms: with high woods the hills were crownd,

               
With tufts
⁴⁰
the vallies and each fountain side,

               
With borders long the Rivers. That Earth now

               
Seemd like to Heav’n, a seat where Gods might dwell,

   330     
Or wander with delight, and love to haunt

               
Her sacred shades: though God had yet not rain’d

               
Upon the Earth, and man to till the ground

               
None was, but from the Earth a dewie Mist

               
Went up and waterd all the ground, and each

   335     
Plant of the field, which e’re it was in th’ Earth

               
God made, and every Herb, before it grew

               
On the green stemm; God saw that it was good.

               
So Eev’n and Morn recorded the Third Day.

           
      
       Again th’ Almightie spake: Let there be Lights

   340     
High in th’ expanse of Heaven to divide

               
The Day from Night; and let them be for Signes,

               
For Seasons, and for Dayes, and circling Years,

               
And let them be for Lights as I ordain

               
Thir Office in the Firmament of Heav’n

   345     
To give Light on the Earth; and it was so.

               
And God made two great Lights, great for thir use

               
To Man, the greater to have rule by Day,

               
The less by Night altern: and made the Starrs,

               
And set them in the Firmament of Heav’n

   350     
T’ illuminate the Earth, and rule the Day

               
In thir vicissitude, and rule the Night,

               
And Light from Darkness to divide. God saw,

               
Surveying his great Work, that it was good:

               
For of Celestial Bodies first the Sun

   355     
A mightie Sphear he fram’d, unlightsom first,

               
Though of Ethereal Mould: then form’d the Moon

               
Globose, and every magnitude of Starrs,

               
And sowd with Starrs the Heav’n thick as a field:

               
Of Light by farr the greater part he took,

   360     
Transplanted from her cloudie Shrine, and plac’d

               
In the Suns Orb, made porous to receive

               
And drink the liquid Light, firm to retain

               
Her gather’d beams, great Palace now of Light

               
Hither as to thir Fountain other Starrs

   365     
Repairing, in thir gold’n Urns draw Light,

               
And hence the Morning Planet guilds her horns;
⁴¹

               
By tincture
⁴²
or reflection they augment

               
Thir small peculiar, though from human sight

               
So farr remote, with diminution seen.

   370     
First in his East the glorious Lamp was seen,

               
Regent of Day, and all th’ Horizon round

               
Invested with bright Rayes, jocond to run

               
His Longitude through Heav’ns high rode: the gray

               
Dawn, and the
Pleiades
before him danc’d

   375     
Shedding sweet influence: less bright the Moon,

               
But opposite in leveld West was set

               
His mirror, with full face borrowing her Light

               
From him, for other light she needed none

               
In that aspect, and still that distance keeps

   380     
Till night, then in the East her turn she shines,

               
Revolv’d on Heav’ns great Axle, and her Reign

               
With thousand lesser Lights dividual
⁴³
holds,

               
With thousand thousand Starrs, that then appeer’d

               
Spangling the Hemisphere: then first adornd

   385     
With thir bright Luminaries that Set and Rose,

               
Glad Eevning and glad Morn crownd the fourth day.

           
      
       And God said, let the Waters generate

               
Reptil
⁴⁴
with Spawn abundant, living Soul:

               
And let Fowl flie above the Earth, with wings

   390     
Displayd on th’ op’n Firmament of Heav’n.

               
And God created the great Whales, and each

               
Soul living, each that crept, which plenteously

               
The waters generated by thir kinds,

               
And every Bird of wing after his kind;

   395     
And saw that it was good, and bless’d them, saying,

               
Be fruitful, multiply, and in the Seas

               
And Lakes and running Streams the waters fill;

               
And let the Fowl be multiply’d on th’ Earth.

               
Forthwith the Sounds and Seas, each Creek and Bay