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, declared 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 days; the angels celebrate with hymns the performance thereof, and his reascension into Heaven.
Descend from Heav’n1 Urania, by that name
If rightly thou art called, whose voice divine
Following, above th’ Olympian hill3 I soar,
Above the flight of Pegasean wing4.
The meaning, not the name5 I call: for thou
Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top
Of old Olympus dwell’st, but Heav’nly born,
Before the hills appeared, or fountain flowed,
Thou with eternal Wisdom9 didst converse,
Wisdom thy sister, and with her didst play
In presence of th’ Almighty Father, pleased
With thy celestial song. Up led by thee
Into the Heav’n of Heav’ns13 I have presumed,
An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air,
Thy temp’ring15; with like safety guided down
Return me to my native element:
Lest from17 this flying steed unreined, (as once
Bellerophon, though from a lower clime18)
Dismounted, on th’ Aleian field I fall
Erroneous there to wander and forlorn.
Half yet21 remains unsung, but narrower bound
Within the visible diurnal sphere22;
Standing on earth, not rapt23 above the pole,
More safe I sing with mortal voice, unchanged
To hoarse25 or mute, though fall’n on evil days,
On evil days though fall’n, and evil tongues26;
In darkness27, and with dangers compassed round,
And solitude; yet not alone, while thou28
Visit’st my slumbers nightly, or when morn
Purples the east: still govern thou my song,
Urania, and fit audience find, though few.
But drive far off the barbarous dissonance32
Of Bacchus and his revellers, the race33
Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard
In Rhodope, where woods and rocks had ears
To rapture, till the savage clamor drowned
Both harp and voice; nor could the Muse defend
Her son. So fail not thou, who thee implores:
For thou art Heav’nly she an empty dream.
Say Goddess, what ensued when Raphael,
The affable archangel, had forewarned
Adam by dire example to beware
Apostasy, by what befell in Heaven
To those apostates, lest the like befall
In Paradise to Adam or his race,
Charged not to touch46 the interdicted tree,
If they transgress, and slight that sole command47,
So easily obeyed amid the choice
Of all tastes else to please their appetite,
Though wand’ring50. He with his consorted Eve
The story heard attentive, and was filled
With admiration52, and deep muse to hear
Of things so high and strange, things to their thought
So unimaginable as hate in Heav’n,
And war so near the peace of God in bliss
With such confusion: but the evil soon
Driv’n back redounded57 as a flood on those
From whom it sprung, impossible to mix
With blessedness. Whence Adam soon repealed59
The doubts that in his heart arose: and now
Led on, yet sinless, with desire to know
What nearer might concern him, how this world
Of heav’n and earth conspicuous63 first began,
When, and whereof created, for what cause,
What within Eden or without was done
Before his memory, as one whose drouth
Yet scarce allayed still eyes the current stream,
Whose liquid murmur heard new thirst excites,
Proceeded thus to ask his Heav’nly guest.
“Great things, and full of wonder in our ears,
Far differing from this world, thou hast revealed
Divine interpreter72, by favor sent
Down from the Empyrean to forewarn
Us timely of what might else have been our loss,
Unknown, which human knowledge could not reach:
For which to the infinitely Good we owe
Immortal thanks, and his admonishment
Receive with solemn purpose to observe
Immutably his sov’reign will, the end79
Of what we are. But since thou hast vouchsafed
Gently for our instruction to impart
Things above earthly thought, which yet concerned
Our knowing, as to highest wisdom seemed83,
Deign to descend now lower, and relate
What may no less perhaps avail us known85,
How first began this heav’n which we behold
Distant so high, with moving fires adorned
Innumerable, and this which yields or fills88
All space, the ambient air wide interfused
Embracing round this florid Earth; what cause
Moved the Creator in his holy rest
Through all eternity so late to build
In Chaos, and the work begun, how soon
Absolved94, if unforbid thou may’st unfold
What we, not to explore the secrets ask
Of his eternal empire, but the more
To magnify97 his works, the more we know.
And the great light of day yet wants98 to run
Much of his race though steep, suspense99 in heav’n
Held by thy voice, thy potent voice he hears100,
And longer will delay to hear thee tell
His generation, and the rising birth
Of nature from the unapparent deep103:
Or if the star of ev’ning and the moon
Haste to thy audience, Night with her will bring
Silence, and Sleep list’ning to thee will watch106,
Or we can bid his107 absence, till thy song
End, and dismiss thee ere the morning shine.”
Thus Adam his illustrious guest besought:
And thus the godlike angel answered mild.
“This also thy request with caution asked
Obtain: though to recount almighty works
What words or tongue of Seraph can suffice,
Or heart of man suffice to comprehend?
Yet what thou canst attain, which best may serve
To glorify the Maker, and infer116
Thee also happier, shall not be withheld
Thy hearing, such commission from above
I have received, to answer thy desire
Of knowledge within bounds120; beyond abstain
To ask, nor let thine own inventions121 hope
Things not revealed, which th’ invisible King,
Only omniscient, hath suppressed in night,
To none communicable in Earth or Heaven124:
Enough is left besides to search and know.
But knowledge is as food, and needs no less
Her temperance over appetite, to know
In measure what the mind may well contain,
Oppresses else with surfeit, and soon turns
Wisdom to folly, as nourishment to wind.
“Know then, that after Lucifer from Heav’n
(So call him132, brighter once amidst the host
Of angels, than that star the stars among)
Fell with his flaming legions through the deep
Into his place, and the great Son returned
Victorious with his saints136, th’ omnipotent
Eternal Father from his throne beheld
Their multitude, and to his Son thus spake.
“ ‘At least our envious foe hath failed, who thought
All like himself rebellious, by whose aid
This inaccessible high strength, the seat
Of Deity supreme, us dispossessed,
He trusted to have seized, and into fraud143
Drew many, whom their place knows here no more144;
Yet far the greater part145 have kept, I see,
Their station146, Heav’n yet populous retains
Number sufficient to possess her realms
Though wide, and this high temple to frequent
With ministeries due and solemn rites:
But lest150 his heart exalt him in the harm
Already done, to have dispeopled Heav’n,
My damage fondly152 deemed, I can repair
That detriment, if such it be to lose
Self-lost, and in a moment will create
Another world, out of one man a race
Of men innumerable156, there to dwell,
Not here, till by degrees of merit raised
They open to themselves at length the way
Up hither, under long obedience tried,
And Earth be chang’d to Heav’n, and Heav’n to Earth,
One kingdom, joy and union without end.
Meanwhile inhabit lax162, ye powers of Heav’n,
And thou my Word, begotten Son, by thee
This I perform, speak thou, and be it done:
My overshadowing Spirit and might with thee165
I send along, ride forth, and bid the deep
Within appointed bounds be heav’n and earth;
Boundless168 the deep, because I am who fill
Infinitude, nor vacuous the space.
Though I uncircumscribed myself retire,
And put not forth my goodness, which is free171
To act or not, necessity and chance172
Approach not me, and what I will is fate173.’
“So spake th’ Almighty, and to what he spake
His Word, the filial Godhead175, gave effect.
Immediate are the acts of God176, more swift
Than time or motion, but to human ears
Cannot without process of speech178 be told,
So told as earthly notion179 can receive.
Great triumph180 and rejoicing was in Heav’n
When such was heard declared th’ Almighty’s will;
Glory they sung to the most high, good will
To future men, and in their dwellings peace:
Glory to him whose just avenging ire
Had driven out th’ ungodly from his sight
And th’ habitations of the just; to him
Glory and praise, whose wisdom had ordained
Good out of evil188 to create, instead
Of spirits malign a better race to bring
Into their vacant room, and thence diffuse
His good to worlds and ages infinite.
So sang the hierarchies: meanwhile the Son
On his great expedition now appeared,
Girt194 with omnipotence, with radiance crowned
Of majesty divine, sapience and love
Immense, and all his Father in him shone.
About his chariot numberless were poured197
Cherub and Seraph, Potentates and Thrones,
And Virtues, wingèd spirits, and chariots winged,
From the armory of God200, where stand of old
Myriads between201 two brazen mountains lodged
Against202 a solemn day, harnessed at hand,
Celestial equipage; and now203 came forth
Spontaneous, for within them spirit lived,
Attendant on their Lord: Heav’n opened wide205
Her ever-during206 gates, harmonious sound
On golden hinges moving, to let forth
The King of Glory in his powerful Word
And Spirit coming to create new worlds.
On Heav’nly ground they stood, and from the shore
They viewed the vast immeasurable abyss
Outrageous212 as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild,
Up from the bottom turned by furious winds
And surging waves, as mountains to assault
Heav’n’s highth, and with the center mix the pole.
“ ‘Silence, ye troubled waves, and thou deep, peace,’
Said then th’ omnific217 Word, ‘your discord end.’
“Nor stayed, but on the wings of Cherubim
Uplifted, in paternal glory rode
Far into Chaos, and the world unborn;
For Chaos heard his voice: him all his train
Followed in bright procession to behold
Creation, and the wonders of his might.
Then stayed the fervid224 wheels, and in his hand
He took the golden compasses225, prepared
In God’s eternal store, to circumscribe226
This universe, and all created things:
One foot he centered, and the other turned
Round through the vast profundity obscure,
And said, ‘Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds,
This be thy just231 circumference, O world.’
Thus God the heav’n created, thus the earth,
Matter unformed and void233: darkness profound
Covered th’ abyss: but on the wat’ry calm
His brooding wings235 the Spirit of God outspread,
And vital virtue236 infused, and vital warmth
Throughout the fluid mass, but downward purged
The black tartareous238 cold infernal dregs
Adverse to life: then founded239, then conglobed
Like things to like, the rest to several place
Disparted241, and between spun out the air,
And Earth self-balanced242 on her center hung.
“ ‘Let there243 be light,’ said God, and forthwith light
Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure244
Sprung from the deep, and from her native east
To journey through the airy gloom began,
Sphered in a radiant cloud, for yet the sun
Was not; she in a cloudy tabernacle248
Sojourned the while. God saw the light was good;
And light from darkness by the hemisphere
Divided: light the day, and darkness night
He named. Thus was the first day ev’n and morn252:
Nor passed uncelebrated, nor unsung
By the celestial choirs, when orient254 light
Exhaling255 first from darkness they beheld;
Birthday of heav’n and Earth; with joy and shout
The hollow universal orb they filled,
And touched their golden harps, and hymning praised
God and his works; Creator him they sung,
Both when first ev’ning was, and when first morn.
“Again, God said,261 ‘Let there be firmament
Amid the waters, and let it divide
The waters from the waters’: and God made
The firmament, expanse264 of liquid, pure,
Transparent, elemental air, diffused
In circuit to the uttermost convex
Of this great round267: partition firm and sure,
The waters underneath from those above
Dividing: for as Earth, so he the world269
Built on circumfluous waters calm, in wide
Crystalline ocean, and the loud misrule
Of Chaos far removed, lest fierce extremes
Contiguous might distemper the whole frame273:
And heav’n he named the firmament: so ev’n
And morning chorus sung the second day.
“The Earth was formed, but in the womb as yet
Of waters, embryon immature involved277,
Appeared not: over all the face of Earth
Main ocean flowed, not idle, but with warm
Prolific humor soft’ning all her globe,
Fermented the great mother281 to conceive,
Satiate with genial282 moisture, when God said,
‘Be gathered now ye waters under heav’n
Into one place, and let dry land appear.’
Immediately the mountains huge appear
Emergent, and their broad bare backs upheave
Into the clouds, their tops ascend the sky:
So high as heaved the tumid288 hills, so low
Down sunk a hollow bottom broad and deep,
Capacious bed of waters: thither they
Hasted with glad precipitance291, uprolled
As drops on dust conglobing292 from the dry;
Part rise in crystal wall293, or ridge direct,
For haste; such flight the great command impressed
On the swift floods: as armies at the call
Of trumpet (for of armies thou hast heard)
Troop to their standard, so the wat’ry throng,
Wave rolling after wave, where way they found,
If steep, with torrent rapture299, if through plain,
Soft-ebbing; nor withstood them rock or hill,
But they, or under ground, or circuit wide
With serpent error wand’ring302, found their way,
And on the washy ooze deep channels wore;
Easy, ere God had bid the ground be dry,
All but within those banks, where rivers now
Stream, and perpetual draw their humid train.
The dry land, earth, and the great receptacle
Of congregated waters308 he called seas:
And saw that it was good, and said, ‘Let th’ earth309
Put forth the verdant grass, herb yielding seed,
And fruit tree yielding fruit after her kind;
Whose seed is in herself upon the earth.’
He scarce had said, when the bare earth313, till then
Desert and bare, unsightly, unadorned,
Brought forth the tender grass, whose verdure clad
Her universal face with pleasant green,
Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flow’red
Op’ning their various colors, and made gay
Her bosom smelling sweet: and these scarce blown,
Forth flourished thick the clust’ring vine, forth crept
The swelling321 gourd, up stood the corny reed
Embattled322 in her field: add the humble shrub,
And bush with frizzled hair323 implicit: last
Rose as in dance the stately trees, and spread
Their branches hung with copious fruit; or gemmed325
Their blossoms: with high woods the hills were crowned,
With tufts the valleys and each fountain side,
With borders long the rivers. That Earth now
Seemed like to Heav’n, a seat where gods might dwell,
Or wander with delight, and love to haunt
Her sacred shades: though God had yet not rained
Upon the earth, and man to till the ground332
None was, but from the earth a dewy mist
Went up and watered all the ground, and each
Plant of the field, which ere it was in the earth
God made, and every herb, before it grew
On the green stem; God saw that it was good:
So ev’n and morn recorded338 the third day.
“Again th’339 Almighty spake: ‘Let there be lights
High in th’ expanse of heaven to divide
The day from night; and let them be for signs,
For seasons, and for days, and circling years,
And let them be for lights as I ordain
Their office in the firmament of heav’n
To give light on the Earth’; and it was so.
And God made two great lights, great for their use
To man, the greater to have rule by day,
The less by night altern348: and made the stars,
And set them in the firmament of heav’n
To illuminate the Earth, and rule the day
In their vicissitude351, 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
A mighty sphere he framed, unlightsome first,
Though of ethereal mold356: then formed the moon
Globose, and every magnitude of stars357,
And sowed with stars the heav’n thick as a field:
Of light by far the greater part he took,
Transplanted from her cloudy shrine, and placed
In the sun’s orb, made porous to receive
And drink the liquid light, firm to retain
Her gathered beams, great palace now of light.
Hither as to their fountain other stars
Repairing, in their golden urns draw light,
And hence the morning planet366 gilds her horns;
By tincture or reflection367 they augment
Their small peculiar368, though from human sight
So far remote, with diminution seen.
First in his east the glorious lamp was seen,
Regent of day, and all th’ horizon round
Invested372 with bright rays, jocund to run
His longitude373 through Heav’n’s high road: the gray
Dawn, and the Pleiades374 before him danced
Shedding sweet influence: less bright the moon,
But opposite in leveled west376 was set
His mirror377, with full face borrowing her light
From him, for other light she needed none
In that aspect379, and still that distance keeps
Till night, then in the east her turn she shines,
Revolved on Heav’n’s great axle381, and her reign
With thousand lesser lights dividual382 holds,
With thousand thousand stars, that then appeared
Spangling the hemisphere: then first adorned
With their bright luminaries that set and rose,
Glad ev’ning and glad morn crowned the fourth day.
“And God said,387 ‘Let the waters generate
Reptile388 with spawn abundant, living soul:
And let fowl fly above the earth, with wings
Displayed390 on the 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 their kinds393,
And every bird of wing after his kind;
And saw that it was good, and blessed them, saying,
‘Be fruitful, multiply, and in the seas
And lakes and running streams the waters fill;
And let the fowl be multiplied on the earth.’
Forthwith the sounds and seas, each creek and bay
With fry innumerable swarm, and shoals
Of fish that with their fins and shining scales
Glide under the green wave, in schools that oft
Bank the mid sea403: part single or with mate
Graze the seaweed their pasture, and through groves
Of coral stray, or sporting with quick glance
Show to the sun their waved coats dropped with gold,
Or in their pearly shells at ease, attend
Moist nutriment, or under rocks their food
In jointed armor watch: on smooth409 the seal,
And bended410 dolphins play: part huge of bulk
Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait
Tempest the ocean: there leviathan412
Hugest of living creatures, on the deep
Stretched like a promontory sleeps or swims,
And seems a moving land, and at his gills415
Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out a sea.
Meanwhile the tepid caves, and fens and shores
Their brood as numerous hatch, from the egg that soon
Bursting with kindly419 rupture forth disclosed
Their callow420 young, but feathered soon and fledge
They summed their pens421, and soaring th’ air sublime
With clang422 despised the ground, under a cloud
In prospect; there the eagle and the stork
On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build:
Part loosely425 wing the region, part more wise
In common, ranged in figure wedge their way,
Intelligent427 of seasons, and set forth
Their airy caravan high over seas
Flying429, and over lands with mutual wing
Easing their flight; so steers the prudent crane
Her annual voyage, borne on winds; the air
Floats432, as they pass, fanned with unnumbered plumes:
From branch to branch the smaller birds with song
Solaced434 the woods, and spread their painted wings
Till ev’n, nor then the solemn nightingale
Ceased warbling, but all night tuned her soft lays:
Others on silver lakes and rivers bathed
Their downy breast; the swan with archèd neck
Between her white wings mantling439 proudly, rows
Her state440 with oary feet: yet oft they quit
The dank441, and rising on stiff pennons, tower
The mid-aerial sky442: others on ground
Walked firm; the crested cock whose clarion sounds
The silent hours, and th’ other444 whose gay train
Adorns him, colored with the florid hue
Of rainbows and starry eyes446. The waters thus
With fish replenished, and the air with fowl,
Ev’ning and morn solemnized the fifth day.
“The sixth and of creation last arose
With ev’ning450 harps and matin, when God said,
‘Let th’ earth bring forth soul451 living in her kind,
Cattle and creeping things, and beast of the earth,
Each in their kind.’ The earth obeyed, and straight
Op’ning her fertile womb teemed454 at a birth
Innumerous living creatures, perfect forms,
Limbed and full-grown: out of the ground uprose
As from his lair the wild beast where he wons457
In forest wild, in thicket, brake, or den;
Among the trees in pairs they rose, they walked:
The cattle in the fields and meadows green:
Those rare461 and solitary, these in flocks
Pasturing at once, and in broad herds upsprung.
The grassy clods now calved, now half appeared
The tawny lion464, pawing to get free
His hinder parts, then springs as broke from bonds,
And rampant shakes his brinded main; the ounce,
The libbard, and the tiger, as the mole
Rising, the crumbled earth above them threw
In hillocks; the swift stag from under ground
Bore up his branching head: scarce from his mold
Behemoth471 biggest born of earth upheaved
His vastness: fleeced the flocks and bleating rose,
As plants: ambiguous between sea and land
The river horse474 and scaly crocodile.
At once came forth whatever creeps the ground,
Insect or worm476; those waved their limber fans
For wings, and smallest lineaments exact
In all the liveries decked of summer’s pride
With spots of gold and purple, azure and green:
These as a line their long dimension drew,
Streaking the ground with sinuous trace; not all
Minims482 of nature; some of serpent kind
Wondrous in length and corpulence involved483
Their snaky folds, and added wings. First crept
The parsimonious emmet485, provident
Of future, in small room large heart486 enclosed,
Pattern487 of just equality perhaps
Hereafter, joined in her popular tribes465
Of commonalty: swarming next appeared
The female bee490 that feeds her husband drone
Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells
With honey stored: the rest are numberless,
And thou their natures know’st, and gav’st them names493,
Needless to thee repeated; nor unknown
The serpent subtlest beast of all the field,
Of huge extent sometimes, with brazen eyes
And hairy main497 terrific, though to thee
Not noxious498, but obedient at thy call.
Now heav’n in all her glory shone, and rolled
Her motions, as the great First Mover’s hand
First wheeled their course; Earth in her rich attire
Consummate lovely smiled; air, water, earth,
By fowl, fish, beast, was flown, was swum, was walked
Frequent504; and of the sixth day yet remained;
There wanted yet the master work, the end505
Of all yet done; a creature who not prone
And brute as other creatures, but endued
With sanctity of reason, might508 erect
His stature, and upright with front509 serene
Govern the rest, self-knowing510, and from thence
Magnanimous511 to correspond with Heav’n,
But grateful to acknowledge whence his good
Descends, thither with heart and voice and eyes
Directed in devotion, to adore
And worship God supreme, who made him chief
Of all his works: therefore th’ omnipotent
Eternal Father (for where is not he
Present) thus to his Son audibly spake.
“ ‘Let us make519 now man in our image, man
In our similitude, and let them rule
Over the fish and fowl of sea and air,
Beast of the field, and over all the earth,
And every creeping thing that creeps the ground.’
This said, he formed thee, Adam, thee O man
Dust of the ground, and in thy nostrils breathed
The breath of life; in his own image he
Created thee, in the image of God
Express528, and thou becam’st a living soul.
Male he created thee, but thy consort
Female for race; then blessed mankind530, and said,
‘Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the Earth,
Subdue it, and throughout dominion hold
Over fish of the sea, and fowl of the air,
And every living thing that moves on the Earth.’
Wherever thus created, for no place
Is yet distinct by name, thence, as thou know’st
He brought thee into this delicious537 grove,
This garden, planted with the trees of God,
Delectable both to behold and taste;
And freely all their pleasant fruit for food
Gave thee, all sorts are here that all th’ Earth yields,
Variety without end; but of the tree
Which tasted works knowledge of good and evil,
Thou may’st not; in the day thou eat’st, thou di’st;
Death is the penalty imposed, beware,
And govern well thy appetite, lest Sin
Surprise thee, and her black attendant Death.
Here finished he, and all that he had made
Viewed, and behold all was entirely good;
So ev’n and morn accomplished the sixth day:
Yet not till the Creator from his work
Desisting, though unwearied552, up returned
Up to the Heav’n of Heav’ns his high abode,
Thence to behold this new created world
Th’ addition of his empire, how it showed
In prospect from his throne, how good, how fair,
Answering his great idea557. Up he rode
Followed with acclamation and the sound
Symphonious559 of ten thousand harps that tuned
Angelic harmonies: the Earth, the air
Resounded, (thou remember’st, for thou heard’st)
The heav’ns and all the constellations rung,
The planets in their stations list’ning stood,
While the bright pomp564 ascended jubilant.
‘Open, ye everlasting gates,’ they sung,565
‘Open, ye Heav’ns, your living doors; let in
The great Creator from his work returned
Magnificent, his six days’ work, a world;
Open, and henceforth oft; for569 God will deign
To visit oft the dwellings of just men
Delighted, and with frequent intercourse
Thither will send his wingèd messengers
On errands of supernal grace.’ So sung
The glorious train ascending: he through Heav’n,
That opened wide her blazing portals, led
To God’s eternal house direct the way,
A broad and ample road, whose dust is gold
And pavement stars, as stars to thee appear,
Seen in the galaxy, that Milky Way579
Which nightly as a circling zone thou seest
Powdered with stars. And now on Earth the seventh
Ev’ning arose in Eden, for the sun
Was set, and twilight from the east came on,
Forerunning night; when at the holy mount
Of Heav’n’s high-seated top, th’ imperial throne
Of Godhead, fixed forever firm and sure,
The Filial Power arrived, and sat him down
With his588 great Father, for he also went
Invisible, yet stayed (such privilege
Hath omnipresence) and the work ordained,
Author and end of all things, and from work
Now resting, blessed and hallowed the sev’nth day,
As resting on that day from all his work,
But not in silence holy kept594; the harp
Had work and rested not, the solemn pipe,
And dulcimer596, all organs of sweet stop,
All sounds on fret597 by string or golden wire
Tempered soft tunings, intermixed with voice
Choral or unison599: of incense clouds
Fuming from golden censers hid the mount.
Creation and the six days’ acts they sung,
‘Great are thy works, Jehovah, infinite
Thy power; what thought can measure thee or tongue
Relate thee; greater now in thy return
Than from the giant angels605; thee that day
Thy thunders magnified; but606 to create
Is greater than created to destroy.
Who can impair thee, mighty king, or bound
Thy empire? Easily the proud attempt
Of spirits apostate and their counsels vain
Thou hast repelled, while impiously they thought
Thee to diminish, and from thee withdraw
The number of thy worshippers. Who seeks
To lessen thee, against his purpose serves
To manifest the more thy might: his evil
Thou usest, and from thence creat’st more good.
Witness this new-made world, another Heav’n
From Heaven gate not far, founded in view
On the clear hyaline619, the glassy sea;
Of amplitude almost immense, with stars
Numerous, and every star perhaps a world621
Of destined habitation621; but thou know’st622
Their seasons622: among these the seat of men,
Earth with her nether ocean624 circumfused,
Their pleasant dwelling place. Thrice happy men,
And sons of men, whom God hath thus advanced,
Created in his image, there to dwell
And worship him, and in reward to rule628
Over his works628, on earth, in sea, or air,
And multiply a race of worshippers
Holy and just: thrice happy if they know631
Their happiness631, and persevere632 upright.’
“So sung they, and the empyrean rung,
With hallelujahs: thus was Sabbath kept.
And thy request think now fulfilled, that asked
How first this world and face of things636 began,
And what before thy memory was done
From the beginning, that posterity
Informed by thee might know; if else thou seek’st
Aught, not surpassing human measure, say.”
1. Descend from Heav’n: evoking Horace’s descende caelo … Calliope (Odes 4.1.2); Urania: the Muse of astronomy in Roman times, but transformed into the Muse of Christian poetry by du Bartas in La Muse Chrestiene (1574).
3. above th’ Olympian hill: Cp. 1.15.
4. Pegasean wing: The winged horse Pegasus ascended to the heavens of Greek mythology, but Milton has risen incomparably higher, to the Heaven of the Christian God.
5. The meaning, not the name: Urania means “heavenly one” in Latin, but Milton calls upon a power found in the Christian Heaven.
9. Wisdom: Wisdom was born “before the hills,” before all Creation, in Prov. 8.24–31. Milton identified her as a personification of the Father’s wisdom (CD 1.7 in MLM 1199). converse: live in company with (Lat. conversari).
13. Heav’n of Heav’ns: the supreme Heaven (an English version of the Hebrew superlative).
15. Thy temp’ring: “made suitable by thee for an earthly guest.”
17–20. Milton defines his hapless condition without the Muse’s aid by reference to the fate of Bellerophon, who tried unsuccessfully to ride Pegasus (see l. 4) to heaven and fell upon the Aleian field (land of wandering), where he died erroneous (i.e., in a state of distraction). According to some, his fall blinded him (Conti, Mythologiae 9.4).
18. clime: region.
21–22. Save for episodes in Books 10 and 11, the remaining action of the poem takes place on Earth.
22. visible diurnal sphere: the visible universe, which appears to rotate around the Earth on a daily basis.
23. rapt: transported; pole: the highest spot in the universe, at which it is chained to Heaven (2.1051–52). Milton went above the pole when representing the divine council at the opening of Book 3.
25. hoarse: In RCG, Milton ruefully noted that pamphlets were “a troubled sea of noises and hoarse disputes” (MLM. 843). mute: probably alludes to the silencing of many Puritan authors during the Restoration. Milton’s point is that his poem has suffered neither of the common fates (becoming hoarse or mute) of Puritan pamphleteers. evil days: After the restoration of the English monarchy in May 1660, an order was issued for Milton’s arrest. He was in fact arrested after hiding out for some weeks, and released in December. During this time some of his books were burned.
26. evil tongues: Among the many authors who reviled Milton during the Restoration were Roger L’Estrange, George Starkey, David Lloyd, Thomas Ford, Robert South, and Samuel Parker.
27. darkness: blindness, from which Milton had suffered since 1652.
28–30. while thou … east: Biographers report that Milton composed either at night or early in the morning (Darbishire 33, 291). Cp. 3.29–32; 9.21–24.
32. barbarous dissonance: The phrase also appears in Masque (l. 550).
33–37. the race … voice: The poet Orpheus was torn to pieces by the Maenads, female followers of Bacchus, after he rejected the love of women. His mother, the epic Muse Calliope, could not save him, as Milton also stresses in Lyc 58–63. But Urania, a higher Muse, can protect her inspired poet.
46. touch: “Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die” (Gen. 3.3); cp. 9.651.
47. sole command: The singularity of the commandment has already been stressed (1.32; 4.421, 423–24, 428).
50. wand’ring: innocently curious wandering at this point, but the word does have the fallen sense of “going astray, losing one’s moral bearings,” as perhaps in line 20. consorted: espoused.
52. admiration: wonder; muse: meditation.
57. redounded: recoiled.
59. repealed: recalled.
63. conspicuous: visible.
72. Divine interpreter: “Mercury, who is the president of language, is called deorum hominumque interpres” (Jonson, Discoveries, in Herford et al. 8:621). Raphael is the Christian Mercury. See also 3.656–57.
79. end: purpose.
83. seemed: seemed good.
85. avail us known: prove valuable to us when known.
88. yields or fills: Air “yields space to all bodies, and … fills up the deserted space [when the bodies move]” (Richardson).
94. Absolved: finished; unforbid: unforbidden.
97. magnify: glorify. “Remember that thou magnify his work, which men behold” (Job 36.24).
98. yet wants: still has to.
99. suspense: attentive, hanging.
100. he hears: The sun or great light of day in line 98 is here personified.
103. unapparent deep: no longer perceptible Chaos.
106. will watch: will stay awake. Sleep (personified) is the subject of this verb.
107. his: Sleep’s.
116. infer: render.
120. Of knowledge within bounds: On this theme, cp. 8.173–97.
121. inventions: speculations; hope: hope for.
124. in Earth or Heaven: The passage has apparently been calling attention to the bounds on human knowledge, but now we learn that the bounds in question limit angelic knowledge as well.
132. So call him: In classical Latin, Lucifer (from Gk. for “light-bringer”) refers to Venus, the morning star. The Christian Fathers called Satan by the name of Lucifer, perhaps in reference to his original brightness. In Milton’s four drafts for a tragedy on the fall of man in the CMS, the character is referred to as Lucifer, not Satan. Cp. 5.760, 10.425.
136. saints: angels.
143. fraud: The word has its usual meaning of dishonesty and deception, but also the sense of Latin fraus (crime, injury). Satan not only drew his followers into deceit; he ruined them.
144. their place knows here no more: a scriptural idiom (Ps. 101.16, Job 7.10); cp. 11.50–57.
145. the greater part: Cp. 2.692n.
146. station: post, duty.
150–55. Empson concludes that God creates us “to spite the devils.” The passage says as much; but God also stresses that the Creation was not necessitated by the defection of the rebel angels.
152. fondly: foolishly.
156. men innumerable: A finite number of angels were created; they do not reproduce. The breeding race of men, by contrast, is innumerable (unnumbered). See Augustine, City of God 22.1. Thomas Browne wrote of “the fertility of Adam, and the magic of that sperm that hath dilated into so many millions” (Religio Medici 1.48).
162. inhabit lax: “dwell at ease” (having vanquished the rebels) and “dwell at large” (having more of Heaven to yourselves).
165. The Son creates the world, but using the Spirit and might of the Father. This combination of agency and service is typical of Milton’s Arian Christology (see 3.169–72, 384–96; 6.680–83).
168–71. Boundless … goodness: The passage is highly compressed. The deep (uncreated Chaos) will not be any less boundless because of Creation. It is infinite because filled by an infinite God, who can nonetheless, and also with no loss of infinity, retire from it.
171. free: “In God a certain immutable internal necessity to do good, independent of all outside influence, can be consistent with absolute freedom of action” (CD 1.3 in MLM 1155). It is crucial to Milton that God be free to put forth his goodness in Creation, or not.
172. necessity and chance: a philosophical binary that the Christian God was often said to transcend (Augustine, City of God 5.1.8–10, on necessity; Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy 4.1–2, on chance). In Milton, Chance rules only embryonic atoms (2.907), and necessity is “the tyrant’s plea” (4.394).
173. what I will is fate: “Fate or fatum is only what is fatum, spoken, by some almighty power” (CD 1.2 in MLM 1146). Paradoxes would seem to be on the horizon: if God wills our will to be free, then freedom is fate. But Milton tried to keep divine and human freedom at a distance from such dialectical cleverness. Theologically, politically, and aesthetically, liberty was his most cherished concept.
175. the filial Godhead: the Son.
176. Immediate are the acts of God: Augustine maintained that the six days of Creation in Genesis symbolize one instantaneous act (De Genesi 1.1–3).
178. process of speech: the successive acts that constitute speech.
179. earthly notion: human understanding.
180–83. The passage is based on Job 38.7 and Luke 2.14.
188. Good out of evil: remembering 1.162–63 and anticipating 7.613–16 and 12.469–78.
194. Girt: armed.
197. poured: crowded together; not arranged in an orderly fashion.
200. armory of God: “The Lord hath opened his armory” (Jer. 50.25). See 6.321.
201. Four chariots are seen between two mountains in Zech. 6.1.
202. Against: in readiness for.
203–5. now … Lord: See the animated chariot of 6.845–50.
205. opened wide: Cp. the self-opening gate of 5.254–55, derived from Ps. 24.7.
206. ever-during: everlasting.
212. Outrageous: immense, unrestrained; wasteful: desolate.
217. omnific: all-creating. We have replaced the colon at the end of this line in 1667 with a period and sacrificed an effect: as the colon would have suggested, omnific Word is the subject of the next syntactical unit’s verbs (stayed, uplifted, rode).
224. fervid: glowing (from motion).
225. compasses: Wisdom declares in Prov. 8:27, “I was there: then he set a compass upon the face of the depth.” Cp. Dante, Par. 19.40–42.
226. circumscribe: mark out the limits of.
231. just: exact.
233. Matter unformed and void: “The earth was without form, and void” (Gen. 1.2).
235. brooding wings: See 1.20–22.
236. vital virtue: the stuff of life.
238. tartareous: hellish.
239. founded: usually glossed as “laid the foundation,” but Leonard’s “attached” fits the context perfectly. The word has biblical precedent (Ps. 89.11; Prov. 3.19). conglobed: gathered into separate spheres.
241. Disparted: separated in different directions.
242. self-balanced: Cp. Nat Ode 117–24; her center: See 4.1000–1001; 5.578–79.
243–52. Milton’s version of Gen. 1.3–5.
244. Since the sun and other heavenly bodies are not created until the fourth day, commentators had somehow to distinguish ordinary celestial light from the light of Gen. 1.3. Milton identifies the primal light with ether, a fifth element (quintessence) thought to be ubiquitous above the sphere of the moon.
248. tabernacle: dwelling. “He set a tabernacle for the sun” (Ps. 19.4).
252. ev’n and morn: The Hebrew day was measured from evening to evening, though the meaning of evening was disputed. According to Fowler, “Milton clearly followed Jerome in reckoning from sunset” (Introduction, 30). Ev’n here must therefore mean “sunset.”
254. orient: bright, eastern.
255. Exhaling: rising as a vapor. The earth was thought to emit vaporous clouds (exhalations) that rose toward the heavens and often combusted. Milton implicitly compares the separation of light from darkness to this phenomenon.
261–74. Milton’s version of Gen. 1.6–8. The waters above the firmament are identified with the space between the earth and the crystalline sphere at the rim of the universe; the lower waters are the earth’s oceans.
264. expanse: a correct translation of the Hebrew word rendered “firmament” in the AV.
267. this great round: the universe.
269. the world: the universe.
273. distemper the whole frame: disturb the order of the elements, making the universe too hot or too cold.
277. embryon immature involved: wrapped (by waters) in an immature embryonic state.
281. great mother: Earth, who is both the mother and her child.
282. genial: fertilizing.
288. tumid: swollen.
291. precipitance: flowing, falling.
292. conglobing: assembling into spheres.
293. crystal wall: See the description of the parting of the Red Sea at 12.196–97. ridge direct: move forward like waves.
299. with torrent rapture: with torrential force, with rapturous obedience.
302. serpent error wand’ring: a crucial text for critics who argue for the presence of unfallen and fallen languages in the poem, since all three words have a sinful signification, but also an “innocent” one: serpent could mean “serpentine”; error mean “winding course”; and wand’ring mean “moving now this way, now that way.” See Ricks 1963, 110; Fish 1967, 130–41.
308. congregated waters: For Gen. 1.10 the Vulgate reads congregationesque aquarum.
309–33. Milton’s version of Gen. 1.11–13.
313–19. the bare earth … sweet: Here, as throughout the account of Creation, Milton describes the shaping activity of logoi spermatikoi (seminal seeds) embedded in matter. Augustine had adapted from Stoic cosmology the notion of these seeds or rationes seminales informed with the Creator’s ideas of all things (De Trinitate 3.8.3). The Son speaks, the logoi spermatikoi obediently unfold. For more on this tradition, see Curry 1937, 29–49.
321. swelling: Both 1667 and 1674 read “smelling.”
322. Embattled: See the cornlike spears of 4.980–82; add: moreover.
323. hair: leaves and branches; implicit: entangled.
325. gemmed: budded (from Lat. gemmare).
332. man to till the ground: See Gen. 2.5.
338. recorded: bore witness to.
339–86. Milton’s version of Gen. 1.14–19.
348. altern: by turns.
351. vicissitude: alternation.
356. of ethereal mold: made from quintessential matter (see 244n).
357. every magnitude of stars: stars of every degree of brightness.
366. morning planet: Venus or Lucifer; her: So 1667; 1674 has “his.” Venus would fit her, Lucifier his, but morning planet could be either, and there is no strong reason for preferring one reading to the other.
367. tincture or reflection: absorbing or reflecting the sun’s light.
368. Their small peculiar: their own small light.
372. Invested: clothed, arrayed; jocund to run: See Ps. 19.4–5.
373. longitude: course from east to west.
374–75. Pleiades … influence: Job 38.31: “Canst thou bind the sweet influences to the Pleiades?”
376. leveled west: due west (directly opposite).
377. His mirror: in the sense that the moon reflects the sun’s light.
379. In that aspect: in that position (when the moon is full).
381. axle: axis.
382. dividual: divided.
387–448. Milton’s version of Gen. 1.20–23.
388. Reptile: creeping things, including fish.
390. Displayed: spread out.
393. by their kinds: according to their species.
403. Bank the mid sea: form living banks or shelves.
409. smooth: smooth or calm water.
410. bended: arching themselves.
412. leviathan: the whale; an animal as opposed to the satanic emblem of 1.200–208.
415–16. gills … trunk: perhaps a residue of the medieval correspondence between whales and elephants, though words like gills and trunk had a considerable range of reference (see Edwards 110–13).
419. kindly: natural.
420. callow: unfeathered; fledge: fledged.
421. summed their pens: gained their full complement of feathers.
422. clang: harsh cry; despised: looked down upon.
422–23. under a cloud/In prospect: There was such a mass of birds that the ground seemed to be under a cloud.
425. loosely: singly.
427. Intelligent: cognizant. There are no seasons until the celestial adjustments of 10.651–707. No adjustments will have to be made in the birds themselves. They are hardwired from day one with the inclination to migrate.
429–30. Flying … flight: Some migrating birds were supposed to take turns resting on one another (Svendsen 1969, 158).
432. Floats: undulates.
434. Solaced: cheered; painted: imitated from Vergil, Aen. 4.525.
439. mantling: forming a mantle (by raising their wings).
440. Her state: her stature or rank.
441. dank: pool; pennons: pinions; tower: rise into.
442. mid-aerial sky: the midair, a cold region where clouds are found.
444. th’ other: the other cock (i.e., the peacock).
446. eyes: the eye-shaped configurations on the plumage of peacocks.
450–98. Milton’s version of Gen. 1.24–25.
451. soul: Both early editions read “foul” (fowl), which have already been created.
454. teemed: brought forth.
457. wons: dwells.
461. rare: here and there.
464. lion: the first land animal to be named, which seems to defer to the old bestiaries that accounted him “king of beasts.” Milton’s lion is rampant (rearing up), as in heraldry, but calved and brinded associate the lion with humbler beasts (Edwards 126).
471. Behemoth: the elephant.
474. river horse: translates “hippopotamus”; scaly crocodile: In the tradition of European natural history, the crocodile was the epitome of strangeness; see Shakespeare, ANT 2.7.41–51. It was famous for its false tears, its cruelty, its odd relationship to a bird that supposedly gnawed its entrails. In this respect, Milton’s scaly crocodile, “stripped of lore and lessons,” provides another example of his interest in “freeing animals from their symbolic places” (Edwards 120, 127).
476. worm: a designation for serpents as well as insects (which creep the ground).
482. Minims: smallest creatures.
483. involved: coiled.
485. parsimonious emmet: thrifty ant.
486. large heart: capacious intellect.
487–89. Pattern … commonalty: Ants were often praised for their prudence and democratic commonality; Aristotle had remarked that they knew no king (Svendsen 1969, 150–52).
465–67. left side … fresh: The Bible does not specify from which side the rib came, but tradition overwhelmingly chose the left, in part because of nearness to the heart (see l. 484; A. Williams 90–91).
490. The female bee: In Milton’s day it was believed that worker bees were sterile females and drones male. Bees were traditionally monarchical (Shakespeare, H5 1.2.183–204), but Milton disputed that belief in 1Def. (Yale 4:348–50).
493. gav’st them names: See 8.342–54.
497. hairy main: Vergil described the serpents that strangled Laocoön as having bloodred manes (Aen. 2.203–7); terrific: terrifying.
498. Not noxious: not evil or harmful.
504. Frequent: in throngs.
505. the end: the completion of Creation and the being for whom all the rest had been done.
508–10. might … self-knowing: Man’s uprightness was noted by Ovid, Met. 1.76–86, and was commonly treated by Christian writers as a sign of moral and spiritual dignity.
509. front: forehead.
510. self-knowing: knowing himself as created in the image and likeness of God; Shakespeare’s Isabella memorably declares that this knowledge is sadly curtailed among fallen men (MM 2.2.120–24). from thence: as a result of these qualities.
511. Magnanimous: great-souled, high-minded; to correspond with: to be an image of, to be in contact with.
519–34. Milton’s version of Gen. 1.26–31.
528. Express: exactly depicted.
530–34. blessed … Earth: See Gen. 1.28.
537. delicious: delightful.
552. unwearied: The Son did not “rest” on the seventh day because his strength was in any sense depleted.
557. idea: the only occurrence of the word idea in Milton’s English poetry. It bears the Platonic-Augustinian sense of “ideal form, pattern.” Thus Simon Goulart: “The idea, the form and pattern of them [all things] was in the science and intelligence of God … as Saint Augustine and others have expounded” (1621, 8–9).
559. Symphonius: harmonious; tuned: played.
564. pomp: procession; jubilant: shouting with joy.
565–67. Based on Ps. 23.7.
569–73. for … grace: CD 1.9 discusses the earthly missions of angels.
579. Milky Way: The road to Heaven is like the Milky Way but not the Milky Way itself, as it is in Ovid, Met. 1.168–71.
588–90. The editions of 1667 and 1674 punctuate confusingly: “With his great Father (for he also went/Invisible, yet stayed (such privilege/Hath omnipresence).”
594. not in silence holy kept: The prominence of music at the first Sabbath indicates Milton’s disagreement with the stricter versions of Puritan Sabbatarianism (Berry 61–101).
596. dulcimer: a stringed instrument played with small hammers; stop: the register of an organ.
597. fret: a ridge on the fingerboard of a stringed instrument.
599. Choral or unison: in parts or in unison.
605. giant angels: referring to the defeat of the rebel angels but alluding to Jove’s defeat of the giants. Cp. 1.50–52, 199–200, 230–37; 6.643–66.
606–7. but … destroy: Satan seeks glory from the lesser course of destroying the work of Creation (9.129–38).
619. hyaline: the transliterated Greek word for the “sea of glass” before God’s throne in Rev. 4.6.
621–22. every … habitation: On the possibility of other worlds being inhabited, see 3.566–71, 8.152–58. On the possibility that man might colonize other worlds, see 3.667–70 and 5.500.
622–23. thou know’st/Their seasons: “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power” (Acts 1.7).
624. nether ocean: the earth’s seas, the waters below the firmament.
628–29. to rule/Over his works: “Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands” (Ps. 8.6).
631–32. thrice … happiness: an adaptation of Vergil’s Georg. 2.458, and one of a number of statements in the poem about the close relationship between Adam and Eve’s happiness and their knowledge of that happiness. See 4.774–75 especially.
632. persevere: continue in a state of grace.
636. face of things: the visible world surrounding us.