from Paradise Lost

The Verse

The measure is English heroic verse without rhyme, as that of Homer in Greek, and of Virgil in Latin; rhyme being no necessary adjunct or true ornament of poem or good verse, in longer works especially, but the invention of a barbarous age, to set off wretched matter and lame metre; graced indeed since by the use of some famous modern poets, carried away by custom, but much to their own vexation, hindrance, and constraint to express many things otherwise, and for the most part worse than else they would have expressed them. Not without cause therefore some both Italian and Spanish poets of prime note have rejected rhyme both in longer and shorter works, as have also long since our best English tragedies, as a thing of itself, to all judicious ears, trivial and of no true musical delight; which consists only in apt numbers, fit quantity of syllables, and the sense variously drawn out from one verse into another, not in the jingling sound of like endings, a fault avoided by the learned ancients both in poetry and all good oratory. This neglect then of rhyme so little is to be taken for a defect, though it may seem so perhaps to vulgar readers, that it rather is to be esteemed an example set, the first in English, of ancient liberty recovered to heroic poem from the troublesome and modern bondage of rhyming.

BOOK I

Of man’s 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,

Sing Heav’nly 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 heav’ns and earth

Rose 10out of Chaos: or if Sion hill

Delight thee more, and Siloa’s brook that flowed

Fast by the oracle of God; I thence

Invoke thy aid to my advent’rous song,

That with no middle flight intends to soar Above

th’ Aonian mount, while it pursues

Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.

And chiefly thou O Spirit, that dost prefer

Before all temples th’ upright heart and pure,

Instruct me, for thou know’st; thou from the first

Wast present20, and with mighty wings outspread

Dove-like sat’st brooding on the vast abyss

And mad’st it pregnant: what in me is dark

Illumine, what is low raise and support;

That to the heighth of this great argument

I may assert Eternal Providence,

And justify the ways of God to men.

Say first, for Heav’n hides nothing from thy view

Nor the deep tract of Hell, say first what cause

Moved our grand parents in that happy state,

Favoured 30of Heav’n so highly, to fall off

From their Creator, and transgress his will

For one restraint, lords of the world besides?

Who first seduced them to that foul revolt?

Th’ infernal Serpent; he it was, whose guile

Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived

The mother of mankind, what time his pride

Had cast him out from Heav’n, with all his host

Of rebel angels, by whose aid aspiring

To set himself in glory above his peers,

He 40trusted to have equalled the Most High,

If he opposed; and with ambitious aim

Against the throne and monarchy of God

Raised impious war in Heav’n and battle proud

With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power

Hurled headlong flaming from th’ ethereal sky

With hideous ruin and combustion down

To bottomless perdition, there to dwell

In adamantine chains and penal fire,

Who durst defy th’ Omnipotent to arms.

Nine 50times the space that measures day and night

To mortal men, he with his horrid crew

Lay vanquished, rolling 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

Torments him; round he throws his baleful eyes

That witnessed huge affliction and dismay

Mixed with obdúrate pride and steadfast hate:

At once as far as angels’ ken he views

The 60dismal situation waste and wild,

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

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 70place Eternal Justice had prepared

For those rebellious, here their prison ordained

In utter darkness, and their portion set

As far removed from God and light of Heav’n

As from the centre thrice to th’ utmost pole.

O how unlike the place from whence they fell!

There the companions of his fall, o’erwhelmed

With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire,

He soon discerns, and welt’ring by his side

One next himself in power, and next in crime,

Long 80after known in Palestine, and named

Beëlzebub. To whom th’ Arch-Enemy,

And thence in Heav’n called Satan, with bold words

Breaking the horrid silence thus began.

‘If thou beest he; but O how fall’n! how changed

From him, who in the happy realms of light

Clothed with transcendent brightness didst outshine

Myriads though bright: if he whom mutual league,

United thoughts and counsels, equal hope

And hazard in the glorious enterprise,

Joined 90with me once, now misery hath joined

In equal ruin: into what pit thou seest

From what heighth fall’n, 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

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 100the fierce contention brought along

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 Heav’n,

And shook his throne. What though the field be lost?

All is not lost; the unconquerable will,

And study of revenge, immortal hate,

And courage never to submit or yield:

And what is else not to be overcome?

That 110glory never shall his wrath or might

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 empire, that were low indeed,

That were an ignominy and shame beneath

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 120with more successful hope resolve

To wage by force or guile eternal war

Irreconcilable, to our grand Foe,

Who now triúmphs, and in th’ excess of joy

Sole reigning holds the tyranny of Heav’n.’

So spake th’ apostate angel, though in pain,

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 th’ embattled Seraphim to war

Under 130thy conduct, and in dreadful deeds

Fearless, endangered Heav’n’s 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

Hath lost us Heav’n, and all this mighty host

In horrible destruction laid thus low,

As far as gods and Heav’nly essences

Can perish: for the mind and spirit remains

Invincible, 140and vigour soon returns,

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 o’erpow’red such force as ours)

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 150right of war, whate’er his business be,

Here in the heart of Hell to work in fire,

Or do his errands in the gloomy deep;

What can it then avail though yet we feel

Strength undiminished, or eternal being

To undergo eternal punishment?’

Whereto with speedy words th’Arch-Fiend replied.

‘Fall’n 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 160to do ill our sole delight,

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;

Which oft-times 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 170ministers of vengeance and pursuit

Back to the gates of Heav’n: the sulphurous hail

Shot after us in storm, o’erblown hath laid

The fiery surge, that from the precipice

Of Heav’n received us falling, and the thunder,

Winged with red lightning and impetuous rage,

Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now

To bellow through the vast and boundless deep.

Let us not slip th’ occasion, whether scorn,

Or satiate fury yield it from our Foe.

Seest 180thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild,

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,

And reassembling our afflicted powers,

Consult how we may henceforth most offend

Our Enemy, our own loss how repair,

How overcome this dire calamity,

What 190reinforcement we may gain from hope,

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

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 200ancient Tarsus held, or that sea-beast

Leviathan, which God of all his works

Created hugest that swim th’ Océan stream:

Him haply slumb’ring on the Norway foam

The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff,

Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell,

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 210on the burning lake, nor ever thence

Had ris’n 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

Evil to others, and enraged might see

How all his malice served but to bring forth

Infinite goodness, grace and mercy shown

On man by him seduced, but on himself

Treble 220confusion, wrath and vengeance poured.

Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool

His mighty stature; on each hand the flames

Driv’n backward slope their pointing spires, and rolled

In billows, leave i’ th’ midst a horrid vale.

Then with expanded wings he steers his flight

Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air

That felt unusual weight, till on dry land

He lights, if it were land that ever burned With solid, as the lake with liquid fire,

And 230such appeared in hue; as when the force

Of subterranean wind transports a hill

Torn from Pelorus, or the shattered side

Of thund’ring Etna, whose combustible

And fuelled entrails thence conceiving fire,

Sublimed with mineral fury, aid the winds,

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, 240and by their own recovered strength,

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 Heav’n, this mournful gloom

For that celestial light? Be it so, since he

Who now is sov’reign can dispose and bid

What shall be right: farthest from him is best

Whom reason hath equalled, force hath made supreme

Above his equals. Farewell happy fields

Where 250joy for ever dwells: hail horrors, hail

Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell

Receive thy new possessor: one who brings

A mind not to be changed by place or time.

The mind is its own place, and in itself

Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.

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; th’ Almighty hath not built

Here for 260his envy, will not drive us hence:

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 Heav’n.

But wherefore let we then our faithful friends,

Th’ associates and copartners of our loss

Lie thus astonished on th’ 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 270in Heav’n, or what more lost in Hell?’

So Satan spake, and him Beëlzebub

Thus answered. ‘Leader of those armies bright,

Which but th’ Omnipotent none could have foiled,

If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge

Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft

In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge

Of battle when it raged, in all assaults

Their surest signal, they will soon resume

New courage and revive, though now they lie

Grovelling 280and prostrate on yon lake of fire,

As we erewhile, astounded and amazed,

No wonder, fall’n such a pernicious heighth.’

He scarce had ceased when the superior Fiend

Was moving toward the shore; his ponderous shield

Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round,

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 Fesole,

Or 290in Valdarno, to descry new lands,

Rivers or mountains in her spotty globe.

His spear, to 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

Over the burning marl, not like those steps

On Heaven’s azure; and the torrid clime

Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with fire;

Nathless he so endured, till on the beach

Of 300that inflamèd sea, he stood and called

His legions, angel forms, who lay entranced

Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks

In Vallombrosa, where th’ Etrurian shades

High overarched embow’r; or scattered sedge

Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion armed

Hath vexed the Red Sea coast, whose waves o’erthrew

Busiris and his Memphian chivalry,

While with perfidious hatred they pursued

The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld

From 310the safe shore their floating carcasses

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,

Warriors, the flow’r of Heav’n, once yours, now lost,

If such astonishment as this can seize

Eternal Spirits: or have ye chos’n this place

After the toil of battle to repose

Your 320wearied virtue, for the ease you find

To slumber here, as in the vales of Heav’n?

Or in this abject posture have ye sworn

To adore the Conqueror? who now beholds

Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood

With scattered arms and ensigns, till anon

His swift pursuers from Heav’n gates discern

Th’ advantage, and descending tread us down

Thus drooping, or with linkèd thunderbolts

Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf.

Awake, 330arise, or be for ever fall’n.’

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

In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel;

Yet to their General’s voice they soon obeyed

Innumerable. As when the potent rod

Of Amram’s son in Egypt’s evil day

Waved 340round the coast, up called a pitchy cloud

Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind,

That o’er 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

’Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding fires;

Till, as a signal giv’n, th’ uplifted spear

Of their great Sultan waving to direct

Their course, in even balance down they light

On 350the firm brimstone, and fill all the plain;

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.

Forthwith from every squadron and each band

The heads and leaders thither haste where stood

Their great Commander; godlike shapes and forms

Excelling human, Princely dignities,

And 360Powers that erst in Heaven sat on thrones;

Though of their names in Heav’nly records now

Be no memorial, blotted out and razed

By their rebellion, from the Books of Life.

Nor had they yet among the sons of Eve

Got them new names, till wand’ring o’er the earth,

Through God’s high sufferance for the trial of man,

By falsities and lies the greatest part

Of mankind they corrupted to forsake

God their Creator, and th’ invisible

Glory 370of him that made them, to transform

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.

Say, Muse, their names then known, who first, who last,

Roused from the slumber on that fiery couch,

At their great Emperor’s call, as next in worth

Came singly where he stood on the bare strand,

While 380the promiscuous crowd stood yet aloof?

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

Jehovah thund’ring out of Sion, throned

Between the Cherubim; yea, often placed

Within his sanctuary itself their shrines,

Abominations; and with cursèd things

His 390holy rites, and solemn feasts profaned,

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 children’s cries unheard, that passed through fire

To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite

Worshipped in Rabba and her wat’ry plain,

In Argob and in Basan, to the stream

Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such

Audacious 400neighbourhood, the wisest heart

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.

Next Chemos, th’ óbscene dread of Moab’s sons,

From Aroer to Nebo, and the wild

Of southmost Abarim; in Hesebon

And Horonaim, Seon’s realm, beyond

The 410flow’ry dale of Sibma clad with vines,

And Elealè to th’ Asphaltic 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

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 bord’ring flood

Of 420old Euphrates to the brook that parts

Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names

Of Baälim and Ashtaroth, those male,

These feminine. For Spirits when they please

Can either sex assume, or both; so soft

And uncompounded is their essence pure;

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 430execute their airy purposes,

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

Bowed down in battle, sunk before the spear

Of déspicable foes. With these in troop

Came Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians called

Astarte, queen of Heav’n, with crescent horns;

To 440whose bright image nightly by the moon

Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs,

In Sion also not unsung, where stood

Her temple on th’ offensive mountain, built

By that uxorious king, whose heart though large, Beguiled by fair idolatresses, fell

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 summer’s day,

While 450smooth Adonis from his native rock

Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood

Of Thammuz yearly wounded: the love-tale

Infected Sion’s daughters with like heat,

Whose wanton passions in the sacred porch

Ezekiel saw, when by the vision led

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 lopped off

In his 460own temple, on the grunsel edge,

Where he fell flat, and shamed his worshippers:

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,

And Accaron and Gaza’s frontier bounds.

Him followed Rimmon, whose delightful seat

Was fair Damascus, on the fertile banks

Of Abbana and Pharphar, lucid streams.

He 470also against the house of God was bold:

A leper once he lost and gained a king,

Ahaz his sottish conqueror, whom he drew

God’s altar to disparage and displace

For one of Syrian mode, whereon to burn

His odious off’rings, and adore the gods

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 480Egypt and her priests, to seek

Their wand’ring gods disguised in brutish forms

Rather than human. Nor did Israel ’scape

Th’ infection when their borrowed gold composed

The calf in Oreb: and the rebel king

Doubled that sin in Bethel and in Dan,

Lik’ning 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 490came last, than whom a Spirit more lewd

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 Eli’s sons, who filled

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 tow’rs,

And 500injury and outrage: and when night

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.

These were the prime in order and in might;

The rest were long to tell, though far renowned,

Th’ Ionian gods, of Javan’s issue held

Gods, yet confessed later than Heav’n and Earth

Their 510boasted parents; Titan Heav’n’s first-born

With his enormous brood, and birthright seized

By younger Saturn, he from mightier Jove

His own and Rhea’s son like measure found;

So Jove usurping reigned: these first in Crete

And Ida known, thence on the snowy top

Of cold Olympus ruled the middle air

Their highest heav’n; or on the Delphian cliff,

Or in Dodona, and through all the bounds

Of Doric land; or who with Saturn old

Fled 520over Adria to th’ Hesperian fields,

And o’er 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

In loss itself; which on his count’nance cast

Like doubtful hue: but he his wonted pride

Soon recollecting, with high words, that bore

Semblance of worth, not substance, gently raised

Their 530fainting courage, and dispelled their fears.

Then straight commands that at the warlike 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

Th’ imperial ensign, which full high advanced

Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind

With gems and golden lustre rich emblazed,

Seraphic arms and trophies: all the while

Sonórous 540metal blowing martial sounds:

At which the universal host upsent

A shout that tore Hell’s 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

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 550perfect phalanx to the Dorian mood

Of flutes and soft recorders; such as raised

To heighth 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,

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 560united force with fixèd thought

Moved on in silence to soft pipes that charmed

Their painful steps o’er the burnt soil; and now

Advanced in view they stand, a horrid front

Of dreadful length and dazzling arms, in guise

Of warriors old with ordered spear and shield,

Awaiting what command their mighty chief

Had to impose: he through the armèd files

Darts his experienced eye, and soon traverse

The whole battalion views; their order due,

Their 570visages and stature as of gods,

Their number last he sums. And now his heart

Distends with pride, and hard’ning in his strength

Glories: for never since created man,

Met such embodied force, as named with these

Could merit more than that small infantry

Warred on by cranes: though all the Giant brood

Of Phlegra with th’ heroic race were joined

That fought at Thebes and Ilium, on each side

Mixed with auxiliar gods; and what resounds

In 580fable or romance of Uther’s son

Begirt with British and Armoric knights;

And all who since, baptized or infidel

Jousted in Aspramont or Montalban,

Damasco, or Morocco, or Trebizond,

Or whom Biserta sent from Afric shore

When Charlemagne 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 590and gesture proudly eminent

Stood like a tow’r; his form had yet not lost

All her original brightness, nor appeared

Less than Archangel ruined, and th’ excess

Of glory obscured: as when the sun new ris’n

Looks through the horizontal misty air

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 shone

Above 600them all th’ Archangel: but his face

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

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 610Heav’n, and from eternal splendours flung

For his revolt, yet faithful how they stood,

Their glory withered. As when Heaven’s 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

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 620such as angels weep, burst forth: at last

Words interwove with sighs found out their way.

‘O myriads of immortal Spirits, O Powers

Matchless, but with th’ Almighty, and that strife

Was not inglorious, though th’ event was dire,

As this place testifies, and this dire change

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 630stood like these, could ever know repulse?

For who can yet believe, though after loss,

That all these puissant legions, whose exíle

Hath emptied Heav’n, shall fail to reascend

Self-raised, and repossess their native seat?

For me be witness all the host of Heav’n,

If counsels different, or danger shunned

By me, have lost our hopes. But he who reigns

Monarch in Heav’n, till then as one secure

Sat on his throne, upheld by old repute,

Consent 640or custom, and his regal state

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

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 650may produce new worlds; whereof so rife

There went a fame in Heav’n that he ere long

Intended to create, and therein plant

A generation, whom his choice regard

Should favour equal to the sons of Heav’n:

Thither, if but to pry, shall be perhaps

Our first eruption; thither or elsewhere:

For this infernal pit shall never hold

Celestial Spirits in bondage, nor th’ abyss

Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts

Full 660counsel must mature: peace is despaired,

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

Far round illumined Hell: highly they raged

Against the Highest, and fierce with graspèd arms

Clashed on their sounding shields the din of war,

Hurling defiance toward the vault of Heav’n.

There 670stood a hill not far whose grisly top

Belched fire and rolling smoke; the rest entire

Shone with a glossy scurf, undoubted sign

That in his womb was hid metallic ore,

The work of sulphur. Thither winged with speed

A numerous brígade hastened. As when bands

Of pioneers 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 680Heav’n, for ev’n in Heav’n his looks and thoughts

Were always downward bent, admiring more

The riches of Heav’n’s pavement, trodden gold,

Than aught divine or holy else enjoyed

In vision beatific: by him first

Men also, and by his suggestion taught,

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 690digged out ribs of gold. Let none admire

That riches grow in Hell; that soil may best

Deserve the precious bane. And here let those

Who boast in mortal things, and wond’ring tell

Of Babel, and the works of Memphian kings,

Learn how their greatest monuments of fame,

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 700on the plain in many cells prepared,

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

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 710out of the earth a fabric huge

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

Cornice or frieze with bossy sculptures grav’n;

The roof was fretted gold. Not Babylon,

Nor great Alcairo such magnificence

Equalled in all their glories, to enshrine

720Belus or Serapis their gods, or seat

Their kings, when Egypt with Assyria strove

In wealth and luxury. Th’ ascending pile

Stood fixed her stately heighth, and straight the doors

Op’ning their brazen folds discover wide

Within, her ample spaces, o’er the smooth

And level pavement: from the archèd roof

Pendent by subtle magic many a row

Of starry lamps and blazing cressets fed

With naphtha and asphaltus yielded light

As 730from a sky. The hasty multitude

Admiring entered, and the work some praise

And some the architect: his hand was known

In Heav’n by many a towered structure high,

Where sceptred angels held their residence,

And sat as princes, whom the súpreme King

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 740called him Mulciber; and how he fell

From Heav’n, they fabled, thrown by angry Jove

Sheer o’er the crystal battlements: from morn

To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve,

A summer’s day: and with the setting sun

Dropped from the zenith like a falling star,

On Lemnos th’ Aégean isle: thus they relate,

Erring; for he with this rebellious rout

Fell long before; nor aught availed him now

To have built in Heav’n high tow’rs; nor did he ’scape

By 750all his engines, but was headlong sent

With his industrious crew to build in Hell.

Meanwhile the wingèd heralds by command

Of sov’reign power, with awful ceremony

And trumpets’ sound throughout the host proclaim

A solemn council forthwith to be held

At Pandaemonium, 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 760hundreds and with thousands trooping came

Attended: all accéss 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 Soldan’s chair

Defied the best of paynim chivalry

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 springtime, when the sun with Taurus rides,

Pour 770forth their populous youth about the hive

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 airy crowd

Swarmed and were straitened; till the signal giv’n,

Behold a wonder! They but now who seemed

In bigness to surpass Earth’s Giant sons

Now less than smallest dwarfs, in narrow room

Throng 780numberless, like that Pygméan race

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

Wheels her pale course: they on their mirth and dance

Intent, with jocund music charm his ear;

At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds.

Thus incorporeal Spirits to smallest forms

Reduced 790their shapes immense, and were at large,

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

A thousand demi-gods on golden seats,

Frequent and full. After short silence then

And summons read, the great consult began.

BOOK II

High on a throne of royal state, which far

Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind,

Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand

Show’rs on her kings barbaric pearl and gold,

Satan exalted sat, by merit raised

To that bad eminence; and from despair

Thus high uplifted beyond hope, aspires

Beyond thus high, insatiate to pursue

Vain war with Heav’n, and by success untaught

His 10proud imaginations thus displayed.

‘Powers and Dominions, deities of Heaven,

For since no deep within her gulf can hold

Immortal vigour, though oppressed and fall’n,

I give not Heav’n for lost. From this descent

Celestial Virtues rising, will appear

More glorious and more dread than from no fall,

And trust themselves to fear no second fate:

Me though just right, and the fixed laws of Heav’n

Did first create your leader, next, free choice,

With 20what besides, in counsel or in fight,

Hath been achieved of merit, yet this loss

Thus far at least recovered, hath much more

Established in a safe unenvied throne

Yielded with full consent. The happier state

In Heav’n, which follows dignity, might draw

Envy from each inferior; but who here

Will envy whom the highest place exposes

Foremost to stand against the Thunderer’s aim

Your bulwark, and condemns to greatest share

Of 30endless pain? Where there is then no good

For which to strive, no strife can grow up there

From faction; for none sure will claim in Hell

Precédence, none, whose portion is so small

Of present pain, that with ambitious mind

Will covet more. With this advantage then

To union, and firm faith, and firm accord,

More than can be in Heav’n, we now return

To claim our just inheritance of old,

Surer to prosper than prosperity

Could 40have assured us; and by what best way,

Whether of open war or covert guile,

We now debate; who can advise, may speak.’

He ceased, and next him Moloch, sceptred king

Stood up, the strongest and the fiercest Spirit

That fought in Heav’n; now fiercer by despair:

His trust was with th’ Eternal to be deemed

Equal in strength, and rather than be less

Cared not to be at all; with that care lost

Went all his fear: of God, or Hell, or worse

He recked 50not, and these words thereafter spake.

‘My sentence is for open war: of wiles,

More unexpért, I boast not: them let those

Contrive who need, or when they need, not now.

For while they sit contriving, shall the rest,

Millions that stand in arms, and longing wait

The signal to ascend, sit ling’ring here

Heav’n’s fugitives, and for their dwelling place

Accept this dark opprobrious den of shame,

The prison of his tyranny who reigns

By 60our delay? No, let us rather choose

Armed with Hell flames and fury all at once

O’er Heav’n’s high tow’rs to force resistless way,

Turning our tortures into horrid arms

Against the Torturer; when to meet the noise

Of his almighty engine he shall hear

Infernal thunder, and for lightning see

Black fire and horror shot with equal rage

Among his angels; and his throne itself

Mixed with Tartarean sulphur, and strange fire,

His 70own invented torments. But perhaps

The way seems difficult and steep to scale

With upright wing against a higher foe.

Let such bethink them, if the sleepy drench

Of that forgetful lake benumb not still,

That in our proper motion we ascend

Up to our native seat: descent and fall

To us is adverse. Who but felt of late

When the fierce foe hung on our broken rear

Insulting, and pursued us through the deep,

With 80what compulsion and laborious flight

We sunk thus low? Th’ ascent is easy then;

Th’ event is feared; should we again provoke

Our stronger, some worse way his wrath may find

To our destruction: if there be in Hell

Fear to be worse destroyed: what can be worse

Than to dwell here, driv’n out from bliss, condemned

In this abhorrèd deep to utter woe;

Where pain of unextinguishable fire

Must exercise us without hope of end

The 90vassals of his anger, when the scourge

Inexorably, and the torturing hour

Calls us to penance? More destroyed than thus

We should be quite abolished and expire.

What fear we then? What doubt we to incense

His utmost ire? Which to the heighth enraged,

Will either quite consume us, and reduce

To nothing this essential, happier far

Than miserable to have eternal being:

Or if our substance be indeed divine,

100And cannot cease to be, we are at worst

On this side nothing; and by proof we feel

Our power sufficient to disturb his Heav’n,

And with perpetual inroads to alarm,

Though inaccessible, his fatal throne:

Which if not victory is yet revenge.’

He ended frowning, and his look denounced

Desperate revenge, and battle dangerous

To less than gods. On th’ other side up rose

Belial, in act more graceful and humane:

A fairer 110person lost not Heav’n; he seemed

For dignity composed and high explóit:

But all was false and hollow; though his tongue

Dropped manna, and could make the worse appear

The better reason, to perplex and dash

Maturest counsels: for his thoughts were low;

To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds

Timorous and slothful: yet he pleased the ear,

And with persuasive accent thus began.

‘I should be much for open war, O Peers,

As not 120behind in hate; if what was urged

Main reason to persuade immediate war,

Did not dissuade me most, and seem to cast

Ominous conjecture on the whole success:

When he who most excels in fact of arms,

In what he counsels and in what excels

Mistrustful, grounds his courage on despair

And utter dissolution, as the scope

Of all his aim, after some dire revenge.

First, what revenge? The tow’rs of Heav’n are filled

With 130armèd watch, that render all accéss

Impregnable; oft on the bordering deep

Encamp their legions, or with óbscure wing

Scout far and wide into the realm of Night,

Scorning surprise. Or could we break our way

By force, and at our heels all Hell should rise

With blackest insurrection, to confound

Heav’n’s purest light, yet our great Enemy

All incorruptible would on his throne

Sit unpolluted, and th’ ethereal mould

Incapable 140of stain would soon expel

Her mischief, and purge off the baser fire

Victorious. Thus repulsed, our final hope

Is flat despair: we must exasperate

Th’ Almighty Victor to spend all his rage,

And that must end us, that must be our cure,

To be no more; sad cure; for who would lose,

Though full of pain, this intellectual being,

Those thoughts that wander through eternity,

To perish rather, swallowed up and lost

In 150the wide womb of uncreated Night,

Devoid of sense and motion? And who knows,

Let this be good, whether our angry Foe

Can give it, or will ever? How he can

Is doubtful; that he never will is sure.

Will he, so wise, let loose at once his ire,

Belike through impotence, or unaware,

To give his enemies their wish, and end

Them in his anger, whom his anger saves

To punish endless? “Wherefore cease we then?”

Say 160they who counsel war, “We are decreed,

Reserved and destined to eternal woe;

Whatever doing, what can we suffer more,

What can we suffer worse?” Is this then worst,

Thus sitting, thus consulting, thus in arms?

What when we fled amain, pursued and strook

With Heav’n’s afflicting thunder, and besought

The deep to shelter us? This Hell then seemed

A refuge from those wounds: or when we lay

Chained on the burning lake? That sure was worse.

What if 170the breath that kindled those grim fires

Awaked should blow them into sevenfold rage

And plunge us in the flames? Or from above

Should intermitted vengeance arm again

His red right hand to plague us? What if all

Her stores were opened, and this firmament

Of Hell should spout her cataracts of fire,

Impendent horrors, threat’ning hideous fall

One day upon our heads; while we perhaps

Designing or exhorting glorious war,

Caught 180in a fiery tempest shall be hurled

Each on his rock transfixed, the sport and prey

Of racking whirlwinds, or for ever sunk

Under yon boiling ocean, wrapped in chains;

There to converse with everlasting groans,

Unrespited, unpitied, unreprieved,

Ages of hopeless end; this would be worse.

War therefore, open or concealed, alike

My voice dissuades; for what can force or guile

With him, or who deceive his mind, whose eye

Views all 190things at one view? He from Heav’n’s heighth

All these our motions vain, sees and derides;

Not more Almighty to resist our might

Than wise to frustrate all our plots and wiles.

Shall we then live thus vile, the race of Heav’n

Thus trampled, thus expelled to suffer here

Chains and these torments? Better these than worse

By my advice; since Fate inevitable

Subdues us, and omnipotent decree,

The Victor’s will. To suffer, as to do,

Our 200strength is equal, nor the law unjust

That so ordains: this was at first resolved,

If we were wise, against so great a foe

Contending, and so doubtful what might fall.

I laugh, when those who at the spear are bold

And vent’rous, if that fail them, shrink and fear

What yet they know must follow, to endure

Exile, or ignominy, or bonds, or pain,

The sentence of their Conqueror: this is now

Our doom; which if we can sustain and bear,

Our súpreme 210Foe in time may much remit

His anger, and perhaps thus far removed

Not mind us not offending, satisfied

With what is punished; whence these raging fires

Will slacken, if his breath stir not their flames.

Our purer essence then will overcome

Their noxious vapour, or inured not feel,

Or changed at length, and to the place conformed

In temper and in nature, will receive

Familiar the fierce heat, and void of pain;

This 220horror will grow mild, this darkness light,

Besides what hope the never-ending flight

Of future days may bring, what chance, what change

Worth waiting, since our present lot appears

For happy though but ill, for ill not worst,

If we procure not to ourselves more woe.’

Thus Belial with words clothed in reason’s garb

Counselled ignoble ease, and peaceful sloth,

Not peace: and after him thus Mammon spake.

‘Either to disenthrone the King of Heav’n

We 230war, if war be best, or to regain

Our own right lost: him to unthrone we then

May hope when everlasting Fate shall yield

To fickle Chance, and Chaos judge the strife:

The former vain to hope argues as vain

The latter: for what place can be for us

Within Heav’n’s bound, unless Heav’n’s Lord supreme

We overpower? Suppose he should relent

And publish grace to all, on promise made

Of new subjection; with what eyes could we

Stand 240in his presence humble, and receive

Strict laws imposed, to celebrate his throne

With warbled hymns, and to his Godhead sing

Forced hallelujahs; while he lordly sits

Our envied sov’reign, and his altar breathes

Ambrosial odours and ambrosial flowers,

Our servile offerings? This must be our task

In Heav’n, this our delight: how wearisome

Eternity so spent in worship paid

To whom we hate. Let us not then pursue

By force 250impossible, by leave obtained

Unácceptáble, though in Heav’n, our state

Of splendid vassalage, but rather seek

Our own good from ourselves, and from our own

Live to ourselves, though in this vast recess,

Free, and to none accountable, preferring

Hard liberty before the easy yoke

Of servile pomp. Our greatness will appear

Then most conspicuous, when great things of small,

Useful of hurtful, prosperous of adverse

We can 260create, and in what place soe’er

Thrive under evil, and work ease out of pain

Through labour and endurance. This deep world

Of darkness do we dread? How oft amidst

Thick clouds and dark doth Heav’n’s all-ruling Sire

Choose to reside, his glory unobscured,

And with the majesty of darkness round

Covers his throne; from whence deep thunders roar

Must’ring their rage, and Heav’n resembles Hell?

As he our darkness, cannot we his light

Imitate when 270we please? This desert soil

Wants not her hidden lustre, gems and gold;

Nor want we skill or art, from whence to raise

Magnificence; and what can Heav’n show more?

Our torments also may in length of time

Become our elements, these piercing fires

As soft as now severe, our temper changed

Into their temper; which must needs remove

The sensible of pain. All things invite

To peaceful counsels, and the settled state

Of order, 280how in safety best we may

Compose our present evils, with regard

Of what we are and where, dismissing quite

All thoughts of war: ye have what I advise.’

He scarce had finished, when such murmur filled

Th’ assembly, as when hollow rocks retain

The sound of blust’ring winds, which all night long

Had roused the sea, now with hoarse cadence lull

Seafaring men o’erwatched, whose bark by chance

Or pinnace anchors in a craggy bay

After the 290tempest: such applause was heard

As Mammon ended, and his sentence pleased,

Advising peace: for such another field

They dreaded worse than Hell: so much the fear

Of thunder and the sword of Michaël

Wrought still within them; and no less desire

To found this nether empire, which might rise

By policy, and long procéss of time,

In emulation opposite to Heav’n.

Which when Beëlzebub perceived, than whom,

Satan 300except, none higher sat, with grave

Aspéct he rose, and in his rising seemed

A pillar of state; deep on his front engraven

Deliberation sat and public care;

And princely counsel in his face yet shone,

Majestic though in ruin: sage he stood

With Atlantéan shoulders fit to bear

The weight of mightiest monarchies; his look

Drew audience and attention still as night

Or summer’s noontide air, while thus he spake.

‘Thrones 310and imperial Powers, offspring of Heav’n

Ethereal Virtues; or these titles now

Must we renounce, and changing style be called

Princes of Hell? For so the popular vote

Inclines, here to continue, and build up here

A growing empire; doubtless; while we dream,

And know not that the King of Heav’n hath doomed

This place our dungeon, not our safe retreat

Beyond his potent arm, to live exempt

From Heav’n’s high jurisdiction, in new league

Banded 320against his throne, but to remain

In strictest bondage, though thus far removed,

Under th’ inevitable curb, reserved

His captive multitude: for he, be sure

In heighth or depth, still first and last will reign

Sole King, and of his kingdom lose no part

By our revolt, but over Hell extend

His empire, and with iron sceptre rule

Us here, as with his golden those in Heav’n.

What sit we then projecting peace and war?

War 330hath determined us, and foiled with loss

Irreparable; terms of peace yet none

Vouchsafed or sought; for what peace will be giv’n

To us enslaved, but custody severe,

And stripes, and arbitrary punishment

Inflicted? And what peace can we return,

But to our power hostility and hate,

Untamed reluctance, and revenge though slow,

Yet ever plotting how the Conqueror least

May reap his conquest, and may least rejoice

In doing 340what we most in suffering feel?

Nor will occasion want, nor shall we need

With dangerous expedition to invade

Heav’n, whose high walls fear no assault or siege,

Or ambush from the deep. What if we find

Some easier enterprise? There is a place

(If ancient and prophetic fame in Heav’n

Err not) another world, the happy seat

Of some new race called Man, about this time

To be created like to us, though less

In power 350and excellence, but favoured more

Of him who rules above; so was his will

Pronounced among the gods, and by an oath,

That shook Heav’n’s whole circumference, confirmed.

Thither let us bend all our thoughts, to learn

What creatures there inhabit, of what mould,

Or substance, how endued, and what their power,

And where their weakness, how attempted best,

By force or subtlety: though Heav’n be shut,

And Heav’n’s high Arbitrator sit secure

In his 360own strength, this place may lie exposed

The utmost border of his kingdom, left

To their defence who hold it: here perhaps

Some advantageous act may be achieved

By sudden onset, either with Hell fire

To waste his whole Creation, or possess

All as our own, and drive as we were driven,

The puny habitants, or if not drive,

Seduce them to our party, that their God

May prove their foe, and with repenting hand

Abolish 370his own works. This would surpass

Common revenge, and interrupt his joy

In our confusion, and our joy upraise

In his disturbance; when his darling sons

Hurled headlong to partake with us, shall curse

Their frail original, and faded bliss,

Faded so soon. Advise if this be worth

Attempting, or to sit in darkness here

Hatching vain empires.’ Thus Beëlzebub

Pleaded his devilish counsel, first devised

By 380Satan, and in part proposed: for whence,

But from the author of all ill could spring

So deep a malice, to confound the race

Of mankind in one root, and earth with Hell

To mingle and involve, done all to spite

The great Creator? But their spite still serves

His glory to augment. The bold design

Pleased highly those infernal States, and joy

Sparkled in all their eyes; with full assent

They vote: whereat his speech he thus renews.

‘Well 390have ye judged, well ended long debate,

Synod of gods, and like to what ye are,

Great things resolved, which from the lowest deep

Will once more lift us up, in spite of Fate,

Nearer our ancient seat; perhaps in view

Of those bright confines, whence with neighbouring arms

And opportune excursion we may chance

Re-enter Heav’n; or else in some mild zone

Dwell not unvisited of Heav’n’s fair light

Secure, and at the bright’ning orient beam

Purge off 400this gloom; the soft delicious air,

To heal the scar of these corrosive fires

Shall breathe her balm. But first whom shall we send

In search of this new world, whom shall we find

Sufficient? Who shall tempt with wand’ring feet

The dark unbottomed infinite abyss

And through the palpable obscure find out

His uncouth way, or spread his airy flight

Upborne with indefatigable wings

Over the vast abrupt, ere he arrive

The happy 410isle; what strength, what art can then

Suffice, or what evasion bear him safe

Through the strict senteries and stations thick

Of angels watching round? Here he had need

All circumspection, and we now no less

Choice in our suffrage; for on whom we send,

The weight of all and our last hope relies.’

This said, he sat; and expectation held

His look suspense, awaiting who appeared

To second, or oppose, or undertake

The perilous 420attempt: but all sat mute,

Pondering the danger with deep thoughts; and each

In other’s count’nance read his own dismay

Astonished: none among the choice and prime

Of those Heav’n-warring champions could be found

So hardy as to proffer or accept

Alone the dreadful voyage; till at last

Satan, whom now transcendent glory raised

Above his fellows, with monarchal pride

Conscious of highest worth, unmoved thus spake.

‘O progeny 430of Heav’n, empyreal Thrones,

With reason hath deep silence and demur

Seized us, though undismayed: long is the way

And hard, that out of Hell leads up to light;

Our prison strong, this huge convéx of fire,

Outrageous to devour, immures us round

Ninefold, and gates of burning adamant

Barred over us prohibit all egress.

These passed, if any pass, the void profound

Of unessential Night receives him next

Wide gaping, 440and with utter loss of being

Threatens him, plunged in that abortive gulf.

If thence he ’scape into whatever world,

Or unknown region, what remains him less

Than unknown dangers and as hard escape.

But I should ill become this throne, O Peers,

And this imperial sov’reignty, adorned

With splendour, armed with power, if aught proposed

And judged of public moment, in the shape

Of difficulty or danger could deter

Me from 450attempting. Wherefore do I assume

These royalties, and not refuse to reign,

Refusing to accept as great a share

Of hazard as of honour, due alike

To him who reigns, and so much to him due

Of hazard more, as he above the rest

High honoured sits? Go therefore mighty Powers,

Terror of Heav’n, though fall’n; intend at home,

While here shall be our home, what best may ease

The present misery, and render Hell

More 460tolerable; if there be cure or charm

To respite or deceive, or slack the pain

Of this ill mansion: intermit no watch

Against a wakeful Foe, while I abroad

Through all the coasts of dark destruction seek

Deliverance for us all: this enterprise

None shall partake with me.’ Thus saying rose

The monarch, and prevented all reply,

Prudent, lest from his resolution raised

Others among the chief might offer now

(Certain 470to be refused) what erst they feared;

And so refused might in opinion stand

His rivals, winning cheap the high repute

Which he through hazard huge must earn. But they

Dreaded not more th’ adventure than his voice

Forbidding; and at once with him they rose;

Their rising all at once was as the sound

Of thunder heard remote. Towards him they bend

With awful reverence prone; and as a god

Extol him equal to the highest in Heav’n.

Nor 480failed they to express how much they praised,

That for the general safety he despised

His own: for neither do the Spirits damned

Lose all their virtue; lest bad men should boast

Their specious deeds on earth, which glory excites,

Or close ambition varnished o’er with zeal.

Thus they their doubtful consultations dark

Ended rejoicing in their matchless chief:

As when from mountain tops the dusky clouds

Ascending, while the north wind sleeps, o’erspread

Heav’n’s 490cheerful face, the louring element

Scowls o’er the darkened landscape snow, or show’r;

If chance the radiant sun with farewell sweet

Extend his ev’ning beam, the fields revive,

The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds

Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings.

O shame to men! Devil with devil damned

Firm concord holds, men only disagree

Of creatures rational, though under hope

Of Heav’nly grace: and God proclaiming peace,

Yet live 500in hatred, enmity, and strife

Among themselves, and levy cruel wars,

Wasting the earth, each other to destroy:

As if (which might induce us to accord)

Man had not Hellish foes enow besides,

That day and night for his destruction wait.

The Stygian Council thus dissolved; and forth

In order came the grand infernal Peers:

Midst came their mighty Paramount, and seemed

Alone th’ Antagonist of Heav’n, nor less

Than 510Hell’s dread Emperor with pomp supreme,

And God-like imitated state; him round

A globe of fiery Seraphim enclosed

With bright emblazonry, and horrent arms.

Then of their session ended they bid cry

With trumpets’ regal sound the great result:

Toward the four winds four speedy Cherubim

Put to their mouths the sounding alchemy

By herald’s voice explained: the hollow abyss

Heard far and wide, and all the host of Hell

With 520deaf’ning shout returned them loud acclaim.

Thence more at ease their minds and somewhat raised

By false presumptuous hope, the rangèd powers

Disband, and wand’ring, each his several way

Pursues, as inclination or sad choice

Leads him perplexed, where he may likeliest find

Truce to his restless thoughts, and entertain

The irksome hours, till his great chief return.

Part on the plain, or in the air sublime

Upon the wing, or in swift race contend,

As at 530th’ Olympian games or Pythian fields;

Part curb their fiery steeds, or shun the goal

With rapid wheels, or fronted brígades form.

As when to warn proud cities war appears

Waged in the troubled sky, and armies rush

To battle in the clouds, before each van

Prick forth the airy knights, and couch their spears

Till thickest legions close; with feats of arms

From either end of heav’n the welkin burns.

Others with vast Typhoean rage more fell

Rend 540up both rocks and hills, and ride the air

In whirlwind; Hell scarce holds the wild uproar.

As when Alcides from Oechalia crowned

With conquest, felt th’ envenomed robe, and tore

Through pain up by the roots Thessalian pines,

And Lichas from the top of Oeta threw

Into th’ Euboic Sea. Others more mild,

Retreated in a silent valley, sing

With notes angelical to many a harp

Their own heroic deeds and hapless fall

By doom 550of battle; and complain that Fate

Free virtue should enthrall to Force or Chance.

Their song was partial, but the harmony

(What could it less when Spirits immortal sing?)

Suspended Hell, and took with ravishment

The thronging audience. In discourse more sweet

(For eloquence the soul, song charms the sense)

Others apart sat on a hill retired,

In thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high

Of Providence, Foreknowledge, Will, and Fate,

Fixed 560Fate, Free Will, Foreknowledge absolute,

And found no end, in wand’ring mazes lost.

Of good and evil much they argued then,

Of happiness and final misery,

Passion and apathy, and glory and shame,

Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy:

Yet with a pleasing sorcery could charm

Pain for a while or anguish, and excite

Fallacious hope, or arm th’ obdurèd breast

With stubborn patience as with triple steel.

Another 570part in squadrons and gross bands,

On bold adventure to discover wide

That dismal world, if any clime perhaps

Might yield them easier habitation, bend

Four ways their flying march, along the banks

Of four infernal rivers that disgorge

Into the burning lake their baleful streams;

Abhorrèd Styx the flood of deadly hate,

Sad Acheron of sorrow, black and deep;

Cocytus, named of lamentation loud

Heard on 580the rueful stream; fierce Phlegethon

Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage.

Far off from these a slow and silent stream,

Lethe the river of oblivion rolls

Her wat’ry labyrinth, whereof who drinks,

Forthwith his former state and being forgets,

Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain.

Beyond this flood a frozen continent

Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms

Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land

Thaws 590not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems

Of ancient pile; all else deep snow and ice,

A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog

Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old,

Where armies whole have sunk: the parching air

Burns frore, and cold performs th’ effect of fire.

Thither by Harpy-footed Furies haled,

At certain revolutions all the damned

Are brought: and feel by turns the bitter change

Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce,

From beds 600of raging fire to starve in ice

Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine

Immovable, infixed, and frozen round,

Periods of time, thence hurried back to fire.

They ferry over this Lethean sound

Both to and fro, their sorrow to augment,

And wish and struggle, as they pass, to reach

The tempting stream, with one small drop to lose

In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe,

All in one moment, and so near the brink;

But Fate 610withstands, and to oppose th’ attempt

Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards

The ford, and of itself the water flies

All taste of living wight, as once it fled

The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on

In cónfused march forlorn, th’ adventurous bands

With shudd’ring horror pale, and eyes aghast

Viewed first their lamentable lot, and found

No rest: through many a dark and dreary vale

They passed, and many a region dolorous,

O’er 620many a frozen, many a fiery alp,

Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death,

A universe of death, which God by curse

Created evil, for evil only good,

Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds,

Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things,

Abominable, inutterable, and worse

Than fables yet have feigned, or fear conceived,

Gorgons and Hydras, and Chimeras dire.

Meanwhile the Adversary of God and man,

Satan 630with thoughts inflamed of highest design,

Puts on swift wings, and toward the gates of Hell

Explores his solitary flight; sometimes

He scours the right-hand coast, sometimes the left,

Now shaves with level wing the deep, then soars

Up to the fiery concave tow’ring high.

As when far off at sea a fleet descried

Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds

Close sailing from Bengala, or the isles

Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring

Their 640spicy drugs: they on the trading flood

Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape

Ply stemming nightly toward the pole. So seemed

Far off the flying Fiend: at last appear

Hell bounds high reaching to the horrid roof,

And thrice threefold the gates; three folds were brass,

Three iron, three of adamantine rock,

Impenetrable, impaled with circling fire,

Yet unconsumed. Before the gates there sat

On either side a formidable shape;

The one 650seemed woman to the waist, and fair,

But ended foul in many a scaly fold

Voluminous and vast, a serpent armed

With mortal sting: about her middle round

A cry of Hell hounds never ceasing barked

With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung

A hideous peal: yet, when they list, would creep,

If aught disturbed their noise, into her womb,

And kennel there, yet there still barked and howled

Within unseen. Far less abhorred than these

Vexed 660Scylla bathing in the sea that parts

Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore:

Nor uglier follow the night-hag, when called

In secret, riding through the air she comes

Lured with the smell of infant blood, to dance

With Lapland witches, while the labouring moon

Eclipses at their charms. The other shape,

If shape it might be called that shape had none

Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb,

Or substance might be called that shadow seemed,

For each 670seemed either; black it stood as Night,

Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as Hell,

And shook a dreadful dart; what seemed his head

The likeness of a kingly crown had on.

Satan was now at hand, and from his seat

The monster moving onward came as fast

With horrid strides, Hell trembled as he strode.

Th’ undaunted Fiend what this might be admired,

Admired, not feared; God and his Son except,

Created thing naught valued he nor shunned;

And with 680disdainful look thus first began.

‘Whence and what art thou, execrable shape,

That dar’st, though grim and terrible, advance

Thy miscreated front athwart my way

To yonder gates? Through them I mean to pass,

That be assured, without leave asked of thee:

Retire, or taste thy folly, and learn by proof,

Hell-born, not to contend with Spirits of Heav’n.’

To whom the goblin full of wrath replied,

‘Art thou that traitor angel, art thou he,

Who first 690broke peace in Heav’n and faith, till then

Unbroken, and in proud rebellious arms

Drew after him the third part of Heav’n’s sons

Conjúred against the Highest, for which both thou

And they outcást from God, are here condemned

To waste eternal days in woe and pain?

And reckon’st thou thyself with Spirits of Heav’n,

Hell-doomed, and breath’st defiance here and scorn,

Where I reign king, and to enrage thee more,

Thy king and lord? Back to thy punishment,

False 700fugitive, and to thy speed add wings,

Lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue

Thy ling’ring, or with one stroke of this dart

Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before.’

So spake the grisly terror, and in shape,

So speaking and so threat’ning, grew tenfold

More dreadful and deform: on th’ other side

Incensed with indignation Satan stood

Unterrified, and like a comet burned,

That fires the length of Ophiucus huge

In th’ 710Arctic sky, and from his horrid hair

Shakes pestilence and war. Each at the head

Levelled his deadly aim; their fatal hands

No second stroke intend, and such a frown

Each cast at th’ other, as when two black clouds

With heav’n’s artillery fraught, come rattling on

Over the Caspian, then stand front to front

Hov’ring a space, till winds the signal blow

To join their dark encounter in mid air:

So frowned the mighty combatants, that Hell

Grew 720darker at their frown, so matched they stood;

For never but once more was either like

To meet so great a foe: and now great deeds

Had been achieved, whereof all Hell had rung,

Had not the snaky sorceress that sat

Fast by Hell gate, and kept the fatal key,

Ris’n, and with hideous outcry rushed between.

‘O father, what intends thy hand,’ she cried,

‘Against thy only son? What fury O son,

Possesses thee to bend that mortal dart

Against 730thy father’s head? And know’st for whom?

For him who sits above and laughs the while

At thee ordained his drudge, to execute

Whate’er his wrath, which he calls justice, bids,

His wrath which one day will destroy ye both.’

She spake, and at her words the Hellish pest

Forbore, then these to her Satan returned:

‘So strange thy outcry, and thy words so strange

Thou interposest, that my sudden hand

Prevented spares to tell thee yet by deeds

What it 740intends; till first I know of thee,

What thing thou art, thus double-formed, and why

In this infernal vale first met thou call’st

Me father, and that phantasm call’st my son?

I know thee not, nor ever saw till now

Sight more detestable than him and thee.’

T’ whom thus the portress of Hell gate replied;

‘Hast thou forgot me then, and do I seem

Now in thine eye so foul, once deemed so fair

In Heav’n, when at th’ assembly, and in sight

Of 750all the Seraphim with thee combined

In bold conspiracy against Heav’n’s King,

All on a sudden miserable pain

Surprised thee, dim thine eyes, and dizzy swum

In darkness, while thy head flames thick and fast

Threw forth, till on the left side op’ning wide,

Likest to thee in shape and count’nance bright,

Then shining Heav’nly fair, a goddess armed

Out of thy head I sprung: amazement seized

All th’ host of Heav’n; back they recoiled afraid

At first, 760and called me Sin, and for a Sign

Portentous held me; but familiar grown,

I pleased, and with attractive graces won

The most averse, thee chiefly, who full oft

Thyself in me thy perfect image viewing

Becam’st enamoured, and such joy thou took’st

With me in secret, that my womb conceived

A growing burden. Meanwhile war arose,

And fields were fought in Heav’n; wherein remained

(For what could else) to our Almighty Foe

Clear 770victory, to our part loss and rout

Through all the Empyrean: down they fell

Driv’n headlong from the pitch of Heaven, down

Into this deep, and in the general fall

I also; at which time this powerful key

Into my hand was giv’n, with charge to keep

These gates for ever shut, which none can pass

Without my op’ning. Pensive here I sat

Alone, but long I sat not, till my womb

Pregnant by thee, and now excessive grown

Prodigious 780motion felt and rueful throes.

At last this odious offspring whom thou seest

Thine own begotten, breaking violent way

Tore through my entrails, that with fear and pain

Distorted, all my nether shape thus grew

Transformed: but he my inbred enemy

Forth issued, brandishing his fatal dart

Made to destroy: I fled, and cried out Death;

Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sighed

From all her caves, and back resounded Death.

I fled, but 790he pursued (though more, it seems,

Inflamed with lust than rage) and swifter far,

Me overtook his mother all dismayed,

And in embraces forcible and foul

Engend’ring with me, of that rape begot

These yelling monsters that with ceaseless cry

Surround me, as thou saw’st, hourly conceived

And hourly born, with sorrow infinite

To me, for when they list, into the womb

That bred them they return, and howl and gnaw

My bowels, 800their repast; then bursting forth

Afresh with conscious terrors vex me round,

That rest or intermission none I find.

Before mine eyes in opposition sits

Grim Death my son and foe, who sets them on,

And me his parent would full soon devour

For want of other prey, but that he knows

His end with mine involved; and knows that I

Should prove a bitter morsel, and his bane,

Whenever that shall be; so Fate pronounced.

But thou 810O father, I forewarn thee, shun

His deadly arrow; neither vainly hope

To be invulnerable in those bright arms,

Though tempered Heav’nly, for that mortal dint,

Save he who reigns above, none can resist.’

She finished, and the subtle Fiend his lore

Soon learned, now milder, and thus answered smooth:

‘Dear daughter, since thou claim’st me for thy sire,

And my fair son here show’st me, the dear pledge

Of dalliance had with thee in Heav’n, and joys

Then 820sweet, now sad to mention, through dire change

Befall’n us unforeseen, unthought of, know

I come no enemy, but to set free

From out this dark and dismal house of pain,

Both him and thee, and all the Heav’nly host

Of Spirits that in our just pretences armed

Fell with us from on high: from them I go

This uncouth errand sole, and one for all

Myself expose, with lonely steps to tread

Th’ unfounded deep, and through the void immense

To search 830with wand’ring quest a place foretold

Should be, and, by concurring signs, ere now

Created vast and round, a place of bliss

In the purlieus of Heav’n, and therein placed

A race of upstart creatures, to supply

Perhaps our vacant room, though more removed,

Lest Heav’n surcharged with potent multitude

Might hap to move new broils: be this or aught

Than this more secret now designed, I haste

To know, and this once known, shall soon return,

And bring 840ye to the place where thou and Death

Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen

Wing silently the buxom air, embalmed

With odours; there ye shall be fed and filled

Immeasurably, all things shall be your prey.’

He ceased, for both seemed highly pleased, and Death

Grinned horrible a ghastly smile, to hear

His famine should be filled, and blessed his maw

Destined to that good hour: no less rejoiced

His mother bad, and thus bespake her sire.

‘The 850key of this infernal pit by due,

And by command of Heav’n’s all-powerful King

I keep, by him forbidden to unlock

These adamantine gates; against all force

Death ready stands to interpose his dart,

Fearless to be o’ermatched by living might.

But what owe I to his commands above

Who hates me, and hath hither thrust me down

Into this gloom of Tartarus profound,

To sit in hateful office here confined,

Inhabitant 860of Heav’n, and Heav’nly-born,

Here in perpetual agony and pain,

With terrors and with clamours compassed round

Of mine own brood, that on my bowels feed?

Thou art my father, thou my author, thou

My being gav’st me; whom should I obey

But thee, whom follow? Thou wilt bring me soon

To that new world of light and bliss, among

The gods who live at ease, where I shall reign

At thy right hand voluptuous, as beseems

Thy daughter 870and thy darling, without end.’

Thus saying, from her side the fatal key,

Sad instrument of all our woe, she took;

And towards the gate rolling her bestial train,

Forthwith the huge portcullis high up drew,

Which but herself not all the Stygian powers

Could once have moved; then in the key-hole turns

Th’ intrícate wards, and every bolt and bar

Of massy iron or solid rock with ease

Unfastens: on a sudden open fly

With impetuous 880recoil and jarring sound

Th’ infernal doors, and on their hinges grate

Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook

Of Erebus. She opened, but to shut

Excelled her power; the gates wide open stood,

That with extended wings a bannered host

Under spread ensigns marching might pass through

With horse and chariots ranked in loose array;

So wide they stood, and like a furnace mouth

Cast forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame.

Before 890their eyes in sudden view appear

The secrets of the hoary deep, a dark

Illimitable Ocean without bound,

Without dimension, where length, breadth, and heighth,

And time and place are lost; where eldest Night

And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold

Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise

Of endless wars, and by confusion stand.

For Hot, Cold, Moist, and Dry, four champions fierce

Strive here for mast’ry, and to battle bring

Their 900embryon atoms; they around the flag

Of each his faction, in their several clans,

Light-armed or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift or slow,

Swarm populous, unnumbered as the sands

Of Barca or Cyrene’s torrid soil,

Levied to side with warring winds, and poise

Their lighter wings. To whom these most adhere,

He rules a moment; Chaos umpire sits,

And by decision more embroils the fray

By which he reigns: next him high arbiter

Chance 910governs all. Into this wild abyss,

The womb of Nature and perhaps her grave,

Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire,

But all these in their pregnant causes mixed

Confus’dly, and which thus must ever fight,

Unless th’ Almighty Maker them ordain

His dark materials to create more worlds,

Into this wild abyss the wary Fiend

Stood on the brink of Hell and looked a while,

Pondering his voyage; for no narrow frith

He 920had to cross. Nor was his ear less pealed

With noises loud and ruinous (to compare

Great things with small) than when Bellona storms,

With all her battering engines bent to raze

Some capital city; or less than if this frame

Of heav’n were falling, and these elements

In mutiny had from her axle torn

The steadfast earth. At last his sail-broad vans

He spreads for flight, and in the surging smoke

Uplifted spurns the ground, thence many a league

As in 930a cloudy chair ascending rides

Audacious, but that seat soon failing, meets

A vast vacuity: all unawares

Flutt’ring his pennons vain plumb down he drops

Ten thousand fathom deep, and to this hour

Down had been falling, had not by ill chance

The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud

Instínct with fire and nitre hurried him

As many miles aloft: that fury stayed,

Quenched in a boggy Syrtis, neither sea,

Nor good 940dry land: nigh foundered on he fares,

Treading the crude consistence, half on foot,

Half flying; behoves him now both oar and sail.

As when a gryphon through the wilderness

With wingèd course o’er hill or moory dale,

Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth

Had from his wakeful custody purloined

The guarded gold: so eagerly the Fiend

O’er bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare,

With head, hands, wings, or feet pursues his way,

And swims 950or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies:

At length a universal hubbub wild

Of stunning sounds and voices all confused

Borne through the hollow dark assaults his ear

With loudest vehemence: thither he plies,

Undaunted to meet there whatever Power

Or Spirit of the nethermost abyss

Might in that noise reside, of whom to ask

Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies

Bordering on light; when straight behold the throne

Of Chaos, 960and his dark pavilion spread

Wide on the wasteful deep; with him enthroned

Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of things,

The consort of his reign; and by them stood

Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name

Of Demogorgon; Rumour next and Chance,

And Tumult and Confusion all embroiled,

And Discord with a thousand various mouths.

T’ whom Satan turning boldly, thus. ‘Ye Powers

And Spirits of this nethermost abyss,

Chaos 970and ancient Night, I come no spy,

With purpose to explore or to disturb

The secrets of your realm, but by constraint

Wand’ring this darksome desert, as my way

Lies through your spacious empire up to light,

Alone, and without guide, half lost, I seek

What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds

Confine with Heav’n; or if some other place

From your dominion won, th’ Ethereal King

Possesses lately, thither to arrive

I travel 980this profound, direct my course;

Directed, no mean recompense it brings

To your behoof, if I that region lost,

All usurpation thence expelled, reduce

To her original darkness and your sway

(Which is my present journey) and once more

Erect the standard there of ancient Night;

Yours be th’ advantage all, mine the revenge.’

Thus Satan; and him thus the Anarch old

With falt’ring speech and visage incomposed

Answered. 990‘I know thee, stranger, who thou art,

That mighty leading angel, who of late

Made head against Heav’n’s King, though overthrown.

I saw and heard, for such a numerous host

Fled not in silence through the frighted deep

With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout,

Confusion worse confounded; and Heav’n gates

Poured out by millions her victorious bands

Pursuing. I upon my frontiers here

Keep residence; if all I can will serve,

That 1000little which is left so to defend,

Encroached on still through our intestine broils

Weak’ning the sceptre of old Night: first Hell

Your dungeon stretching far and wide beneath;

Now lately heav’n and earth, another world

Hung o’er my realm, linked in a golden chain

To that side Heav’n from whence your legions fell:

If that way be your walk, you have not far;

So much the nearer danger; go and speed;

Havoc and spoil and ruin are my gain.’

He 1010ceased; and Satan stayed not to reply,

But glad that now his sea should find a shore,

With fresh alacrity and force renewed

Springs upward like a pyramid of fire

Into the wide expanse, and through the shock

Of fighting elements, on all sides round

Environed wins his way; harder beset

And more endangered, than when Argo passed

Through Bosporus betwixt the justling rocks:

Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunned

Charybdis, 1020and by th’ other whirlpool steered.

So he with difficulty and labour hard

Moved on, with difficulty and labour he;

But he once passed, soon after when man fell,

Strange alteration! Sin and Death amain

Following his track, such was the will of Heav’n,

Paved after him a broad and beaten way

Over the dark abyss, whose boiling gulf

Tamely endured a bridge of wondrous length

From Hell continued reaching th’ utmost orb

Of this 1030frail world; by which the Spirits perverse

With easy intercourse pass to and fro

To tempt or punish mortals, except whom

God and good angels guard by special grace.

But now at last the sacred influence

Of light appears, and from the walls of Heav’n

Shoots far into the bosom of dim Night

A glimmering dawn; here Nature first begins

Her farthest verge, and Chaos to retire

As from her outmost works a broken foe

With 1040tumult less and with less hostile din,

That Satan with less toil, and now with ease

Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light

And like a weather-beaten vessel holds

Gladly the port, though shrouds and tackle torn;

Or in the emptier waste, resembling air,

Weighs his spread wings, at leisure to behold

Far off th’ empyreal Heav’n, extended wide

In circuit, undetermined square or round,

With opal tow’rs and battlements adorned

Of living 1050sapphire, once his native seat;

And fast by hanging in a golden chain

This pendent world, in bigness as a star

Of smallest magnitude close by the moon.

Thither full fraught with mischievous revenge,

Accursed, and in a cursèd hour he hies.