The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems (116 page)

Read The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems Online

Authors: John Milton,Burton Raffel

Tags: #Fiction, #General, #Literary Collections, #Poetry, #Classics, #English; Irish; Scottish; Welsh, #English poetry

BOOK: The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems
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445

      

Ascended his high throne, which under state
5396

446

      

Of richest texture spread, at th’ upper end

447

      

Was placed in regal luster. Down a while

448

      

He sat, and round about him saw unseen.

449

      

At last, as from a cloud, his fulgent
5397
head

450

      

And shape star-bright appeared, or brighter, clad

451

      

With what permissive glory since his fall

452

      

Was left him, or false glitter. All amazed

453

      

At that so sudden blaze, the Stygian
5398
throng

454

      

Bent
5399
their aspect,
5400
and whom they wished beheld,

455

      

Their mighty chief returned. Loud was th’ acclaim!

456

      

Forth rushed in haste the great consulting peers,

457

      

Raised from their dark divan,
5401
and with like joy

458

      

Congratulant approached him, who with hand

459

      

Silence, and with these words attention won:

460

      

   
“Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers!

461

      

For in possession such, not only of right,

462

      

I call ye and declare ye now, returned

463

      

Successful beyond hope, to lead ye forth

464

      

Triumphant out of this infernal pit

465

      

Abominable, accursed, the house of woe

466

      

And dungeon of our tyrant. Now possess,

467

      

As lords, a spacious world, t’ our native Heav’n

468

      

Little inferior, by my adventure hard

469

      

With peril great achieved. Long were to tell

470

      

What I have done, what suffered, with what pain

471

      

Voyaged th’ unreal,
5402
vast, unbounded deep

472

      

Of horrible confusion, over which

473

      

By Sin and Death a broad way now is paved,

474

      

To expedite your glorious march. But I

475

      

Toiled out my uncouth
5403
passage, forced to ride
5404

476

      

The untractable
5405
abyss, plunged in the womb

477

      

Of unoriginal
5406
Night and Chaos wild

478

      

That, jealous of their secrets, fiercely opposed

479

      

My journey strange,
5407
with clamorous uproar

480

      

Protesting Fate supreme. Thence how I found

481

      

The new created world, which fame
5408
in Heav’n

482

      

Long had foretold, a fabric
5409
wonderful

483

      

Of absolute
5410
perfection, therein man

484

      

Placed in a Paradise, by our exile

485

      

Made happy. Him by fraud I have seduced
5411

486

      

From his Creator and, the more to increase

487

      

Your wonder, with an apple.
5412
He,
5413
thereat

488

      

Offended (worth your laughter!) hath given up

489

      

Both His belovèd man and all his world

490

      

To Sin and Death a prey, and so to us,

491

      

Without our hazard, labor, or alarm,
5414

492

      

To range
5415
in, and to dwell, and over man

493

      

To rule, as over all He should have ruled.

494

      

   
“True is, me also He hath judged, or rather

495

      

Me not, but the brute serpent in whose shape

496

      

Man I deceived. That which to me belongs

497

      

Is enmity, which He will put between

498

      

Me and mankind. I am to bruise
5416
his heel.

499

      

His seed (when is not set
5417
) shall bruise my head.

500

      

A world who would not purchase with a bruise,

501

      

Or much more grievous pain?

 

      

“Ye have th’ acc

502

      

Of my performance. What remains, ye Gods,

503

      

But up, and enter now into full bliss?

504

      

   
So having said, a while he stood, expecting

505

      

Their universal shout and high applause

506

      

To fill his ear—when, contrary, he hears

507

      

On all sides, from innumerable tongues,

508

      

   
A dismal universal hiss, the sound

509

      

Of public scorn. He wondered, but not long

510

      

Had leisure, wond’ring at himself now more.

511

      

His visage drawn he felt to sharp and spare;

512

      

His arms clung to his ribs, his legs entwining

513

      

Each other, till supplanted
5418
down he fell,

514

      

A monstrous serpent on his belly prone,

515

      

Reluctant,
5419
but in vain. A greater power

516

      

Now ruled him, punished in the shape he sinned,

517

      

According to his doom.
5420
He would have spoke,

518

      

But hiss for hiss returned with forkèd tongue

519

      

To forkèd tongue, for now were all transformed

520

      

Alike, to serpents all, as accessories

521

      

To his bold
5421
riot.
5422
Dreadful was the din

522

      

Of hissing through the hall, thick swarming now

523

      

With complicated
5423
monsters head and tail,

524

      

Scorpion, and asp, and amphisbaena
5424
dire,

525

      

Cerastes hornèd, hydrus,
5425
and elops
5426
drear,
5427

526

      

And dipsas
5428
(not so thick swarmed once the soil

527

      

Bedropped with blood of Gorgon,
5429
or the isle

528

      

Ophiusa),
5430
but still greatest he the midst,

529

      

Now dragon grown, larger than whom
5431
the sun

530

      

Engendered in the Pythian
5432
vale on slime,
5433

531

      

Huge python, and his
5434
power no less he seemed

532

      

Above the rest still to retain. They all

533

      

Him followed, issuing forth to th’ open field,

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