The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems (120 page)

788

      

But I shall die a living death? O thought

789

      

Horrid, if true! Yet why? It was but breath

790

      

Of life that sinned. What dies but what had life

791

      

And sin? The body properly had neither.

792

      

All of me then shall die: let this appease
⁵⁶⁰⁹

793

      

The doubt, since human reach no further knows.

794

      

For though the Lord of all be infinite,

795

      

Is His wrath also? Be it, man is not so,

796

      

But mortal doomed.
⁵⁶¹⁰
How can He exercise

797

      

Wrath without end on man, whom death must end?

798

      

Can He make deathless death? That were to make

799

      

Strange contradiction, which to God Himself

800

      

Impossible is held,
⁵⁶¹¹
as argument
⁵⁶¹²

801

      

Of weakness, not of power. Will He draw out,

802

      

For anger’s sake, finite to infinite,

803

      

In punished man, to satisfy His rigor,
⁵⁶¹³

804

      

Satisfied never? That were to extend

805

      

His sentence beyond dust and Nature’s law,

806

      

By which all causes else,
⁵⁶¹⁴
according still

807

      

To the reception
⁵⁶¹⁵
of their matter, act,
⁵⁶¹⁶

808

      

Not to th’ extent of their own sphere.

 

      

“But say

809

      

That death be not one stroke, as I supposed,

810

      

Bereaving
⁵⁶¹⁷
sense, but endless misery

811

      

From this day onward, which I feel begun

812

      

From in
⁵⁶¹⁸
me, and without
⁵⁶¹⁹
me—and so last

813

      

To perpetuity. Aye me, that fear

814

      

Comes thundering back with dreadful revolution
⁵⁶²⁰

815

      

On my defenceless head. Both Death and I

816

      

Am found eternal, and incorporate
⁵⁶²¹
both,

817

      

Nor I on my part single.
⁵⁶²²
In me all

818

      

Posterity stands cursed: fair patrimony

819

      

That I must leave ye, sons. O were I able

820

      

To waste
⁵⁶²³
it all myself, and leave ye none!

821

      

So disinherited, how would you bless

822

      

Me, now your curse! Ah, why should all mankind,

823

      

For one man’s fault, thus guiltless be condemned—

824

      

If guiltless? But from me what can proceed,

825

      

But all corrupt, both mind and will depraved
⁵⁶²⁴

826

      

Not to do only, but to will the same

827

      

With
⁵⁶²⁵
me? How can they then acquitted stand

828

      

In sight of God? Him after all disputes,

829

      

Forced
⁵⁶²⁶
I absolve. All my evasions vain,

830

      

And reasonings, though through mazes, lead me still

831

      

But to my own conviction: first and last

832

      

On me, me only, as the source and spring

833

      

Of all corruption, all the blame lights
⁵⁶²⁷
due.

834

      

So might the wrath. Fond
⁵⁶²⁸
wish! Could’st thou
⁵⁶²⁹
support

835

      

That burden, heavier than the earth to bear,

836

      

Than all the world much heavier, though divided
⁵⁶³⁰

837

      

With that bad woman?
⁵⁶³¹
Thus what thou desir’st,

838

      

And what thou fear’st, alike destroys all hope

839

      

Of refuge, and concludes thee miserable

840

      

Beyond all past example and future.

841

      

To Satan only like
⁵⁶³²
both crime and doom.
⁵⁶³³

842

      

O Conscience! Into what abyss of fears

843

      

And horrors hast thou
⁵⁶³⁴
driv’n me, out of which

844

      

I find no way, from deep to deeper plunged!

845

      

   
Thus Adam to himself lamented loud

846

      

Through the still night—not now, as ere
⁵⁶³⁵
man fell,

847

      

Wholesome, and cool, and mild, but with black air

848

      

Accompanied, with damps,
⁵⁶³⁶
and dreadful gloom,

849

      

Which to his
⁵⁶³⁷
evil conscience represented
⁵⁶³⁸

850

      

All things with double terror. On the ground

851

      

Outstretched he lay, on the cold ground, and oft

852

      

Cursed his creation, Death as oft accused

853

      

Of tardy execution, since denounced
⁵⁶³⁹

854

      

The day of his offence. “Why comes not Death,

855

      

Said he, “with one thrice-acceptable
⁵⁶⁴⁰
stroke

856

      

To end me? Shall truth fail to keep her word,

857

      

Justice Divine not hasten to be just?

858

      

But Death comes not at call, Justice Divine

859

      

Mends
⁵⁶⁴¹
not her slowest pace for prayers or cries.

860

      

O woods, O fountains, hillocks, dales, and bow’rs!

861

      

With other echo late
⁵⁶⁴²
I taught your shades

862

      

To answer, and resound
⁵⁶⁴³
far other song!

863

      

   
Whom thus afflicted when sad Eve beheld,

864

      

Desolate where she sat, approaching nigh

865

      

Soft words to his fierce passion she assayed,
⁵⁶⁴⁴

866

      

But her with stern regard he thus repelled:

867

      

   
“Out of my sight, thou serpent! That name best

868

      

Befits
⁵⁶⁴⁵
thee, with him leagued,
⁵⁶⁴⁶
thyself as false

869

      

And hateful.
⁵⁶⁴⁷
Nothing wants,
⁵⁶⁴⁸
but that thy shape,

870

      

Like his, and color serpentine, may show

871

      

Thy inward fraud, to warn all creatures from thee

872

      

Henceforth, lest that too Heav’nly form, pretended
⁵⁶⁴⁹

873

      

To hellish falsehood, snare them! But
⁵⁶⁵⁰
for thee

874

      

I had
⁵⁶⁵¹
persisted
⁵⁶⁵²
happy, had not thy pride

875

      

And wand’ring
⁵⁶⁵³
vanity, when least was safe,