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
876
Rejected my forewarning and disdained
877
Not to be trusted—longing to be seen,
878
Though by the Devil himself, him overweening
5654
879
To over-reach,
5655
but with the serpent meeting
880
Fooled and beguiled. By him, thou, I by thee.
881
To trust thee from my side, imagined
5656
wise,
882
Constant, mature, proof against all assaults,
883
And understood not
5657
all was but a show
884
Rather than solid virtue, all but a rib
885
Crookèd by nature, bent, as now appears,
886
887
Well if thrown out, as supernumerary
5660
888
To my just number found.
5661
O why did God,
889
Creator wise, that peopled highest Heav’n
890
With Spirits masculine, create at last
891
This novelty on earth, this fair defect
892
Of Nature, and not fill the world at once
893
With men, as
5662
Angels without feminine,
894
Or find some other way to generate
5663
895
Mankind? This mischief had not been befallen,
5664
896
And more that shall befall, innumerable
897
Disturbances on earth through female snares,
898
And strait conjunction
5665
with this sex. For either
899
He never shall find out fit
5666
mate, but such
900
As some misfortune brings him, or mistake,
901
Or whom
5667
he wishes most shall seldom gain,
902
Through her perverseness,
5668
but shall see her gained
903
904
By parents, or his happiest choice too late
905
Shall meet, already linked and wedlock-bound
906
907
Which infinite calamity shall cause
908
To human life, and household peace confound.”
5673
909
He added not, and from her turned, but Eve,
910
Not so
5674
repulsed, with tears that ceased not flowing
911
And tresses all disordered, at his feet
912
Fell humble and, embracing them, besought
5675
913
His peace,
5676
and thus proceeded in her plaint:
914
“Forsake
5677
me not thus, Adam! Witness Heav’n
915
What love sincere, and reverence in my heart
916
I bear thee, and unweeting
5678
have offended,
917
Unhappily deceived! Thy suppliant
918
I beg, and clasp thy knees. Bereave
5679
me not
919
920
Thy counsel, in this uttermost
5682
distress,
921
922
923
While yet we live, scarce one short hour perhaps,
924
Between us two let there be peace, both joining,
925
As joined in injuries, one enmity
926
Against a foe by doom express
5687
assigned us,
927
That cruel serpent. On me exercise not
928
Thy hatred for this misery befall’n,
929
On me already lost, me than thyself
930
More miserable! Both have sinned, but thou
931
Against God only, I against God and thee,
932
And to the place of judgment will return,
933
There with my cries importune Heav’n that all
934
The sentence, from thy head removed, may light
5688
935
On me, sole cause to thee of all this woe
936
Me, me only, just object of His ire!
937
938
Immoveable,
5691
till peace obtained from fault
939
940
Commiseration.
5694
Soon his heart relented
941
Towards her, his life so late,
5695
and sole delight,
942
Now at his feet submissive in distress,
943
Creature so fair his reconcilement seeking,
944
His counsel, whom she had displeased, his aid.
945
As one disarmed, his anger all he lost,
946
And thus with peaceful words upraised her soon:
5696
947
“Unwary, and too desirous, as before,
948
So now of what thou know’st not, who desir’st
949
The punishment all on thyself! Alas!
950
Bear thine own first, ill able to sustain
951
His full wrath, whose thou feel’st as yet least part,
952
And my displeasure bear’st so ill. If prayers
953
Could alter high decrees, I to that place
954
Would speed before thee, and be louder heard,
955
That on my head all might be visited,
956
957
958
But rise, let us no more contend,
5701
nor blame
959
Each other, blamed enough elsewhere, but strive
960
In offices
5702
of love, how we may lighten
961
Each other’s burden in our share of woe,
962
963
Will prove no sudden but a slow-paced evil,