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
531
The rule of not too much, by temperance taught,
532
In what thou eat’st and drink’st, seeking from thence
533
Due nourishment, not gluttonous delight,
534
Till many years over thy head return.
6018
535
So may’st thou live till, like ripe fruit, thou drop
536
Into thy mother’s lap, or be with ease
537
Gathered, nor harshly plucked, for Death mature:
538
This is old age. But then thou must outlive
539
Thy youth, thy strength, thy beauty, which will change
540
To withered, weak, and gray. Thy senses, then
541
542
To what thou hast
6021
and, for the air of youth,
543
Hopeful and cheerful, in thy blood will reign
544
A melancholy damp
6022
of cold and dry
545
To weigh thy spirits down, and last
6023
consume
546
The balm of life.” To whom our ancestor:
547
“Henceforth I fly not Death, nor would prolong
548
549
550
Which I must keep till my appointed day
551
552
My dissolution.” Michael
6030
replied:
553
“Nor
6031
love thy life, nor hate, but what thouliv’st
554
Live well. How long, or short, permit
6032
to Heav’n.
555
And now prepare thee for another sight.”
556
He looked, and saw a spacious plain whereon
557
Were tents of various hue. By some,
6033
were herds
558
Of cattle grazing; others, whence the sound
559
Of instruments, that made melodious chime,
6034
560
Was heard, of harp and organ, and who
6035
moved
561
Their stops and chords was seen, his volant
6036
touch,
562
Instinct
6037
through all proportions, low and high,
563
Fled and pursued transverse the resonant fugue.
564
In other part stood one who, at the forge
565
Laboring, two massy clods of iron and brass
566
Had melted (whether found where casual
6038
fire
567
Had wasted woods on mountain or in vale,
568
Down to the veins of earth, thence gliding hot
569
To some cave’s mouth, or whether washed by stream
570
From underground). The liquid ore he drained
571
Into fit moulds prepared, from which he formed
572
First his own tools, then what might else be wrought,
6039
573
574
But on the hither
6042
side, a different sort
575
From the high neighboring hills, which was their seat,
576
Down to the plain descended. By their guise
6043
577
Just
6044
men they seemed, and all their study bent
578
To worship God aright, and know His works
579
Not hid, nor those things last
6045
which might preserve
580
Freedom and peace to men. They on the plain
581
Long had not walked when, from the tents, behold!
582
A bevy
6046
of fair women, richly gay
583
In gems and wanton
6047
dress! To th’ harp they sung
584
585
The men, though grave,
6050
eyed them, and let their eyes
586
Rove without rein till, in the amorous net
587
Fast caught, they liked, and each his liking chose,
588
589
Love’s harbinger,
6053
appeared. Then all in heat
590
591
592
With feast and music all the tents resound.
593
594
Of love and youth not lost, songs, garlands, flow’rs,
595
596
Of Adam, soon inclined t’ admit
6063
delight,
597
The bent
6064
of Nature, which he thus expressed:
598
“True opener of mine eyes, prime Angel blest,
599
Much better seems this vision, and more hope
600
Of peaceful days portends,
6065
than those two past.
601
Those were of hate and Death, or pain much worse.
602
Here Nature seems fulfilled in all her ends.”
6066
603
To whom thus Michael:
“Judge not what is best
604
By pleasure, though to Nature seeming meet,
6067
605
Created, as thou art, to nobler end
606
Holy and pure, conformity
6068
divine.
607
Those tents thou saw’st so pleasant were the tents
608
Of wickedness, wherein shall dwell his race
609
Who slew his brother. Studious they appear
610
611
Unmindful of their Maker, though His Spirit
612
Taught them, but they His gifts acknowledged none.
613
Yet they a beauteous offspring shall beget,
614
For that fair female troop thou saw’st, that seemed
615
Of goddesses, so blithe,
6071
so smooth, so gay,