The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems (152 page)

Privation mere
⁷²¹⁸
of light and absent day.

Our Savior, meek,
⁷²¹⁹
and with untroubled mind

After his airy jaunt,
⁷²²⁰
though hurried sore,
⁷²²¹

Hungry and cold betook him to his rest,

Wherever, under some concourse
⁷²²²
of shades

Whose branching arms thick intertwined might shield

From dews and damps of night his sheltered head,

But sheltered, slept in vain, for at his head

The Tempter watched, and soon with ugly dreams

Disturbed his sleep. And either Tropic
⁷²²³
now

’Gan thunder, and both ends of Heav’n. The clouds

From many a horrid rift abortive
⁷²²⁴
poured

Fierce rain with lightning mixed, water with fire,

In ruin
⁷²²⁵
reconciled,
⁷²²⁶
nor slept the winds

Within their stony caves, but rushed abroad

From the four hinges of the world and fell

On the vexed
⁷²²⁷
wilderness, whose tallest pines,

Though rooted deep as high,
⁷²²⁸
and sturdiest oaks,

Bowed their stiff necks, loaden with stormy blasts,

Or torn up sheer.
⁷²²⁹
Ill wast thou shrouded
⁷²³⁰
then,

O patient Son of God, yet only stood’st

Unshaken! Nor yet stayed
⁷²³¹
the terror there.

Infernal ghosts and hellish furies round

Environed thee: some howled, some yelled, some shrieked,

Some bent at thee their fiery darts, while thou

Sat’st unappalled
⁷²³²
in calm and sinless peace.

Thus passed the night so foul, till morning fair

Came forth with pilgrim steps, in amice
⁷²³³
gray,

Who with her radiant finger stilled the roar

Of thunder, chased the clouds, and laid
⁷²³⁴
the winds

And grisly
⁷²³⁵
specters, which the fiend had raised

To tempt
⁷²³⁶
the Son of God with terrors dire.

And now the sun with more effectual
⁷²³⁷
beams

Had cheered the face of earth, and dried the wet

From drooping plant, or dropping tree. The birds,

Who all things now behold more fresh and green,

After a night of storm so ruinous,

Cleared up
⁷²³⁸
their choicest notes in bush and spray,
⁷²³⁹

To gratulate
⁷²⁴⁰
the sweet return of morn.

Nor yet, amidst this joy and brightest morn,

Was absent, after all his mischief done,

The Prince of darkness—glad would also seem

Of this fair change, and to our Savior came,

Yet with no new device
⁷²⁴¹
(they all were spent),

Rather by this his last affront
⁷²⁴²
resolved,
⁷²⁴³

Desperate of better course, to vent his rage

And mad despite
⁷²⁴⁴
to be so oft repelled.

Him walking on a sunny hill he found,

Backed on the north and west by a thick wood.

Out of the wood he starts in wonted
⁷²⁴⁵
shape,

And in a careless
⁷²⁴⁶
mood thus to him said:

“Fair morning yet betides
⁷²⁴⁷
thee, Son of God,

After a dismal night. I heard the wrack,
⁷²⁴⁸

As earth and sky would mingle, but myself

Was distant, and these flaws,
⁷²⁴⁹
though mortals fear them

As dangerous to the pillared frame of Heav’n,

Or to the earth’s dark basis underneath,

Are to the main
⁷²⁵⁰
as inconsiderable

And harmless, if not wholesome, as a sneeze

To man’s lesser universe,
⁷²⁵¹
and soon are gone.

Yet, as being oft-times noxious
⁷²⁵²
where they light

On man, beast, plant, wasteful and turbulent,

Like turbulencies in the affairs of men

(Over whose heads they roar, and seem to point),
⁷²⁵³

They oft fore-signify and threaten ill.

“This tempest at this desert most was bent,
⁷²⁵⁴

Of men at thee, for only thou here dwell’st.

Did I not tell thee, if thou didst reject

The perfect season
⁷²⁵⁵
offered with my aid

To win thy destined seat, but wilt prolong

All to the push
⁷²⁵⁶
of Fate, pursue thy way

Of gaining David’s throne no man knows when

(For both the when and how is nowhere told):

Thou shalt be what thou art ordained, no doubt,

For Angels have proclaimed it, but concealing

The time and means. Each act is rightliest done

Not when it must, but when it may be best.

If thou observe not this, be sure to find

What I foretold thee, many a hard assay
⁷²⁵⁷

Of dangers, and adversities, and pains,

Ere thou of Israel’s scepter get fast hold,

Whereof this ominous
⁷²⁵⁸
night that closed thee round,

So many terrors, voices, prodigies,
⁷²⁵⁹

May warn thee, as a sure foregoing sign.”

So talked he, while the Son of God went on,

And stayed not, but in brief him answered thus:

“Me worse than wet thou find’st not. Other harm

Those terrors which thou speak’st of did me none.

I never feared they could, though noising loud

And threat’ning nigh. What they can do as signs

Betokening or ill-boding I contemn

As false portents, not sent from God, but thee,

Who knowing I shall reign past thy preventing,

Obtrud’st thy offered aid, that I, accepting,

At least might seem to hold all power of thee,

Ambitious Spirit, and would’st be thought my God,

And storm’st,
⁷²⁶⁰
refused, thinking to terrify

Me to thy will! Desist (thou art discerned,

And toil’st in vain), nor me in vain molest.”

To whom the fiend, now swoll’n with rage, replied:

“Then hear, O Son of David, virgin-born!

For Son of God to me is yet in doubt.

Of the Messiah I have heard foretold

By all the prophets; of thy birth, at length

Announced by Gabriel, with the first I knew,

And of th’ Angelic song in Bethlehem field

On thy birth-night, that sung thee Savior born.

“From that time seldom have I ceased to eye

Thy infancy, thy childhood, and thy youth,

Thy manhood last, though yet in private bred,

Till at the ford of Jordan, whither all

Flocked to the Baptist, I among the rest

(Though not to be baptized), by voice from Heav’n

Heard thee pronounced the Son of God beloved.

Thenceforth I thought thee worth my nearer view

And narrower scrutiny, that I might learn

In what degree
⁷²⁶¹
or meaning thou art called

The Son of God, which bears no single sense.

The Son of God I also am, or was,

And if I was, I am. Relation stands:

All men are Sons of God. Yet thee I thought

In some respect far higher so declared.

“Therefore I watched thy footsteps from that hour,

And followed thee still on to this waste wild,

Where by all best conjectures I collect

Thou art to be my fatal enemy.

Good reason, then, if I beforehand seek

To understand my adversary, who

And what he is, his wisdom, power, intent,

By parle
⁷²⁶²
or composition,
⁷²⁶³
truce or league,

To win him, or win from him what I can.

“And opportunity I here have had

To try thee, sift
⁷²⁶⁴
thee, and confess have found thee

Proof against all temptation, as a rock

Of adamant and as a center, firm

To th’ utmost of mere man both wise and good,

Not more, for honors, riches, kingdoms, glory,

Have been before contemned,
⁷²⁶⁵
and may again.

Therefore, to know what more thou art than man,

Worth naming the Son of God by voice from Heav’n,

Another method I must now begin.”

So saying, he caught him up and, without wing

Of hippogrif,
⁷²⁶⁶
bore through the air sublime,
⁷²⁶⁷

Over the wilderness and o’er the plain,

Till underneath them fair Jerusalem,

The Holy City, lifted high her towers,

And higher yet the glorious Temple reared

Her pile,
⁷²⁶⁸
far off appearing like a mount

Of alabaster, topped with golden spires.

There on the highest pinnacle, he set

The Son of God, and added thus in scorn:

“There stand, if thou wilt stand. To stand upright

Will ask
⁷²⁶⁹
thee skill. I to thy Father’s house

Have brought thee, and highest placed: highest is best.

Now show thy progeny!
⁷²⁷⁰
If not to stand,

Cast thyself down—safely, if Son of God,

For it is written, ‘He will give command

Concerning thee to His Angels; in their hands

They shall uplift thee, lest at any time

Thou chance to dash
⁷²⁷¹
thy foot against a stone. ’”
⁷²⁷²