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
180 | | |
181 | | The seat of desolation, void of light |
182 | | Save what the glimmering of these livid |
183 | | Casts pale and dreadful? Thither let us tend |
184 | | From off the tossing of these fiery waves |
185 | | There rest, if any rest can harbor |
186 | | And, re-assembling our afflicted |
187 | | Consult how we may henceforth most offend |
188 | | Our enemy, our own loss how repair |
189 | | How overcome this dire calamity |
190 | | What reinforcement we may gain from hope |
191 | | If not, what resolution from despair |
192 | | |
193 | | With head uplift above the wave, and eyes |
194 | | That sparkling blazed, his other parts besides |
195 | | Prone on the flood, |
196 | | Lay floating many a rood, |
197 | | As whom the fables name of monstrous size |
198 | | |
199 | | Briareos or Typhon, whom the den |
200 | | |
201 | | Leviathan, |
202 | | Created hugest that swim th’ ocean-stream |
203 | | |
204 | | The pilot of some small night-foundered |
205 | | Deeming |
206 | | With fixed anchor in his scaly rind, |
207 | | Moors by his side under the lee, |
208 | | Invests |
209 | | So stretched out huge in length the arch-fiend lay |
210 | | Chained on the burning lake, nor ever thence |
211 | | Had risen or heaved |
212 | | And high permission of all-ruling Heav’n |
213 | | Left him at large to his own dark designs |
214 | | That with reiterated crimes he might |
215 | | Heap on himself damnation, while he sought |
216 | | Evil to others, and enraged might see |
217 | | How all his malice served but to bring forth |
218 | | Infinite goodness, grace, and mercy, shown |
219 | | On man by him seduced, but on himself |
220 | | Treble confusion, |
221 | | |
222 | | His mighty stature. On each hand the flames |
223 | | Driv’n backward slope their pointing spires and, rolled |
224 | | In billows, leave in th’ midst a horrid vale |
225 | | Then with expanded |
226 | | Aloft, incumbent |
227 | | That felt unusual weight, till on dry land |
228 | | He lights |
229 | | With solid, as the lake with liquid fire |
230 | | |
231 | | Of subterranean wind transports a hill |
232 | | Torn from Pelorus, |
233 | | Of thundering Etna, whose combustible |
234 | | And fuellèd entrails thence conceiving fire |
235 | | Sublimed |
236 | | |
237 | | With stench and smoke. Such resting found the sole |
238 | | Of unblest feet. Him followed his next mate |
239 | | |
240 | | As |
241 | | |
242 | | |
243 | | Said then the lost Archangel, “this the seat |
244 | | That we must change for Heav’n?—this mournful gloom |
245 | | For that celestial light? Be it so, since He |
246 | | |
247 | | What shall be right. Farthest from Him is best |
248 | | Whom reason hath equalled, force hath made supreme |
249 | | Above His equals. Farewell, happy fields |
250 | | Where joy forever dwells! Hail, horrors! hail |
251 | | Infernal world! and thou, profoundest |
252 | | Receive thy new possessor—one who brings |
253 | | A mind not to be changed by place or time |
254 | | The mind is its own place, and in itself |
255 | | Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n. |
256 | | What matter where, if I be still the same |
257 | | And what I should be, all but |
258 | | Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least |
259 | | We shall be free. Th’Almighty hath not built |
260 | | Here for His envy, will not drive us hence |
261 | | Here we may reign secure and, in my choice |
262 | | To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell |
263 | | Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heav’n! |
264 | | |
265 | | Th’ associates and co-partners of our loss |
266 | | |
267 | | And call them not to share with us their part |