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
541
In whirlwind. Hell scarce holds the wild uproar,
542
543
With conquest, felt th’ envenomed robe,
2146
and tore
544
Through pain up by the roots Thessalian
2147
pines,
545
546
Into th’ Euboic sea.
2150
Others, more mild,
547
Retreated
2151
in a silent valley, sing
548
With notes angelical to many a harp
549
Their own heroic deeds and hapless
2152
fall
550
By doom
2153
of battle, and complain that Fate
551
552
Their song was partial,
2156
but the harmony
553
(What could it less when Spirits immortal sing?
554
555
The thronging audience. In discourse
2159
more sweet
556
(For eloquence the soul,
2160
song charms the sense)
557
Others apart sat on a hill retired,
2161
558
In thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high
559
Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate
560
Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute,
561
And found no end, in wand’ring mazes lost.
562
Of good and evil much they argued then,
563
Of happiness and final misery,
564
Passion and apathy, and glory and shame:
565
Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy
566
Yet with a pleasing sorcery could charm
567
Pain for a while, or anguish, and excite
568
Fallacious hope, or arm th’ obdurèd
2162
breast
569
With stubborn patience, as with triple steel.
570
Another part, in squadrons and gross
2163
bands,
571
572
That dismal world, if any clime perhaps
573
Might yield them easier habitation, bend
574
Four ways their flying
2167
march, along the banks
575
Of four infernal rivers, that disgorge
576
Into the burning lake their baleful
2168
streams—
577
Abhorrèd Styx, the flood
2169
of deadly hate;
578
Sad Acheron of sorrow, black and deep;
579
580
581
582
Far off from these, a slow and silent stream,
583
Lethe,
2177
the river of oblivion, rolls
584
Her wat’ry labyrinth,
2178
whereof who drinks
585
Forthwith
2179
his former state and being forgets—
586
Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain.
587
Beyond this flood
2180
a frozen continent
588
Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms
589
Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land
590
Thaws not, but gathers heap,
2181
and ruin seems
591
Of ancient pile,
2182
all else deep snow and ice,
592
593
594
Where armies whole have sunk. The parching
2188
air
595
596
Thither, by harpy-footed Furies haled,
2191
597
At certain revolutions
2192
all the damned
598
Are brought and feel by turns the bitter change
599
Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce,
600
601
Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine
2195
602
Immovable, infixed, and frozen round,
603
Periods
2196
of time, thence hurried back to fire.
604
They ferry over this Lethean sound
605
Both to and fro, their sorrow to augment,
606
And wish and struggle, as they pass, to reach
607
The tempting stream, with one small drop to lose
608
In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe,
609
All in one moment, and so near the brink.
610
But Fate withstands
2197
and, to oppose th’ attempt,
611
Medusa,
2198
with Gorgonian terror, guards
612
The ford, and of itself the water flies
2199
613
All taste of living wight,
2200
as once it fled
614
The lip of Tantalus.
2201
Thus roving on
615
In confused
2202
march forlorn, th’ adventurous bands,
616
With shuddering horror pale and eyes aghast,
617
Viewed first their lamentable
2203
lot, and found
618
No rest. Through many a dark and dreary vale
619
They passed, and many a region dolorous,
620
O’er many a frozen, many a fiery alp,
621
Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death—
622
A universe of death, which God by curse
623
Created evil, for evil only good,
2204
624
Where all life dies, death lives, and Nature breeds,
625
Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious
2205
things,