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
The Son of God renders praises to His Father for the manifestation of His gracious purpose towards man, but God again declares that grace cannot be extended towards man without the satisfaction of divine justice. Man hath offended the majesty of God by aspiring to Godhead, and therefore with all his progeny devoted to Death must die, unless some one can be found sufficient to answer for his offence, and undergo his punishment.
The Son of God freely offers himself a ransom for man. The Father accepts him, ordains his incarnation, pronounces his exaltation above all names in Heaven and earth; commands all the Angels to adore him. They obey, and hymning to their harps in full choir, celebrate the Father and the Son.
Meanwhile Satan alights upon the bare convex of this world’s outermost orb, where wandring he first finds a place since called the Limbo of Vanity; what persons and things fly up thither. Thence [Satan] comes to the Gate of Heaven, described ascending by stairs, and the waters above the firmament that flow about it. His passage thence to the orb of the sun; he finds there Uriel the Regent of that orb, but first changes himself into the shape of a meaner Angel and, pretending a zealous desire to behold the new creation, and man whom God had placed here, inquires of him the place of his habitation, and is directed; alights first on Mount Niphates.
1 | | |
2 | | Or of the Eternal Coeternal beam |
3 | | May I express thee unblamed? since God is light, |
4 | | And never but in unapproachèd light |
5 | | Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee |
6 | | |
7 | | Or hear’st |
8 | | Whose fountain who shall tell? Before the sun, |
9 | | Before the Heav’ns thou wert, and at the voice |
10 | | Of God, as with a mantle, didst invest |
11 | | The rising world of waters dark and deep, |
12 | | Won from the void and formless infinite. |
13 | | Thee I re-visit now with bolder wing, |
14 | | Escaped the Stygian |
15 | | In that obscure sojourn, |
16 | | Through utter and through middle darkness borne, |
17 | | |
18 | | I sung of Chaos and eternal Night, |
19 | | Taught by the Heav’nly Muse to venture down |
20 | | The dark descent, and up to re-ascend, |
21 | | Though hard and rare. |
22 | | And feel thy sov’reign vital lamp, |
23 | | Re-visit’st not these eyes, that roll in vain |
24 | | To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn, |
25 | | |
26 | | |
27 | | Cease I to wander where the Muses haunt, |
28 | | Clear spring, or shady grove, or sunny hill, |
29 | | Smit |
30 | | Thee, Sion, |
31 | | That wash thy hallowed feet, and warbling flow, |
32 | | Nightly I visit, nor sometimes forget |
33 | | Those other two, equaled with |
34 | | (So were I equaled with them in renown) |
35 | | |
36 | | |
37 | | Then feed |
38 | | |
39 | | |
40 | | Tunes her nocturnal note. Thus with the year |
41 | | Seasons return, but not to me returns |
42 | | Day, or the sweet approach of ev’n or morn, |
43 | | Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer’s rose, |
44 | | Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine, |
45 | | But cloud instead, and ever-during |
46 | | Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men |
47 | | Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair |
48 | | Presented with a universal blank |
49 | | |
50 | | And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out. |
51 | | So much the rather thou, celestial light, |
52 | | Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers |
53 | | |
54 | | Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell |
55 | | Of things invisible to mortal sight. |
56 | | |
57 | | From the pure empyrean where He sits |
58 | | High throned above all height, bent down His eye, |
59 | | His own works and their works at once to view. |
60 | | About Him all the Sanctities of Heav’n |
61 | | Stood thick as stars, and from His sight received |
62 | | |
63 | | The radiant image of His glory sat, |
64 | | His only Son. On earth He first beheld |
65 | | Our two first parents, yet |
66 | | Of mankind in the happy garden placed, |
67 | | Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love, |
68 | | Uninterrupted joy, unrivaled love, |
69 | | In blissful solitude. He then surveyed |
70 | | Hell and the gulf between, and Satan there |
71 | | Coasting the wall of Heav’n on this side Night |
72 | | |
73 | | To stoop with wearied wings and willing feet |
74 | | On the bare outside of this world, that seemed |
75 | | |
76 | | Uncertain which, in ocean or in air. |
77 | | Him God beholding, from His prospect |
78 | | Wherein past, present, future, He beholds, |
79 | | Thus to His only Son foreseeing spoke: |
8 | | “Only-begotten Son, seest thou what rage |
81 | | Transports |
82 | | Prescribed, no bars of Hell, nor all the chains |
83 | | Heaped on him there, nor yet the main abyss |
84 | | Wide interrupt, |
85 | | On desperate revenge, that shall redound |
86 | | Upon his own rebellious head. And now, |
87 | | Through all restraint broke |
88 | | Not far off Heav’n, in the precincts |
89 | | Directly towards the new created world, |
90 | | And man there placed, with purpose to assay |