The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems (87 page)

273

Contiguous
⁴²⁰⁵
might distemper
⁴²⁰⁶
the whole frame.

274

And Heav’n He named the firmament. So ev’n

275

And morning chorus sung the second day.

276

   
“The earth was formed, but in the womb as yet

277

Of waters, embryon
⁴²⁰⁷
immature involved,
⁴²⁰⁸

278

Appeared not. Over all the face of earth

279

Main ocean flowed, not idle
⁴²⁰⁹
but with warm

280

Prolific
⁴²¹⁰
humor
⁴²¹¹
soft’ning all her globe,

281

Fermented
⁴²¹²
the great mother to conceive,

282

Satiate with genial
⁴²¹³
moisture, when God said:

283

‘Be gathered now ye waters under Heav’n

284

Into one place, and let dry land appear.

285

Immediately the mountains huge appear

286

Emergent, and their broad bare backs upheave

287

Into the clouds, their tops ascend the sky,

288

So high as heaved the tumid
⁴²¹⁴
hills, so low

289

Down sunk a hollow bottom broad and deep,

290

Capacious bed of waters. Thither they
⁴²¹⁵

291

Hasted with glad precipitance,
⁴²¹⁶
uprolled
⁴²¹⁷

292

As drops on dust conglobing
⁴²¹⁸
from the dry.

293

Part rise in crystal wall, or ridge
⁴²¹⁹
direct,

294

For haste: such flight the great command impressed

295

On the swift floods. As armies at the call

296

Of trumpet (for of armies thou hast heard)

297

Troop
⁴²²⁰
to their standard, so the wat’ry throng,

298

Wave rolling after wave, where way they found,

299

If steep, with torrent
⁴²²¹
rapture,
⁴²²²
if through plain,

300

Soft-ebbing,
⁴²²³
nor withstood them rock or hill,

301

But they, or
⁴²²⁴
under ground, or circuit wide

302

With serpent error
⁴²²⁵
wand’ring, found their way,

303

And on the washy
⁴²²⁶
ooze deep channels wore

304

Easy,
⁴²²⁷
ere God had bid the ground be dry,

305

All but within those banks, where rivers now

306

Stream and perpetual draw their humid train.
⁴²²⁸

307

The dry land, earth,
⁴²²⁹
and the great receptacle

308

Of congregated waters, He called seas,

309

And saw that it was good. And said: ‘Let th’ earth

310

Put forth the verdant
⁴²³⁰
grass, herb yielding seed,

311

And fruit-tree yielding fruit after her kind,

312

Whose seed is in herself upon the earth.

313

He scarce had said, when the bare earth, till then

314

Desert and bare, unsightly, unadorned,

315

Brought forth the tender grass, whose verdure clad

316

Her universal face with pleasant green.

317

Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flowered

318

Op’ning their various colors, and made gay

319

Her bosom, smelling sweet, and these scarce blown,
⁴²³¹

320

Forth flourished thick the clust’ring vine, forth crept

321

The swelling gourd, up stood the corny
⁴²³²
reed

322

Embattled
⁴²³³
in her field, and the humble shrub,

323

And bush with frizzled hair implicit.
⁴²³⁴
Last

324

Rose, as in dance, the stately trees, and spread

325

Their branches hung with copious fruit, or gemmed
⁴²³⁵

326

Their blossoms. With high woods the hills were crowned,

327

With tufts
⁴²³⁶
the valleys, and each fountain-side,

328

With borders long
⁴²³⁷
the rivers, that earth now

329

Seemed like to Heav’n, a seat where gods might dwell,

330

Or wander with delight, and love to haunt
⁴²³⁸

331

Her sacred shades, though God had yet not rained

332

Upon the earth, and man to till the ground

333

None was. But from the earth a dewy mist

334

Went up, and watered all the ground, and each

335

Plant of the field, which ere it was in th’ earth

336

God made, and every herb, before it grew

337

On the green stem. God saw that it was good.

338

So ev’n and morn recorded the third day.

339

   
“Again th’Almighty spoke: ‘Let there be lights

340

High in th’ expanse of Heaven, to divide

341

The day from night, and let them be for signs,

342

For seasons, and for days, and circling years,

343

And let them be for lights, as I ordain

344

Their office in the firmament of Heav’n,

345

To give light on the earth. ’And it was so.

346

And God made two great lights, great for their use

347

To man, the greater to have rule by day,

348

The less by night, altern.
⁴²³⁹
And made the stars,

349

And set them in the firmament of Heav’n

350

T’ illuminate the earth, and rule the day

351

In their vicissitude,
⁴²⁴⁰
and rule the night,

352

And light from darkness to divide. God saw,

353

Surveying His great work, that it was good,

354

For of celestial bodies first the sun

355

A mighty sphere He framed, unlightsome
⁴²⁴¹
first,
⁴²⁴²

356

Though of ethereal mould, then formed the moon

357

Globose,
⁴²⁴³
and every magnitude of stars,

358

And sowed with stars the Heav’n, thick as a field.

35

Of light by far the greater part He took,

360

Transplanted from her cloudy shrine, and placed

361

In the sun’s orb, made porous to receive