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
362 | | And drink the liquid light, firm to retain |
363 | | Her gathered beams, great palace |
364 | | Hither, as to their fountain, other stars |
365 | | Repairing, |
366 | | |
367 | | By tincture |
368 | | Their small peculiar, |
369 | | So far remote, with diminution seen. |
370 | | First in his east the glorious lamp was seen, |
371 | | Regent |
372 | | |
373 | | His longitude |
374 | | Dawn and the Pleiades before him danced, |
375 | | Shedding sweet influence. |
376 | | But opposite in levelled |
377 | | His |
378 | | From him, for other light she needed none |
379 | | In that aspect, |
380 | | Till night, then in the east her turn she shines, |
381 | | Revolved on Heav’n’s great axle, and her reign |
382 | | With thousand lesser lights dividual |
383 | | With thousand thousand stars, that then appeared |
384 | | Spangling |
385 | | With their bright luminaries that set and rose, |
386 | | Glad ev’ning and glad morn crowned the fourth day. |
387 | | |
388 | | Reptile with spawn abundant, living soul, |
389 | | And let fowl fly above the earth, with wings |
390 | | Displayed on the open firmament of Heav’n. |
391 | | And God created the great whales, and each |
392 | | Soul living, each that crept, which plenteously |
393 | | The waters generated by their kinds, |
394 | | And every bird of wing after his kind, |
395 | | And saw that it was good, and blessed them, saying: |
396 | | ‘Be fruitful, multiply, and in the seas, |
397 | | And lakes, and running streams, the waters fill, |
398 | | And let the fowl be multiplied on th’ earth. |
399 | | Forthwith the sounds |
400 | | With fry |
401 | | Of fish that with their fins, and shining scales, |
402 | | Glide under the green wave, in sculls |
403 | | Bank |
404 | | Graze the sea-weed their pasture, and through groves |
405 | | Of coral stray, or sporting |
406 | | Show to the sun their waved coats dropped |
407 | | Or in their pearly shells at ease, attend |
408 | | Moist nutriment, or under rocks their food |
409 | | |
410 | | And bended |
411 | | |
412 | | Tempest |
413 | | Hugest of living creatures, on the deep |
414 | | Stretched like a promontory sleeps or swims, |
415 | | And seems a moving land, and at his gills |
416 | | Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out, a sea. |
417 | | |
418 | | Their brood as numerous hatch, from th’ egg that soon |
419 | | Bursting with kindly |
420 | | |
421 | | They summed |
422 | | |
423 | | In prospect. |
424 | | On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build. |
425 | | Part loosely wing the region, |
426 | | |
427 | | Intelligent |
428 | | Their airy caravan, high over seas |
429 | | Flying, and over lands, with mutual |
430 | | Easing their flight. So steers the prudent crane |
431 | | Her annual voyage, borne on winds. The air |
432 | | Floats |
433 | | From branch to branch the smaller birds with song |
434 | | Solaced |
435 | | |
436 | | Ceased warbling, but all night tuned her soft lays. |
437 | | Others, on silver lakes and rivers, bathed |
438 | | Their downy breast; the swan with archèd neck, |
439 | | Between her white wings mantling |
440 | | Her state with oary feet; yet oft they quit |
441 | | |
442 | | The mid aereal sky. Others on ground |
443 | | Walked firm, the crested cock whose clarion |
444 | | The silent hours, and th’ other |
445 | | Adorns him, colored with the florid hue |
446 | | Of rainbows and starry eyes. The waters thus |