The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems (88 page)

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

BOOK: The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems
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362

      

And drink the liquid light, firm to retain

363

      

Her gathered beams, great palace
4244
now of light.

364

      

Hither, as to their fountain, other stars

365

      

Repairing,
4245
in their golden urns draw light,

366

      

And hence the morning-planet
4246
gilds her horns.
4247

367

      

By tincture
4248
or reflection they augment

368

      

Their small peculiar,
4249
though from human sight

369

      

So far remote, with diminution seen.
4250

370

      

First in his east the glorious lamp was seen,

371

      

Regent
4251
of day, and all th’ horizon round

372

      

Invested
4252
with bright rays, jocund
4253
to run

373

      

His longitude
4254
through Heav’n’s high road. The gray

374

      

Dawn and the Pleiades before him danced,

375

      

Shedding sweet influence.
4255
Less bright the moon,

376

      

But opposite in levelled
4256
west was set,

377

      

His
4257
mirror, with full face borrowing her light

378

      

From him, for other light she needed none

379

      

In that aspect,
4258
and still that distance keeps

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
4259
holds,

383

      

With thousand thousand stars, that then appeared

384

      

Spangling
4260
the hemisphere. Then first adorned

385

      

With their bright luminaries that set and rose,

386

      

Glad ev’ning and glad morn crowned the fourth day.

387

      

   
“And God said: ‘Let the waters generate

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
4261
and seas, each creek and bay,

400

      

With fry
4262
innumerable swarm, and shoals

401

      

Of fish that with their fins, and shining scales,

402

      

Glide under the green wave, in sculls
4263
that oft

403

      

Bank
4264
the mid sea, part single, or with mate,

404

      

Graze the sea-weed their pasture, and through groves

405

      

Of coral stray, or sporting
4265
with quick glance,

406

      

Show to the sun their waved coats dropped
4266
with gold,

407

      

Or in their pearly shells at ease, attend
4267

408

      

Moist nutriment, or under rocks their food

409

      

In jointed armour watch.
4268
On smooth
4269
the seal

410

      

And bended
4270
dolphins play, part huge of bulk,

411

      

Wallowing
4271
unwieldy,
4272
enormous in their gait

412

      

Tempest
4273
the ocean. There Leviathan,

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

      

Meanwhile the tepid
4274
caves, and fens,
4275
and shores

418

      

Their brood as numerous hatch, from th’ egg that soon

419

      

Bursting with kindly
4276
rupture forth disclosed

420

      

Their callow
4277
young, but feathered soon and fledge
4278

421

      

They summed
4279
their pens
4280
and, soaring the air sublime,
4281

422

      

With clang
4282
despised
4283
the ground, under a cloud

423

      

In prospect.
4284
There the eagle and the stork

424

      

On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build.

425

      

Part loosely wing the region,
4285
part more wise

426

      

In common, ranged
4286
in figure,
4287
wedge
4288
their way,

427

      

Intelligent
4289
of seasons, and set forth

428

      

Their airy caravan, high over seas

429

      

Flying, and over lands, with mutual
4290
wing

430

      

Easing their flight. So steers the prudent crane

431

      

Her annual voyage, borne on winds. The air

432

      

Floats
4291
as they pass, fanned with unnumbered plumes.

433

      

From branch to branch the smaller birds with song

434

      

Solaced
4292
the woods, and spread their painted wings

435

      

Till ev’n,
4293
nor then the solemn
4294
nightingale

436

      

Ceased warbling, but all night tuned her soft lays.
4295

437

      

Others, on silver lakes and rivers, bathed

438

      

Their downy breast; the swan with archèd neck,

439

      

Between her white wings mantling
4296
proudly, rows

440

      

Her state with oary feet; yet oft they quit

441

      

The dank
4297
and, rising on stiff pennons, tow’r
4298

442

      

The mid aereal sky. Others on ground

443

      

Walked firm, the crested cock whose clarion
4299
sounds

444

      

The silent hours, and th’ other
4300
whose gay train

445

      

Adorns him, colored with the florid hue

446

      

Of rainbows and starry eyes. The waters thus

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