The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems (98 page)

628

Desiring, nor restrained
⁴⁶⁴⁶
conveyance
⁴⁶⁴⁷
need,

629

As flesh to mix with flesh, or soul with soul.

630

But I can now no more. The parting sun

631

Beyond the earth’s green cape and verdant isles
⁴⁶⁴⁸

632

Hesperian
⁴⁶⁴⁹
sets: my signal to depart.

633

Be strong, live happy, and love! But first of all
⁴⁶⁵⁰

634

Him whom to love is to obey, and keep

635

His great command. Take heed lest passion sway

636

Thy judgment to do aught which else free will

637

Would not admit.
⁴⁶⁵¹
Thine, and of all thy sons,

638

The weal
⁴⁶⁵²
or woe in thee is placed. Beware!

639

I in thy persevering shall rejoice,

640

And all the Blest. Stand fast! To stand or fall

641

Free in thine own arbitrement
⁴⁶⁵³
it lies.

642

Perfect
⁴⁶⁵⁴
within, no outward aid require,

643

And all temptation to transgress repel.

644

   
So saying, he arose, whom Adam thus

645

Followed with benediction. “Since to part,

646

Go, Heav’nly guest, ethereal messenger,

647

Sent from whose sov’reign goodness I adore!

648

Gentle
⁴⁶⁵⁵
to me and affable hath been

649

Thy condescension, and shall be honored ever

650

With grateful memory. Thou to mankind

651

Be good and friendly still,
⁴⁶⁵⁶
and oft return!

652

   
So parted they, the Angel up to Heav’n

653

From the thick shade, and Adam to his bow’r.

1

   
No more of talk where God or Angel guest

2

With man, as with his
⁴⁶⁶⁴
friend, familiar used,
⁴⁶⁶⁵

3

To sit indulgent,
⁴⁶⁶⁶
and with him
⁴⁶⁶⁷
partake

4

Rural
⁴⁶⁶⁸
repast, permitting him
⁴⁶⁶⁹
the while

5

Venial
⁴⁶⁷⁰
discourse unblamed.
⁴⁶⁷¹
I now must change

6

Those notes
⁴⁶⁷²
to tragic, foul distrust, and breach
⁴⁶⁷³

7

Disloyal on the part of man, revolt,

8

And disobedience; on the part of Heav’n,

9

Now alienated,
⁴⁶⁷⁴
distance and distaste,

10

Anger and just rebuke, and judgment giv’n,

11

That brought into this world a world of woe,

12

Sin and her shadow Death, and misery,

13

Death’s harbinger
⁴⁶⁷⁵
—sad task, yet argument
⁴⁶⁷⁶

14

Not less but more heroic than the wrath

15

Of stern
⁴⁶⁷⁷
Achilles on his foe
⁴⁶⁷⁸
pursued

16

Thrice fugitive
⁴⁶⁷⁹
about Troy wall, or rage

17

Of Turnus
⁴⁶⁸⁰
for Lavinia
⁴⁶⁸¹
disespoused,
⁴⁶⁸²

18

Or Neptune’s ire,
⁴⁶⁸³
or Juno’s,
⁴⁶⁸⁴
that so long

19

Perplexed
⁴⁶⁸⁵
the Greek,
⁴⁶⁸⁶
and Cytherea’s son.
⁴⁶⁸⁷

20

If answerable
⁴⁶⁸⁸
style I can obtain

21

Of
⁴⁶⁸⁹
my celestial patroness,
⁴⁶⁹⁰
who deigns
⁴⁶⁹¹

22

Her nightly visitation unimplored,

23

And dictates to me slumb’ring, or inspires

24

Easy
⁴⁶⁹²
my unpremeditated
⁴⁶⁹³
verse,

25

Since first this subject for heroic song

26

Pleased me, long choosing, and beginning late,
⁴⁶⁹⁴

27

Not sedulous
⁴⁶⁹⁵
by nature to indite
⁴⁶⁹⁶

28

Wars, hitherto the only argument
⁴⁶⁹⁷

29

Heroic deemed,
⁴⁶⁹⁸
chief mastery
⁴⁶⁹⁹
to dissect
⁴⁷⁰⁰

30

With long and tedious havoc
⁴⁷⁰¹
fabled knights

31

In battles feigned
⁴⁷⁰²
—the better fortitude

32

Of patience and heroic martyrdom

33

Unsung—or to describe races and games,

34

Or tilting
⁴⁷⁰³
furniture,
⁴⁷⁰⁴
emblazoned
⁴⁷⁰⁵
shields,

35

Impresses
⁴⁷⁰⁶
quaint,
⁴⁷⁰⁷
caparisons
⁴⁷⁰⁸
and steeds,

36

Bases
⁴⁷⁰⁹
and tinsel
⁴⁷¹⁰
trappings, gorgeous
⁴⁷¹¹
knights

37

At joust and tournament, then marshalled
⁴⁷¹²
feast

38

Served up in hall with sewers
⁴⁷¹³
and senechals,
⁴⁷¹⁴

39

The skill of artifice
⁴⁷¹⁵
or office
⁴⁷¹⁶
mean,
⁴⁷¹⁷

40

Not that which justly gives heroic name

41

To person or to poem. Me, of these

42

Nor skilled nor studious, higher argument

43

Remains, sufficient of itself to raise
⁴⁷¹⁸

44

That name,
⁴⁷¹⁹
unless an age too late, or cold

45

Climate, or years, damp my intended wing
⁴⁷²⁰

46

Depressed.
⁴⁷²¹
And much they may, if all be mine,

47

Not hers, who brings it nightly to my ear.

48

   
The sun was sunk, and after him the star

49

Of Hesperus,
⁴⁷²²
whose office
⁴⁷²³
is to bring

50

Twilight upon the earth, short arbiter
⁴⁷²⁴

51

’Twixt day and night. And now from end to end

52

Night’s hemisphere had veiled th’ horizon round,

53

When Satan, who late
⁴⁷²⁵
fled before the threats

54

Of Gabriel out of Eden, now improved
⁴⁷²⁶

55

In meditated fraud and malice, bent

56

On man’s destruction, maugre
⁴⁷²⁷
what might hap
⁴⁷²⁸

57

Of heavier on himself, fearless returned.

58

By night he fled, and at midnight returned

59

From compassing
⁴⁷²⁹
the earth, cautious of day,

60

Since Uriel, regent of the sun, descried
⁴⁷³⁰

61

His entrance, and forewarned the Cherubim

62

That kept their watch. Thence full of anguish driv’n,

63

The space of seven continued nights he rode
⁴⁷³¹

64

With darkness. Thrice the equinoctial
⁴⁷³²
line

65

He circled, four times crossed the car
⁴⁷³³
of night

66

From pole to pole, traversing each colure.
⁴⁷³⁴

67

On the eighth returned and, on the coast averse
⁴⁷³⁵

68

From entrance or Cherubic watch, by stealth

69

Found unsuspected
⁴⁷³⁶
way.
⁴⁷³⁷

There was a place,

70

Now not, though Sin, not time, first wrought the change,

71

Where Tigris,
⁴⁷³⁸
at the foot of Paradise,

72

Into a gulf
⁴⁷³⁹
shot
⁴⁷⁴⁰
under ground, till part

73

Rose up a fountain by the Tree of Life.

74

In with the river sunk, and with it rose

75

Satan, involved
⁴⁷⁴¹
in rising mist, then sought

76

Where to lie hid. Sea he had searched, and land,

77

From Eden over Pontus
⁴⁷⁴²
and the pool

78

Maeotis,
⁴⁷⁴³
up beyond the river Ob,
⁴⁷⁴⁴

79

Downward as far Antarctic, and in length

80

West from Orontes
⁴⁷⁴⁵
to the ocean barred

81

At Darien,
⁴⁷⁴⁶
thence to the land where flows

82

Ganges and Indus. Thus the orb
⁴⁷⁴⁷
he roamed