Hast founded 1374 strength, because of all Thy foes,
To stint 1375 th’ enemy and slack 1376 th’ avenger’s brow
That bends his rage Thy providence t’ oppose.
When I behold Thy Heav’ns, Thy fingers’ art,
The moon and stars which Thou so bright hast set
In the pure firmament, then saith my heart:
O what is man, that Thou remembrest yet
And think’st upon him, or of man begot 1377
That him Thou visit’st and of 1378 him art found.
Scarce to be less than gods Thou mad’st his lot,
With honor and with state1379 Thou hast him crowned.
O’er the works of Thy hand Thou mad’st him lord.
Thou hast put all under his lordly feet
All flocks, and herds, by Thy commanding word,
All beasts that in the field or forest meet,1380
Fowl of the Heav’ns, and fish that through the wet
Sea-paths in shoals do slide. And know no dearth.1381
O Jehovah, our Lord, how wondrous great
And glorious is Thy name through all the earth.
PARADISE LOST
1642?–1655?
THE VERSE
The measure1382 is English heroic verse1383 without rhyme, as that of Homer in Greek and of Virgil in Latin, rhyme being no necessary adjunct or true ornament of poem or good verse (in longer works especially) but the invention of a barbarous Age, to set off wretched matter1384 and lame meter—graced indeed, since, by the use of some famous modern poets, carried away by custom, but much to their own vexation, hindrance, and constraint to express many things otherwise1385 and for the most part worse than they would have expressed them. Not without cause, therefore, some both Italian and Spanish poets of prime note have rejected rhyme both in longer and shorter works, as have also long since our best English tragedies, as a thing of itself to all judicious ears trivial and of no musical delight, which [delight] consists only in apt numbers,1386 fit 1387 quantity of syllables, and the sense variously drawn out from one verse into another, not in the jingling sound of like endings, a fault avoided by the ancients both in poetry and all good oratory. This neglect, then, of rhyme so little is to be taken for a defect—though it may seem so, perhaps, to vulgar1388 readers—that it rather is to be esteemed1389 an example set, the first in English, of ancient liberty recovered to heroic poem from the troublesome and modern bondage of rhyming.
BOOK I
THE ARGUMENT
This first Book proposes first in brief the whole subject, man’s disobedience, and the loss thereupon of Paradise wherein he was placed; then touches the prime cause of his fall, the Serpent, or rather Satan in the Serpent, who, revolting from God, and drawing to his side many legions of Angels, was by the command of God driven out of Heaven with all his crew into the great deep. Which action past over, the poem hastes into the midst of things, presenting Satan with his Angels now fallen into Hell, described here not in the center (for Heaven and Earth may be supposed as yet not made, certainly not yet accursed) but in a place of utter darkness, fitliest1390 called Chaos. Here Satan with his Angels lying on the burning lake, thunder-struck and astonished, after a certain space1391 recovers, as from confusion, calls up him who next in order and dignity lay by him.
They confer of1392 their miserable fall. Satan awakens all his legions, who lay till then in the same manner confounded. They rise, their numbers, array of battle, their chief leaders named, according to the idols known afterwards in Canaan1393 and the countries adjoining. To these Satan directs his speech, comforts them with hope yet of regaining Heaven, but tells them lastly of a new world and new kind of creature to be created, according to an ancient prophecy or report in Heaven—for that Angels were, long before this visible Creation, was the opinion of many ancient Fathers. To find out the truth of this prophecy, and what to determine thereon, he refers to a full council.
What his associates thence attempt. Pandemonium, the palace of Satan, rises, suddenly built out of the deep. The infernal peers there sit in council.
1
Of man’s first disobedience, and the fruit
2
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal 1394 taste
3
Brought Death into the world, and all our woe
4
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man1395
5
Restore us and regain the blissful seat
6
Sing, Heavenly Muse, that on the secret top
7
Of Oreb,1396 or of Sinai, didst inspire
8
That shepherd 1397 who first taught the chosen seed 1398
9
In the beginning how the heavens and earth
10
Rose out of Chaos. Or if Sion hill1399
11
Delight thee more, and Siloa’s1400 brook that flowed
12
Fast by 1401 the oracle of God,1402 I thence
13
Invoke thy aid to my adventurous1403 song
14
That with no middle flight intends to soar
15
Above th’Aonian mount,1404 while it pursues
16
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme
17
And chiefly thou, O Spirit,1405 that dost prefer
18
Before 1406 all temples th’ upright heart and pure
19
Instruct me, for Thou know’st, Thou from the first
20
Wast present and, with mighty wings outspread
2
Dove-like sat’st brooding 1407 on the vast abyss
22
And mad’st it pregnant. What in me is dark 1408
23
Illumine, what is low raise and support
24
That, to the height of this great argument
25
I may assert Eternal Providence
26
And justify the ways of God to men
27
Say first—for Heav’n hides nothing from thy view
28
Nor the deep tract of Hell—say first what cause
29
Moved our grand 1409 parents, in that happy state
30
Favored of Heav’n so highly, to fall off 1410
31
From their Creator and transgress His will
32
For1411 one restraint, lords of the world besides
33
Who first seduced them to that foul revolt
34
Th’ infernal Serpent, he it was whose guile
35
Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived
36
The mother of mankind, what time his pride
37
Had cast him out from Heav’n, with all his host
38
Of rebel Angels, by whose aid, aspiring
39
To set himself in glory above his peers
40
He trusted to have equalled the Most High
41
If he opposed and with ambitious aim
42
Against the throne and monarchy of God
43
Raised impious war in Heav’n and battle proud
44
With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power
45
Hurled headlong flaming from th’ ethereal 1412 sky
46
With hideous1413 ruin and combustion,1414 down
47
To bottomless perdition,1415 there to dwell
48
In adamantine 1416 chains and penal 1417 fire
49
Who durst defy th’ Omnipotent to arms
50
Nine times the space that measures day and night
51
To mortal men, he, with his horrid 1418 crew, 1419
&n
bsp; 52
Lay vanquished, rolling in the fiery gulf, 1420
53
Confounded,1421 though immortal. But his doom1422
54
Reserved 1423 him to more wrath, for now the thought
55
Both of lost happiness and lasting pain
56
Torments him. Round he throws his baleful1424 eyes
57
That witnessed 1425 huge affliction and dismay
58
Mixed with obdurate 1426 pride and steadfast hate
59
At once, as far as Angels ken,1427 he views
60
The dismal 1428 situation waste 1429 and wild.1430
61
A dungeon horrible, on all sides round
62
As one great furnace flamed, yet from those flames
63
No light but rather darkness visible
64
Served only to discover 1431 sights of woe
65
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
66
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
67
That comes to all, but torture without end
68
Still urges,1432 and a fiery deluge, fed
69
With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed.1433
70
Such place Eternal Justice had prepared
71
For those rebellious, here their prison ordained
72
In utter darkness, and their portion1434 set
73
As far removed from God and light of Heav’n
74
As from the center thrice to th’ utmost pole
75
Oh how unlike the place from whence they fell
76
There the companions of his fall, o’erwhelmed
77
With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire
78
He soon discerns and, weltering1435 by his side
79
One next himself in power, and next in crime
80
Long after known in Palestine, and named
81
Beelzebub. 1436 To whom th’ arch-enemy
82
And thence in Heav’n called Satan, with bold words
83
Breaking the horrid silence, thus began
84
“If thou beest he—but O how fallen! how changed
85
From him who, in the happy1437 realms of light
86
Clothed with transcendent brightness, didst outshine
87
Myriads,1438 though bright!—if he whom mutual league, 1439
88
United thoughts and counsels, equal hope
89
And hazard in the glorious enterprise
90
Joined with me once, now misery hath joined
91
In equal ruin—into what pit thou seest
92
From what height fall’n, so much the stronger proved
93
He with His thunder. And till then who knew
94
The force of those dire arms? Yet not for those
95
Nor what the potent victor in His rage
96
Can else inflict, do I repent, or change
97
(Though changed in outward luster) that fixed mind
98
And high disdain from sense of injured merit
99
That with the Mightiest raised me to contend
100
And to the fierce contentions1440 brought along
101
Innumerable 1441 force of Spirits armed
102
That durst dislike His reign and, me preferring
103
His utmost power with adverse1442 power opposed
104
In dubious1443 battle on the plains of Heav’n,
105
And shook His throne. What though the field be lost
106
All is not lost—the unconquerable will
107
And study 1444 of revenge, immortal hate
108
And courage never to submit or yield
109
And what is else not to be overcome
110
That glory never shall His wrath or might
111
Extort from me. To bow and sue1445 for grace 1446
112
With suppliant 1447 knee, and deify His power
113
Who, from1448 the terror1449 of this arm, so late1450
114
Doubted 1451 His empire: that were low indeed
115
That were an ignominy and shame beneath
116
This downfall, since, by fate, the strength of gods
117
And this empyreal 1452 substance, cannot fail
118
Since, through experience of this great event
119
In arms not worse, in foresight 1453 much advanced,1454
120
We may with more successful hope resolve
121
To wage by force or guile eternal war
122
Irreconcilable to our grand foe
123
Who now triumphs, and in th’ excess of joy
124
Sole reigning holds the tyranny of Heav’n.”
125
So spoke th’ apostate Angel, though in pain
126
Vaunting 1455 aloud, but racked with deep despair
127
And him thus answered, soon, his bold compeer:1456
128
“O Prince, O chief of many thronèd Powers1457
129
That led th’ embattled Seraphim1458 to war
130
Under thy conduct 1459 and, in dreadful deeds
131
Fearless, endangered Heav’n’s perpetual 1460 King
132
And put to proof 1461 His high supremacy
133
Whether upheld by strength, or chance, or fate
134
Too well I see and rue 1462 the dire event
135
That, with sad overthrow and foul defeat
136
Hath lost us Heav’n, and all this mighty host
137
In horrible destruction laid thus low
138
As far as gods and Heav’nly Essences 1463
139
Can perish—for the mind and spirit remains
140
Invincible, 1464 and vigor soon returns
141
Though all our glory extinct, and happy state
142
Here swallowed up in endless misery
143
But what if He our conqueror (whom I now
144
Of force1465 believe almighty, since no less
145
Than such could have o’erpowered such force as ours
146
Have left us this our spirit and strength entire, 1466
147
Strongly to suffer 1467 and support 1468 our pains
148
That we may so suffice1469 His vengeful ire
149
Or do Him mightier service as His thralls1470
150
By right of war, whate’er His business be,
151
Here in the heart of Hell to work in fire
152
Or do His errands in the gloomy deep
153
What can it then avail, though yet we feel
154
Strength undiminished, or eternal being
155
To undergo eternal
punishment
156
Whereto with speedy words th’ arch-fiend replied
157
“Fall’n Cherub, to be weak is miserable
158
Doing or suffering. But of this be sure
159
To do aught 1471 good never will be our task
160
But ever to do ill our sole delight
161
As being the contrary to His high will
The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems Page 12
