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 they4215
291
Hasted with glad precipitance, 4216 uprolled 4217
292
As drops on dust conglobing4218 from the dry.
293
Part rise in crystal wall, or ridge4219 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
Troop4220 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 error4225 wand’ring, found their way,
303
And on the washy4226 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 verdant4230 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 corny4232 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 tufts4236 the valleys, and each fountain-side,
328
With borders long4237 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 haunt4238
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, unlightsome4241 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
362
And drink the liquid light, firm to retain
363
Her gathered beams, great palace4244 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-planet4246 gilds her horns.4247
367
By tincture4248 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
Regent4251 of day, and all th’ horizon round
372
Invested 4252 with bright rays, jocund4253 to run
373
His longitude4254 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
His4257 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
Spangling4260 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 sounds4261 and seas, each creek and bay,
400
With fry4262 innumerable swarm, and shoals
401
Of fish that with their fins, and shining scales,
402
Glide under the green wave, in sculls4263 that oft
403
Bank4264 the mid sea, part single, or with mate,
404
Graze the sea-weed their pasture, and through groves
405
Of coral stray, or sporting4265 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 smooth4269 the seal
410
And bended 4270 dolphins play, part huge of bulk,
411
Wallowing4271 unwieldy, 4272 enormous in their gait
412
Tempest4273 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 callow4277 young, but feathered soon and fledge4278
421
They summed 4279 their pens4280 and, soaring the air sublime, 4281
422
With clang4282 despised4283 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 wedge4288 their way,
427
Intelligent4289 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
Floats4291 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 solemn4294 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 mantling4296 proudly, rows
440
Her state with oary feet; yet oft they quit
441
The dank 4297 and, rising on stiff pennons, tow’r4298
442
The mid aereal sky. Others on ground
443
Walked firm, the crested cock whose clarion4299 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
447
With fish replenished,4301 and the air with fowl,
448
Ev’ning and morn solemnized 4302 the fifth day.
449
“The sixth, and of Creation last, arose
450
With ev’ning harps, and matin,4303 when God said:
451
‘Let th’ earth bring forth soul living, in her kind,4304
452
Cattle, and creeping things, and beast of th’ earth,
453
Each in their kind. ’The earth obeyed, and straight
454
Op’ning her fertile womb teemed 4305 at a birth
455
Innumerous living creatures, perfect forms,
456
Limbed and full grown. Out of the ground up rose,
457
As from his lair, the wild beast where he wons4306
458
In forest wild, in thicket, brake, 4307 or den.
459
Among the trees in pairs they rose, they walked,
460
The cattle in the fields and meadows green,
461
Those4308 rare and solitary, these4309 in flocks
462
Pasturing at once, and in broad herds upsprung. 4310
463
The grassy clods 4311 now calved: now half appeared
464
The tawny lion, pawing to get free
465
His hinder parts, then springs as broke from bonds,
466
And rampant 4312 shakes his brinded 4313 mane. The ounce, 4314
467
The libbard,4315 and the tiger, as the mole
468
Rising, the crumbled earth above them threw
469
In hillocks. The swift stag from under ground
470
Bore up his branching head. Scarce from his mould
471
Behemoth,4316 biggest born of earth, upheaved
472
His vastness. Fleeced the flocks, and bleating rose
473
As4317 plants. Ambiguous4318 between4319 sea and land
474
The river-horse,4320 and scaly crocodile.
475
At once came forth whatever creeps the ground,
476
Insect or worm. Those waved their limber4321 fans4322
477
For wings, and smallest lineaments4323 exact4324
478
In all the liveries decked of summer’s pride
479
With spots of gold and purple, azure and green.
480
These as a line their long dimension drew,
481
Streaking4325 the ground with sinuous trace.4326 Not all
482
Minims4327 of Nature: some of serpent-kind,
483
Wondrous in length and corpulence, 4328 involved 432
9
484
Their snaky folds, and added 4330 wings. First crept
485
The parsimonious emmet,4331 provident
486
Of future, in small room large heart enclosed,
487
Pattern of just equality perhaps
The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems Page 40
