Paradise Lost

by John Milton

  The present misery, and render Hell

  More tolerable; if there be cure or charm

  To respite or deceive461, or slack the pain

  Of this ill mansion: intermit no watch

  Against a wakeful foe, while I abroad

  Through all the coasts of dark destruction seek

  Deliverance for us all: this enterprise

  None shall partake with me.” Thus saying rose

  The monarch, and prevented467 all reply,

  Prudent, lest from his resolution raised468

  Others among the chief might offer now

  (Certain to be refused) what erst they feared;

  And so refused might in opinion stand

  His rivals, winning cheap the high repute

  Which he through hazard huge must earn. But they

  Dreaded not more th’ adventure than his voice

  Forbidding; and at once with him they rose;

  Their rising all at once was as the sound

  Of thunder heard remote. Towards him they bend

  With awful reverence prone478; and as a god

  Extol him equal to the highest in Heav’n:

  Nor failed they to express how much they praised,

  That for the general safety he despised

  His own: for neither do the spirits damned

  Lose all their virtue; lest bad men should boast483

  Their specious deeds on earth, which glory excites,

  Or close ambition varnished o’er with zeal.

  Thus they their doubtful consultations dark

  Ended rejoicing in their matchless chief:

  As when from mountain tops the dusky clouds

  Ascending, while the north wind sleeps489, o’erspread

  Heav’n’s cheerful face, the louring element490

  Scowls o’er the darkened lantskip491 snow, or show’r;

  If chance the radiant sun with farewell sweet

  Extend his ev’ning beam, the fields revive,

  The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds

  Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings.

  O shame to496 men! Devil with devil damned

  Firm concord holds, men only disagree

  Of creatures rational, though under hope

  Of heavenly grace: and God proclaiming peace,

  Yet live in hatred, enmity, and strife

  Among themselves, and levy cruel wars,

  Wasting the earth, each other to destroy:

  As if (which might induce us to accord)

  Man had not Hellish foes enow504 besides,

  That day and night for his destruction wait.

  The Stygian Counsel thus dissolved; and forth

  In order came the grand infernal Peers:

  Midst came their mighty Paramount, and seemed

  Alone th’ antagonist of Heav’n, nor less

  Than Hell’s dread Emperor with pomp supreme,

  And God-like511 imitated state; him round

  A globe of fiery Seraphim enclosed

  With bright emblazonry513, and horrent arms.

  Then of their session ended they bid cry

  With trumpets’ regal sound the great result:

  Toward the four winds four speedy Cherubim

  Put to their mouths the sounding alchemy517

  By herald’s voice explained: the hollow abyss

  Heard far and wide, and all the host of Hell

  With deaf’ning shout, returned them loud acclaim.

  Thence more at ease their minds and somewhat raised

  By false presumptuous hope, the rangèd powers

  Disband, and wand’ring, each his several way

  Pursues, as inclination or sad choice

  Leads him perplexed, where he may likeliest find

  Truce to his restless thoughts, and entertain526

  The irksome hours, till this great chief return.

  Part on the528 plain, or in the air sublime

  Upon the wing, or in swift race contend,

  As at th’ Olympian Games or Pythian fields530;

  Part curb their fiery steeds, or shun the goal531

  With rapid wheels, or fronted532 brigades form.

  As when to warn proud cities war appears

  Waged in the troubled sky533, and armies rush

  To battle in the clouds, before each van535

  Prick forth536 the airy knights, and couch their spears

  Till thickest legions close; with feats of arms

  From either end of heav’n the welkin538 burns.

  Others with vast Typhoean539 rage more fell

  Rend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air

  In whirlwind; Hell scarce holds the wild uproar.

  As when542 Alcides from Oechalia crowned

  With conquest, felt th’ envenomed robe, and tore

  Through pain up by the roots Thessalian pines,

  And Lichas from the top of Oeta threw

  Into th’ Euboic Sea. Others more mild,

  Retreated in a silent valley, sing

  With notes angelical to many a harp

  Their own heroic deeds and hapless fall

  By doom of battle; and complain that fate

  Free virtue should enthrall to force or chance.

  Their song was partial552, but the harmony

  (What could it less when spirits immortal sing?)

  Suspended554 Hell, and took with ravishment

  The thronging audience. In discourse more sweet

  (For eloquence the soul, song charms the sense)

  Others apart sat on a hill retired,

  In thoughts558 more elevate, and reasoned high

  Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate,

  Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute,

  And found no end, in wand’ring mazes lost.

  Of good and evil much they argued then,

  Of happiness and final misery,

  Passion and apathy564, and glory and shame,

  Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy:

  Yet with a pleasing sorcery could charm

  Pain for a while or anguish, and excite

  Fallacious hope, or arm th’ obdurèd568 breast

  With stubborn patience as with triple steel.

  Another part in squadrons and gross570 bands,

  On bold adventure to discover wide

  That dismal world, if any clime perhaps

  Might yield them easier habitation, bend

  Four ways their flying march, along the banks

  Of four575 infernal rivers that disgorge

  Into the burning lake their baleful streams;

  Abhorrèd Styx the flood of deadly hate,

  Sad Acheron of sorrow, black and deep;

  Cocytus, named of lamentation loud

  Heard on the rueful stream; fierce Phlegeton

  Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage.

  Far off from these a slow and silent stream,

  Lethe the river of oblivion rolls

  Her wat’ry labyrinth, whereof who drinks,

  Forthwith his former state and being forgets,

  Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain.

  Beyond this flood a frozen continent

  Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms

  Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land

  Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems

  Of ancient pile591; all else deep snow and ice,

  A gulf profound as that Serbonian Bog

  Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old,

  Where armies whole have sunk592: the parching air

  Burns frore595, and cold performs th’ effect of fire.

  Thither by harpy-footed596 Furies haled,

  At certain revolutions all the damned

  Are brought: and feel by turns the bitter change

  Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce,

  From beds of raging fire to starve600 in ice

 
Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine

  Immovable, infixed, and frozen round,

  Periods of time, thence hurried back to fire.

  They ferry over this Lethean sound604

  Both to and fro, their sorrow to augment,

  And wish and struggle, as they pass, to reach

  The tempting stream, with one small drop to lose

  In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe,

  All in one moment, and so near the brink;

  But fate withstands, and to oppose th’ attempt

  Medusa611 with Gorgonian terror guards

  The ford, and of itself the water flies

  All taste of living wight613, as once it fled

  The lip of Tantalus614. Thus roving on

  In confused march forlorn, th’ advent’rous bands

  With shudd’ring horror pale, and eyes aghast

  Viewed first their lamentable lot, and found

  No rest: through many a dark and dreary vale

  They passed, and many a region dolorous,

  O’er many a frozen, many a fiery alp,

  Rocks, caves,621 lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death,

  A universe of death, which God by curse

  Created evil, for evil only good,

  Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds,

  Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things,

  Abominable, inutterable, and worse

  Than fables yet have feigned, or fear conceived,

  Gorgons and Hydra628s, and Chimeras dire.

  Meanwhile the Adversary629 of God and man,

  Satan with thoughts inflamed of highest design,

  Puts on swift wings, and towards the gates of Hell

  Explores632 his solitary flight; sometimes

  He scours the right hand coast, sometimes the left,

  Now shaves633 with level wing the deep, then soars

  Up to the fiery concave tow’ring high.

  As when far off at sea a fleet descried

  Hangs in the clouds636, by equinoctial637 winds

  Close sailing from Bengala, or the isles

  Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring

  Their spicy drugs: they on the trading flood

  Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape

  Ply stemming nightly toward the pole642. So seemed

  Far off the flying Fiend: at last appear

  Hell bounds high reaching to the horrid roof,

  And thrice threefold the gates; three folds were brass,

  Three iron, three of adamantine rock,

  Impenetrable, impaled647 with circling fire,

  Yet unconsumed. Before the gates there sat

  On either side a formidable shape;

  The one650 seemed woman to the waist, and fair,

  But ended foul in many a scaly fold

  Voluminous652 and vast, a serpent armed

  With mortal sting653: about her middle round

  A cry654 of Hell-hounds never ceasing barked

  With wide Cerberean655 mouths full loud, and rung

  A hideous peal: yet, when they list, would creep,

  If aught disturbed their noise, into her womb,

  And kennel658 there, yet there still barked and howled,

  Within unseen.659 Far less abhorred than these

  Vexed Scylla bathing in the sea that parts

  Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore:

  Nor uglier follow the night-hag662, when called

  In secret, riding through the air she comes

  Lured664 with the smell of infant blood, to dance

  With Lapland665 witches, while the laboring moon

  Eclipses at their charms. The other shape,

  If shape it might be called that shape had none

  Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb,

  Or substance might be called that shadow seemed,

  For each seemed either; black it stood as night,

  Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as Hell,

  And shook a dreadful dart; what seemed his head

  The likeness of a kingly crown673 had on.

  Satan was now at hand, and from his seat

  The monster moving onward came as fast

  With horrid strides; Hell trembled as he strode.

  Th’ undaunted Fiend what this might be admired677,

  Admired, not678 feared; God and his Son except,

  Created thing naught valued he nor shunned;

  And with disdainful look thus first began.

  “Whence and681 what art thou, execrable shape,

  That dar’st, though grim and terrible, advance

  Thy miscreated front683 athwart my way

  To yonder gates? Through them I mean to pass,

  That be assured, without leave asked of thee:

  Retire, or taste686 thy folly, and learn by proof,

  Hell-born, not to contend with spirits of Heav’n.”

  To whom the Goblin full of wrath replied,

  “Art thou that traitor angel, art thou he,

  Who first broke peace in Heav’n and faith, till then

  Unbroken, and in proud rebellious arms

  Drew after him692 the third part of Heav’n’s sons

  Conjured693 against the highest, for which both thou

  And they outcast from God, are here condemned

  To waste eternal days in woe and pain?

  And reckon’st thou thyself with spirits of Heav’n,

  Hell-doomed697, and breath’st defiance here and scorn,

  Where I reign king, and to enrage thee more,

  Thy king and lord? Back to thy punishment,

  False fugitive, and to thy speed add wings,

  Lest with a701 whip of scorpions I pursue

  Thy ling’ring, or with one stroke of this dart

  Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before.”

  So spake the grisly terror, and in shape,

  So speaking705 and so threat’ning, grew tenfold

  More dreadful and deform: on th’ other side

  Incensed with indignation Satan stood

  Unterrified708, and like a comet burned,

  That fires the length of Ophiucus709 huge

  In th’ Arctic sky, and from his horrid hair710

  Shakes pestilence and war. Each at the head

  Leveled his deadly aim; their fatal hands

  No second stroke intend, and such a frown

  Each cast714 at th’ other, as when two black clouds

  With Heav’n’s artillery fraught, come rattling on

  Over the Caspian716, then stand front to front

  Hov’ring a space, till winds the signal blow

  To join their dark encounter in mid air:

  So frowned the mighty combatants, that Hell

  Grew darker at their frown, so matched they stood;

  For never but once more was either like

  To meet so great a foe722: and now great deeds

  Had been achieved, whereof all Hell had rung,

  Had not the snaky sorceress that sat

  Fast by Hell gate, and kept the fatal key,

  Ris’n, and with hideous outcry rushed between.

  “O father, what intends thy hand,” she cried,

  “Against thy only son? What fury O son,

  Possesses thee to bend that mortal dart

  Against thy father’s head? And know’st for whom;

  For him who sits above and laughs the while

  At thee ordained his drudge, to execute

  Whate’er his wrath, which he calls justice, bids,

  His wrath which one day will destroy ye both.”

  She spake, and at her words the Hellish pest

  Forbore, then these to her Satan returned:

  “So strange thy outcry, and thy words so strange

  Thou interposest, that my sudden hand

  Prevented spares to tell thee yet by deeds

  What it intends; till first I know
of thee,

  What thing thou art, thus double-formed, and why

  In this infernal vale first met thou call’st

  Me father, and that phantasm call’st my son?

  I know thee not, nor ever saw till now

  Sight more detestable than him and thee.”

  T’ whom thus the portress746 of Hell gate replied:

  “Hast thou forgot me then, and do I seem

  Now in748 thine eye so foul, once deemed so fair

  In Heav’n, when at th’ assembly, and in sight

  Of all the Seraphim with thee combined

  In bold conspiracy against Heav’n’s King,

  All752 on a sudden miserable pain

  Surprised thee, dim thine eyes, and dizzy swum

  In darkness, while754 thy head flames thick and fast

  Threw forth, till on the left side op’ning wide,

  Likest to thee in shape and count’nance bright,

  Then shining Heav’nly fair, a goddess armed

  Out of thy head I sprung: amazement seized

  All th’ host of Heav’n; back they recoiled afraid

  At first,760 and called me Sin, and for a sign

  Portentous held me; but familiar grown,

  I pleased, and with attractive graces won

  The most averse, thee chiefly, who full oft

  Thyself in me thy perfect image viewing

  Becam’st enamored, and such joy thou took’st

  With me in secret, that my womb conceived

  A growing burden. Meanwhile war arose,

  And fields768 were fought in Heav’n; wherein remained

  (For what could else) to our almighty foe

  Clear victory, to our part loss and rout

  Through all the empyrean771: down they fell

  Driv’n headlong from the pitch772 of Heaven, down

  Into this deep, and in the general fall

  I also; at which time774 this powerful key

  Into my hand was giv’n, with charge to keep

  These gates for ever shut, which none can pass

  Without my op’ning. Pensive here I sat

  Alone, but long I sat not, till778 my womb

  Pregnant by thee, and now excessive grown

  Prodigious motion felt and rueful throes.

  At last this odious offspring whom thou seest

  Thine own begotten, breaking violent way

  Tore through my entrails, that with fear and pain

  Distorted, all my nether shape thus grew

  Transformed: but he my inbred enemy

  Forth issued, brandishing his fatal dart

  Made to destroy: I fled, and cried out ‘Death’;

  Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sighed

  From all789 her caves, and back resounded ‘Death.’

  I fled, but he pursued (though more, it seems,

  Inflamed with lust than rage) and swifter far,

  Me overtook his mother all dismayed,