Paradiſe loſt. Book I.
Wing’d with red Lightning and impetuous rage.Perhaps hath ſpent his ſhafts, and ceaſes nowTo bellow through the vaſt and boundleſs Deep.Let us not ſlip th’ occaſion , whether ſcorn,Or fſtiate fury yield it from our Foe.180Seeſt thou yon dreary Plain, forlorn and wilde,The ſeat of deſolation, void of light.Save what the glimmering of theſe livid flamesCaſts pale and dreadfu ? Thither let'us tendFrom off the toſſing of theſe fiery waves.There reſt, if any reſt can harbour there.And reaſſembling our afflicted Powers,Conſult how we may henceforth moſt offendOur Enemy, our own loſs how repair.How overcome this dire Calamity,190 What reinforcement we may gain from Hope,If not what reſolution from deſpare.Thus Satan talking to his neereſt MateWith Head up-lift above the wave, and EyesThat ſparkling blaz’d, his other. Parts beſidesProne on the Flood, extended long and largeLay floating many a rood, in bulk as hugeAs whom the Fables name of monſtrous ſize,Titanian, or 'Earth-born, that warr’d on Jove,Briarios or Typhon, whom the Den200By ancient Tanſus held, or that Sea-beaſtLeviathan which God ofa ll his works Created hugeſt that ſwim th’ Ocean ſtream:Him haply ſlumbring on the Norway foamThe Pilot of ſome ſmall night-founder’d Skiff,Deeming ſome Iſland, oft, as Sea-men tell,With fixed Anchor in his skaly rind
Moors
