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��PARADISE LOST
��And never but in uuapproached light Dwelt from eternity dwelt then in thee, Bright effluence of bright essence increate ! Or hear'st thou rather pure Ethereal
Stream, Whose fountain who shall tell ? Before
the Sun, Before the Heavens, thou wert, and at the
voice
Of God, as with a mantle, didst invest 10 The rising World of waters dark and deep, Won from the void and formless Infinite ! Thee I revisit now with bolder wing, Escaped the Stygian Pool, though long de- tained
In that obscure sojourn, while in my flight, Through utter and through middle Dark- ness borne,
With other notes than to the Orphean lyre I sung of Chaos and eternal Night, Taught by the Heavenly Muse to venture
down
The dark descent, and up to re-ascend, 20 Though hard and rare. Thee I revisit
safe,
And feel thy sovran vital lamp; but thou Revisit'st not these eyes, that rowl in vain To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn ; So thick a drop serene hath quenched their
orbs,
Or dim suffusion veiled. Yet not the more Cease I to wander where the Muses haunt Clear spring, or shady grove, or sunny hill, Siuit with the love of sacred song; but
chief
Thee, Sion, and the flowery brooks be- neath, 30 That wash thy hallowed feet, and warbling
flow,
Nightly I visit: nor sometimes forget Those other two equalled with me in fate, (So were I equalled with them in renown !) Blind Thamyris and blind Mseonides, And Tiresias and Phineus, prophets old: Then feed on thoughts that voluntary move Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful bird Sings darkling, and, in shadiest covert hid, Tunes her nocturnal note. Thus with the year 40
Seasons return; but not to me returns Day, or the sweet approach of even or
morn, Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's
rose, Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;
��But cloud instead and ever-during dark Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of
men Cut off, and, for the book of knowledge
fair,
Presented with a universal blank Of Nature's works, to me expunged and
rased, And wisdom at one entrance quite shut
out. 50
So much the rather thou, Celestial Light, Shine inward, and the mind through all her
powers Irradiate; there plant eyes; all mist from
thence
Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell Of things invisible to mortal sight.
Now had the Almighty Father from
above,
From the pure Empyrean where He sits High throned above all highth, bent down
his eye, His own works and their works at once to
view:
About him all the Sanctities of Heaven 60 Stood thick as stars, and from his sight re- ceived
Beatitude past utterance ; on his right The radiant image of his glory sat, His only Son. On Earth he first beheld Our two first parents, yet the only two Of mankind, in the Happy Garden placed, Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love, Uninterrupted joy, unrivalled love, In blissful solitude. He then surveyed Hell and the gulf between, and Satan
there 70
Coasting the wall of Heaven on this side
Night,
In the dun air sublime, and ready now To stoop, with wearied wings and willing
feet, On the bare outside of this World, that
seemed
Firm land imbosomed without firmament, Uncertain which, in ocean or in air. Him God beholding from his prospect high, Wherein past, present, future, he beholds, Thus to His only Son foreseeing spake: " Only - begotten Son, seest thou what
rage 80
Transports our Adversary ? whom no
bounds Prescribed, no bars of Hell, nor all the
chains
�� �
