Into th' Euboic sea. Others, more mild, servi The thronging audience. In discourse more sweet, (For eloquence the soul, song charms the sense,) Others apart sit on a hill retir'd, 555 In thoughts more elevate; and reason'd high 560 565 570 575 580 Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls Her wat'ry labyrinth, whereof who drinks 585 Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms At certain revolutions, all the damn'd harp Are brought; and feel by turns the bitter change 595 600 Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce, 605 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 610 The ford, and of itself the water flies All taste of living wight, as once it fled The lip of Tantalus. Thus, roving on In confus'd march forlorn, th' advent'rous hands, 615 O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp, 620 Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death, A universe of death, which God by curse, Created ev'il, for evil only 'good, Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds, Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things, 625 Abominable, inutterable, and worse Than fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceiv'd, Meanwhile the Adversary' of God and Man, Satan, with thoughts inflam'd of highest design, 630 Puts on swift wings, and tow'ards the gates of Hell He scours the right-hand coast, sometimes the left, nettoyer - Senter Now shaves with level wing the deep, then soars As when far off at sea a fleet descry'd er uni 635 Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds Close sailing from Bengala, or the isles Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring Their spicy drugs: they on the trading flood 640 Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape Ply, stemming nightly tow'ard the pole. So seem'd Hell bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof, And thrice threefold the gates; three folds were brass, 645 Three iron, three of adamantine rock ; Impenetrable, impaled with circling fire, pe ved Yet unconsum'd. Before the gates there sat On either side a formidable shape; The one seem'd woman to the waist, and fair, Voluminous and vast, a serpent arm'd 650 With mortal sting; about her middle round aiguillon With wide Cerberian mouths, full loud, and rung A hideous peal: yet, when they list, would creep, If ought disturb'd their noise, into her womb, atlise 665 Or substance might be call'd that shadow seem'd; For each seem'd either; black it stood as Night, 670 Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as Hell, And shook a dreadful dart; what seem'd his head. The likeness of a kingly crown had on. Satan was now at hand; and from his seat The monster, moving onward, came as fast 675 With horrid strides; Hell trembled as he strode. Th' undaunted Fiend what this might be admir'd; "Whence and what art thou, execrable shape, That dar'st, though grim and terrible, advance Thy miscreated front athwart my way To yonder gates? through them I mean to pass, 680 685 To whom the goblin, full of wrath, reply'd; "Art thou the traitor Angel, art thou He, Who first broke peace in Heav'n and faith, till then 690 Drew after him the third part of Heav'n's sons, Conjured against the High'est, for which both thou And they, outcast from God, are here condemn'd 645 700 Thy ling'ring, or with one stroke of this dart Strange horror seize thee', and pangs unfelt before." So speaking and so threat'ning, grew tenfold 705 More dreadful and deform: on th' other side, 710 715 To join their dark encounter in mid-air: So frown'd the mighty combatants, that Hell Grew darker at their frown, so match'd they stood; 720 For never but once more was either like To meet so great a foe: and now great deeds Had been achiev'd, whereof all Hell had rung, Fast by Hell gate, and kept the fatal key, 725 Ris'n, and with hideous outcry rush'd between. "O Father, what intends thy hand," she cry'd, "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; 739 |