These gates forever shut, which none can pass
Without my opening. Pensive here I sat
Alone, but long I sat not, till 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 pa
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 all 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,
And in embraces forcible and foul,
Ingendering with me, of that rape begot
These yelling monsters, that with ceaseless cry
Surround me, as thou saw'st, hourly conceived,
And hourly born, with sorrow infinite
To me; for, when they list, into the womb
That bred them they return, and howl, and gnaw
My bowels, their repast; then bursting forth
Afresh, with conscious terrors vex me round,
That rest or intermission none I find.

Before mine eyes in opposition sits

Grim Death, my son and foe, who sets them on,
And me his parent would full soon devour
For want of other prey, but that he knows
His end with mine involved, and knows that I
Should prove a bitter morsel and his bane,
Whenever that shall be; so Fate pronounced.
But thou, O father! I forewarn thee, shun
His deadly arrow; neither vainly hope

invulnerable in those bright arms,

h tempered heavenly; for that mortal dint, ne who reigns above, none can resist."

815

finished, and the subtle Fiend his lore learned, now milder, and thus answered smooth:

Dear daughter, since thou claim'st me for thy sire,

my fair son here show'st me (the dear pledge lliance had with thee in Heaven, and joys sweet, now sad to mention, through dire change len us, unforeseen, unthought of), know

e no enemy, but to set free

1 out this dark and dismal house of pain
him and thee, and all the heavenly host
pirits that, in our just pretences armed,
with us from on high: from them I go
uncouth errand sole, and one for all
elf expose, with lonely steps to tread

821

825

unfounded deep, and through the void immense search with wandering quest a place foretold 830 uld be, and, by concurring signs, ere now ated vast and round, a place of bliss

he purlieus of Heaven, and therein placed

ace of upstart creatures, to supply

haps our vacant room, though more removed, 835 t Heaven, surcharged with potent multitude, ght hap to move new broils. Be this or aught an this more secret now designed, I haste

To know; and, this once known, shall soon retu
And bring ye to the place where thou and Deat
Shall dwel at ease, and up and down unseen
Wing silently the buxom air, embalmed

With odors: there ye shall be fed and filled
Immeasurably, all things shall be your prey."

He ceased, for both seemed highly pleased,
Death

Grinned horrible a ghastly smile, to hear
His famine should be filled, and blessed his maw
Destined to that good hour: no less rejoiced
His mother bad, and thus bespake her sire:

"The key of this infernal pit, by due And by command of Heaven's all-powerful king, I keep, by him forbidden to unlock

These adamantine gates; against all force
Death ready stands to interpose his dart,
Fearless to be o'ermatched by living might.
But what owe I to his commands above
Who hates me and hath hither thrust me down
Into this gloom of Tartarus profound,

To sit in hateful office here confined,
Inhabitant of Heaven and heavenly-born,
Here in perpetual agony and pain,

With terrors and with clamors compassed round
Of mine own brood that on my bowels feed?
Thou art my father, thou my author, thou
My being gav'st me; whom should I obey
But thee? whom follow? Thou wilt bring me s
To that new world of light and bliss, among
The gods who live at ease, where I shall reign

842. buxom, yielding; obedient. - embalmed, made balmy, or fragrant.

847. famine, hunger; craving.

850. by due, by due right. 855. Fearless, not fearing 858. Tartarus, Hell.

right hand voluptuous, as beseems aughter and thy darling, without end."

s saying, from her side the fatal key, strument of all our woe, she took ; owards the gate rolling her bestial train, with the huge portcullis high up-drew; but herself not all the Stygian powers

870

875

once have moved; then in the key-hole turns
tricate wards, and every bolt and bar
ssy iron or solid rock with ease

tens on a sudden open fly
impetuous recoil and jarring sound
nfernal doors, and on their hinges grate
thunder, that the lowest bottom shook
ebus. She opened, but to shut

led her power; the gates wide open stood,
with extended wings a bannered host,

880

885

r spread ensigns marching, might pass through horse and chariots ranked in loose array; ide they stood, and like a furnace mouth forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame.

-fore their eyes in sudden view appear
secrets of the hoary deep, a dark
itable ocean, without bound,

890

out dimension; where length, breadth, and highth,

time and place are lost; where eldest Night

Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold

mal anarchy amidst the noise

ndless wars, and by confusion stand:

895

Hot, Cold, Moist, and Dry, four champions fierce,

wards, divisions or parts lock, here applied to a

885. that, so that.

883. Erebus, the place of darkness; Hell.

895. Nature, Creation; world of organized matter.

the

Strive here for mastery, and to battle bring
Their embryon atoms; they around the flag
Of each his faction, in their several clans,
Light armed or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift, or
Swarm populous, unnumbered as the sands
Of Barca or Cyrenè's torrid soil,

Levied to side with warring winds, and poise
Their lighter wings.
To whom these most a
He rules a moment; Chaos umpire sits,
And by decision more embroils the fray

By which he reigns;
Chance governs all.

next him high arbiter Into this wild abyss The womb of Nature and perhaps her grave, Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire, But all these in their pregnant causes mixed Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight, Unless the Almighty Maker them ordain His dark materials to create more worlds Into this wild abyss the wary Fiend Stood on the brink of Hell, and looked awhil Pondering his voyage; for no narrow frith He had to cross: nor was his ear less pealed With noises loud and ruinous (to compare Great things with small) than when Bellona s With all her battering engines bent to rase Some capital city; or less than if this frame Of heaven were falling, and these elements In mutiny had from her axle torn

The steadfast earth. At last his sail-broad va

900. embryon, embryo. 901. Of each, each of; or each his is each's, each one's. 903. unnumbered,

ble.

innumera

904. Barca and Cyrene were in the north of Africa.

905. poise, give weight to. 906. To whom, he (that is, either hot, cold, moist, or dry) to

whom.these most, these atoms.

920. pealed, assailed or as with a peal.

921. ruinous, like tha fall of buildings.

922. Bellona, the Ro dess of war.

923. rase, raze; overt) 927. vans, wings.