Thrice fugitive about Troy wall; or rage Of Turnus for Lavinia disespous'd; Or Neptune's ire, or Juno's, that so long Perplex'd the Greek, and Cytherea's son ; If answerable style I can obtain
Of my celestial patroness, who deigns Her nightly visitation unimplor'd,
And dictates to me slumbering; or inspires
Easy my unpremeditated verse:
Since first this subject for heroick song
Pleas'd me long choosing, and beginning late;
Not sedulous by nature to indite
Wars, hitherto the only argument
Heroick deem'd; chief mastery to dissect With long and tedious havock fabled knights In battles feign'd; the better fortitude Of patience and heroick martyrdom Unsung; or to describe races and games, Or tilting furniture, imblazon'd shields, Impresses quaint, caparisons and steeds, Bases and tinsel trappings, gorgeous knights At joust and tournament; then marshall'd feast Serv'd up in hall with sewers and seneshals; The skill of artifice or office mean,
Not that which justly gives heroick name To person, or to poem. Me, of these Nor skill'd nor studious, higher argument Remains; sufficient of itself to raise
That name, unless an age too late, or cold Climate, or years, damp my intended wing Depress'd; and much they may, if all be mine, Not hers, who brings it nightly to my ear. The sun was sunk, and after him the star Of Hesperus, whose office is to bring Twilight upon the earth, short arbiter
'Twixt day and night, and now from end to end Night's hemisphere had veil'd the horizon round: When Satan, who late fled before the threats Of Gabriël out of Eden, now improv❜d
In meditated fraud and malice, bent
On Man's destruction, maugre what might hap Of heavier on himself, fearless return'd. By night he fled, and at midnight return'd From compassing the earth; cautious of day, Since Uriel, regent of the sun, descried His entrance, and forewarn'd the Cherubim That kept their watch; thence full of anguish driven, The space of seven continued nights he rode With darkness; thrice the equinoctial line He circled; four times cross'd the car of night From pole to pole, travérsing each colúre; On the eighth return'd; and, on the coast averse From entrance or Cherubick watch, by stealth Found unsuspected way. There was a place, Now not, though Sin, not time, first wrought the change,
Where Tigris, at the foot of Paradise, Into a gulph shot under ground, till part Rose up a fountain by the tree of life: In with the river sunk, and with it rose Satan, involv'd in rising mist: then sought Where to lie hid; sea he had search'd, and land, From Eden over Pontus and the pool
Mæotis, up beyond the river Ob; Downward as far antarctick; and in length, West from Orontes to the ocean barr'd
At Darien; thence to the land where flows Ganges and Indus: Thus the orb he roam'd With narrow search; and with inspection deep Consider'd every creature, which of all
Most opportune might serve his wiles; and found The Serpent subtlest beast of all the field. Him after long debate, irresolute
Of thoughts revolv'd, his final sentence chose Fit vessel, fittest imp of fraud, in whom To enter, and his dark suggestions hide From sharpest sight: for, in the wily snake Whatever sleights, none would suspicious mark, As from his wit and native subtlety Proceeding; which, in other beasts observ'd, Doubt might beget of diabolick power Active within, beyond the sense of brute. Thus he resolv'd, but first from inward grief His bursting passion into plaints thus pour'd.
O Earth, how like to Heaven, if not préferr'd
? More justly, seat worthier of Gods, as built
With second thoughts, reforming what was old! For what God, after better, worse would build ? Terrestrial Heaven, danc'd round by other Heavens, That shine, yet bear their bright officious lamps, Light above light, for thee alone, as seems, In thee concentring all their precious beams Of sacred influence! As God in Heaven
Is center, yet extends to all; so thou, Centring, receiv'st from all those orbs in thee, Not in themselves, all their known virtue appears Productive in herb, plant, and nobler birth Of creatures animate with gradual life
Of growth, sense, reason, all summ'd up in Man. With what delight could I have walk'd thee round, If I could joy in aught, sweet interchange Of hill, and valley, rivers, woods, and plains, Now land, now sea, and shores with forest crown'd, Rocks, dens, and caves! But I in none of these Find place or refuge; and the more I see Pleasures about me, so much more I feel Torment within me, as from the hateful siege Of contraries: all good to me becomes
Bane, and in Heaven much worse would be my state. But neither here seek I, no nor in Heaven
To dwell, unless by mastering Heaven's Supreme; Nor hope to be myself less miserable
By what I seek, but others to make such As I, though thereby worse to me redound: For only in destroying I find ease
To my relentless thoughts; and, him destroyed, Or won to what may work his utter loss,
For whom all this was made, all this will soon Follow, as to him link'd in weal or woe; In woe then; that destruction wide may range: To me shall be the glory sole among
The infernal Powers, in one day to have marr'd What he, Almighty styl'd, six nights and days Continued making; and who knows how long Before had been contriving? though perhaps Not longer than since I, in one night, freed From servitude inglorious well nigh half The angelick name, and thinner left the throng Of his adorers: He, to be aveng'd,
And to repair his numbers thus impair'd, Whether such virtue spent of old now fail'd More Angels to create, if they at least Are his created, or, to spite us more, Determin'd to advance into our room
A creature form'd of earth, and him endow, Exalted from so base original,
With heavenly spoils, our spoils: What he decreed, He effected; man he made, and for him built Magnificent this world, and earth his seat, Him lord pronounc'd; and, O indignity!
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