At laft this odious offspring whom thou feeft
Thine own begotten, breaking violent way
Tore through my entrails, that with fear and pain
Distorted, all my nether fhape thus grew
Transform'd: but he my inbred enemy
Forth iffu'd, brandifhing his fatal dart
Made to deftroy: I fled, and cry'd out Death;
Hell trembled at the hideous name, and figh'd
From all her caves, and back refounded Death.
I fled, but he purfu'd (though more, it seems,
Inflam'd with luft than rage) and fwifter far,
Me overtook his mother all difmay'd,
And in embraces forcible and foul
Ingendring with me, of that rape begot
Thefe yelling monsters, that with ceaseless cry
Surround me, as thou faw'ft, hourly conceiv'd-
And hourly born, with forrow infinite
To me; for when they lift, into the womb
That bred them they return, and howl and gnaw
My bowels, their repaft; then bursting forth
Afresh with confcious terrors vex me round,
That reft or intermiffion none I find.
Before mine eyes in oppofition fits
Grim Death my fon and foe, who fets them on,
And me his parent would full foon devour
For want of other prey, but that he knows
His end with mine involv'd; and knows that I
Should prove a bitter morfel, and his bane,
Whenever that fhall be: fo fate pronounc'd,
But thou, O father, I forewarn thee, shun
His deadly arrow; neither vainly hope
To be invulnerable in thofe bright arms,
Though temper'd heav'nly, for that mortal dint,
Save he who reigns above, none can refift.
She finifh'd, and the fubtle Fiend his lore
Soon learn'd, now milder, and thus anfwer'd smooth.
Dear daughter, fince thou claim'ft me for thy fire,
And my fair fon here fhow'ft me, the dear pledge
Of dalliance had with thee in Heav'n, and joys
Then fweet, now fad to mention, through dire change.
Befall'n us unforeseen, unthought of; know
I come no enemy, but to fet free
From out this dark and dismal house of pain
Both him and thee, and all the heav'nly hoft
Of Spirits, that in our just pretences arm'd
Fell with us from on high from them I go
This uncouth errand fole, and one for all
Myfelf expofe, with lonely fteps to tread
Th' unfounded deep, and through the void immenfe
To fearch with wand'ring queft a place foretold
Should be, and, by concurring figns, ere now
Created vaft and round, a place of bliss
In the purlieus of Heav'n, and therein plac'd
A race of upstart creatures, to supply
Perhaps our vacant room, though more remov'd,
Left Heav'n furcharg'd with potent multitude
Might hap to move new broils: Be this or ought
Than this more fecret now defign'd, I haste
To know, and this once known, fhall foon return,
And bring ye to the place where Thou and Death
Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen
Wing filently the buxom air, imbalm'd
With odours; there ye fhall be fed and fill'd
Immeasurably, all things fhall be your prey.
He ceas'd, for both feem'd highly pleas'd, and Death
Grinn'd horrible a ghaftly fmile, to hear
His famine fhould be fill'd, and bleft his maw
Deftin'd to that good hour: no less rejoic'd
His mother bad, and thus befpake her fire.
The key of this infernal pit by due,
C
And by command of Heav'n's all-pow'rful king
I keep, by him forbidden to unlock
Thefe adamantine gates; against all force
Death ready stands to interpose his dart,
Fearless to be o'er match'd 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 fit in hateful office here confin'd,
Inhabitant of heav'n, and heav'nly-born,
Here in perpetual agony and pain,
With terrors and with clamours compafs'd round
Of mine own brood, that on my bowels feed?
Thou art my father, thou my author, thou
My being gav'ft me; whom should I obey
But thee, whom follow? thou wilt bring me foon
To that new world of light and blifs, among
The Gods who live at eafe, where I fhall reign
At thy right hand voluptuous, as befeems
Thy daughter and thy darling, without end.
Thus faying, from her fide the fatal key,
Sad inftrument of all our woe, fhe took;
And towards the gate rolling her beftial train,
Forthwith the huge portcullis high up drew,
Which but herself, not all the Stygian Powers
Could once have mov'd; then in the key-hole turns
Th' intricate wards, and every bolt and bar
Of maffy iron or folid rock with ease
Unfaftens on a fudden open fly
With impetuous recoil and jarring found
Th' infernal doors, and on their hinges grate
Harfh thunder, that the loweft bottom fhook
Of Erebus. She open'd, but to shut
Excell'd her pow'r; the gates wide open food,
That with extended wings a banner'd hoft
Under fpread enfigns marching might pafs through
With horfe and chariots rank'd in loofe array;
So wide they flood, and like a furnace mouth
Caft forth redounding fmoke and ruddy flame.
Before their eyes in fudden view appear
The fecrets of the hoary deep, a dark
Illimitable ocean, without bound,
Without dimenfion, where length, breadth, and height, And time, and place are loft; where eldest Night And Chaos, ancestors of nature, hold
Eternal anarchy, amidft the noise
Of endless wars, and by confusion stand.
For hot, cold, moist, and dry, four champions fierce,
Strive here for maft'ry, and to battel bring
Their embryon atoms; they around the flag
Of each his faction, in their feveral clans,
Light arm'd or heavy, fharp, fmooth, fwift or flow,
Swarm populous, unnumber'd as the fands
Of Barca or Cyrene's torrid foil,
Levied to fide with warring winds, and poise
Their lighter wings.
To whom these most adhere,
Chaos umpire fits,
And by decifion more embroils the fray
By which he reigns:
next him high arbiter
Chance governs all. Into this wild abyfs,
The womb of nature and perhaps her grave,
Of neither fea, nor fhore, nor air, nor fire,
But all these in their pregnant causes mix'd
Confus'dly, and which thus muft ever fight,
Unless th' almighty Maker them ordain
His dark materials to create more worlds;
Into this vaft abyfs the wary Fiend
Stood on the brink of Hell and look'd a while,
Pond'ring his voyage; for no narrow frith
He had to cross.
Nor was his ear lefs peal'd
With noifes loud and ruinous (to compare
Great things with fmall) than when Bellona ftorms,
With all her battering engines bent to rafe
Some capital city; or lefs than if this frame
Of Heav'n were falling, and these elements
In mutiny had from her axle torn
The ftedfaft earth. At laft his fail-broad vans
He spreads for flight, and in the furging smoke
Uplifted fpurns the ground; thence many a league,
As in a cloudy chair, afcending rides
Audacious; but that feat foon failing, meets
A vaft vacuity: all unawares
Fluttering his pennons vain plumb down he drops
Ten thousand fathom deep, and to this hour
Down had been falling, had not by ill chance
The ftrong rebuff of fome tumultuous cloud,
Inftinct with fire and nitre, hurried him
As many miles aloft: that fury stay'd,
Quench'd in a boggy Syrtis, neither fea,
Nor good dry land
nigh founder'd on he fares,
Treading the crude confiftence, half on foot,
Ha flying; behoves him now both oar and fail.
As when a gryphon through the wilderness
With winged courfe, o'er hill or moory dale,
Purfues the Arimaspian, who by stealth
Had from his wakeful cuftody purloin'd
The guarded gold: So eagerly the Fiend
O'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare,
With head, hands, wings, or feet purfues his way,
And fwims, or finks, or wades, or creeps, or flies:
At length a univerfal hubbub wild
Of stunning founds and voices all confus'd,
Borne through the hollow dark, affaults his ear
With loudest vehemence: thither he plies,
Undaunted to meet there whatever Power
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