...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...void and formless infinite. Thee I re-visit now with bolder wing, Escap't the Stygian Pool, though long detain'd GOD In that obscure sojourn, while in my...

...dark air of the interior) "Sphear'd in a radiant Cloud." But in 3.10-1 1, we have been told that Light "as with a Mantle didst invest / The rising World of waters dark and deep"; and in that place World cannot be synonymous with Earth. When the poet commenced Book 3 he had not...

...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,...and deep, Won from the void and formless infinite *. But to prove that they were not appropriated to the ritual of fire-worship, nay, that their history...

...mantles on our words because / The same wind, rising and rising": echoing Milton's creation story, ". . . at the voice of God, as with a mantle, didst invest / The rising world of water dark and deep" (PL III.9-1 1). Song of Fixed Accord Ibid.; CP 5 19-20, LOA 441. A charming evocation...