The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems (104 page)

530

Organic,
⁴⁹⁴⁸
or impulse
⁴⁹⁴⁹
of vocal air,

531

His fraudulent temptation thus began:

532

   
“Wonder not, sov’reign mistress, if perhaps

533

Thou canst, who art sole
⁴⁹⁵⁰
wonder! Much less arm

534

Thy looks, the Heav’n of mildness, with disdain,

535

Displeased that I approach thee thus, and gaze

536

Insatiate,
⁴⁹⁵¹
I thus single, nor have feared

537

Thy awful
⁴⁹⁵²
brow, more awful thus retired.
⁴⁹⁵³

538

Fairest resemblance of thy Maker fair,

539

Thee all things living gaze on, all things thine

540

By gift, and thy celestial beauty adore

541

With ravishment
⁴⁹⁵⁴
beheld! There best beheld,

542

Where universally admired, but here

543

In this enclosure wild, these beasts among,

544

Beholders rude, and shallow
⁴⁹⁵⁵
to discern

545

Half what in thee is fair, one man except,

546

Who sees thee? And what is one? Who should be seen

547

A goddess among gods, adored and served

548

By Angels numberless, thy daily train.

549

   
So glozed
⁴⁹⁵⁶
the Tempter, and his proem
⁴⁹⁵⁷
tuned.
⁴⁹⁵⁸

550

Into the heart of Eve his words made way,

551

Though at the voice much marvelling. At length,

552

Not unamazed, she thus in answer spoke:

553

   
“What may this mean? Language of man pronounced

554

By tongue of brute, and human sense expressed?

555

The first, at least, of these I thought denied

556

To beasts, whom God, on their creation-day,

557

Created mute to all articulate sound.

558

The latter I demur,
⁴⁹⁵⁹
for in their looks

559

Much reason, and in their actions, oft appears.

560

Thee, serpent, subtlest beast of all the field

561

I knew, but not with human voice endued.

562

Redouble then this miracle, and say

563

How cam’st thou speakable
⁴⁹⁶⁰
of
⁴⁹⁶¹
mute, and how

564

To me so friendly grown above the rest

565

Of brutal kind, that daily are in sight?

566

Say, for such wonder
⁴⁹⁶²
claims attention due.

567

To whom the guileful Tempter thus replied:

568

   
“Empress of this fair world, resplendent Eve!

569

Easy to me it is to tell thee all

570

What thou command’st, and right thou should’st be obeyed.

571

I was at first as other beasts that graze

572

The trodden herb, of abject
⁴⁹⁶³
thoughts and low,

573

As was my food, nor aught but food discerned,

574

Or sex, and apprehended nothing high.

575

Till on a day, roving the field, I chanced

576

A goodly tree far distant to behold,

577

Loaden with fruit of fairest colors mixed,

578

Ruddy and gold. I nearer drew to gaze,

579

When from the boughs a savory odor blown,

580

Grateful
⁴⁹⁶⁴
to appetite, more pleased my sense

581

Than smell of sweetest fennel,
⁴⁹⁶⁵
or the teats

582

Of ewe or goat dropping with milk at ev’n,
⁴⁹⁶⁶

583

Unsucked of lamb or kid, that tend
⁴⁹⁶⁷
their play.

584

To satisfy the sharp desire I had

585

Of tasting those fair apples, I resolved

586

Not to defer. Hunger and thirst at once,

587

Powerful persuaders, quick’ned at the scent

588

Of that alluring
⁴⁹⁶⁸
fruit, urged me so keen.

589

About the mossy trunk I wound me soon,
⁴⁹⁶⁹

590

For high from ground the branches would require

591

Thy utmost reach, or Adam’s. Round the tree

592

All other beasts that saw, with like desire

593

Longing and envying stood, but could not reach.