Read The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems Online
Authors: John Milton,Burton Raffel
Tags: #Fiction, #General, #Literary Collections, #Poetry, #Classics, #English; Irish; Scottish; Welsh, #English poetry
711
Internal man, is but proportion meet—
5009
712
I of brute, human; ye of human, gods.
713
So ye shall die, perhaps, by putting off
714
Human, to put on gods—death to be wished,
715
Though threat’ned, which no worse than this can bring.
716
And what are gods, that man may not become
717
As they, participating
5010
godlike food?
718
The gods are first, and that advantage use
5011
719
On our belief that all from them proceeds.
720
I question it, for this fair earth I see,
721
Warmed by the sun, producing every kind,
722
Them
5012
nothing. If they all things, who enclosed
723
Knowledge of good and evil in this tree,
724
That whoso eats thereof, forthwith attains
725
Wisdom without their leave? And wherein lies
726
Th’ offence, that man should thus attain to know?
727
What can your knowledge hurt Him, or this tree
728
Impart against His will, if all be His?
729
Or is it envy? and can envy dwell
730
In Heav’nly breasts? These, these, and many more
731
732
Goddess humane, reach then, and freely taste!
733
He ended, and his words replete
5015
with guile
734
Into her heart too easy entrance won.
735
Fixed on the fruit she gazed, which to behold
736
Might tempt alone,
5016
and in her ears the sound
737
Yet rung of his persuasive words, impregned
5017
738
With reason (to her seeming) and with truth.
739
Meanwhile the hour of noon drew on, and waked
740
An eager appetite, raised by the smell
741
So savory of that fruit, which with desire,
742
Inclinable
5018
now grown to touch or taste,
743
Solicited
5019
her longing eye. Yet first
744
Pausing a while, thus to herself she mused:
745
“Great are thy virtues, doubtless, best of fruits,
746
Though kept from man, and worthy to be admired,
747
Whose taste, too long forborn, at first assay
5020
748
Gave elocution
5021
to the mute, and taught
749
The tongue not made for speech to speak thy praise.
750
Thy praise He also, who forbids thy use,
751
Conceals not from us, naming thee the Tree
752
Of Knowledge, knowledge both of good and evil,
753
Forbids us then to taste! But His forbidding
754
Commends thee more, while it infers the good
755
By thee communicated, and our want.
5022
756
For good unknown sure is not had or, had
757
And yet unknown, is as not had at all.
758
In plain
5023
then, what forbids He but to know,
759
Forbids us good, forbids us to be wise?
760
Such prohibitions bind not. But if death
761
Bind us with after-bands, what profits then
762
Our inward freedom? In the day we eat
763
Of this fair fruit, our doom is, we shall die!
764
How dies the serpent? He hath eaten and lives,
765
And knows, and speaks, and reasons, and discerns,
766
Irrational
5024
till then. For us alone
767
Was death invented? Or to us denied
768
This intellectual food, for beasts reserved?
769
For beasts it seems. Yet that one beast which first
770
Hath tasted envies not, but brings with joy
771
The good befall’n him, author unsuspect,
5025
772
Friendly to man, far from deceit or guile.
773
What fear I then? Rather, what know to fear
774
Under this ignorance of good and evil,
775
Of God or death, of law or penalty?
776
Here grows the cure of all, this fruit divine,
777
Fair to the eye, inviting to the taste,
778
Of virtue to make wise. What hinders then
779
To reach, and feed at once both body and mind?”
780
So saying, her rash hand in evil hour
781
Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she ate!
5026
782
Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat,
783
Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe,
784
That all was lost. Back to the thicket slunk
785
The guilty
5027
serpent, and well might, for Eve,
786
Intent now wholly on her taste, nought else
787
Regarded.
5028
Such delight till then, as seemed,
788
In fruit she never tasted, whether true
789
Or fancied so, through expectation high
790
Of knowledge, nor was godhead from her thought.
791
Greedily she ingorged without restraint,
792
And knew not eating death. Satiate at length,
793
And heightened as with wine, jocund and boon,
5029
794
Thus to herself she pleasingly began:
795
“O sov’reign, virtuous, precious of all trees
796
In Paradise! Of operation
5030
blest
797
798
799
Created. But henceforth my early care,
800
Not without song, each morning, and due praise,
801
Shall tend thee, and the fertile burden ease
802
Of thy full branches offered free to all,