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
702
703
704
705
706
Thus began
707
Outrage
5567
from lifeless things, but Discord first,
708
Daughter of Sin, among th’ irrational
5568
709
Death introduced, through fierce antipathy.
5569
710
Beast now with beast ’gan war, and fowl with fowl,
711
And fish with fish. To graze the herb all leaving,
5570
712
Devoured each other, nor stood much in awe
713
Of man, but fled him or, with count’nance grim,
5571
714
Glared on him passing.
These were from without
5572
715
The growing miseries, which Adam saw
716
Already in part, though hid in gloomiest shade,
717
To sorrow abandoned, but worse felt within,
718
And in a troubled sea of passion tossed,
719
Thus to disburden sought
5573
with sad complaint:
720
“O miserable of
5574
happy! Is this the end
721
Of this new glorious world, and me so late
5575
722
The glory of that glory, who now become
723
Accursed, of
5576
blessèd? Hide me from the face
724
Of God, whom to behold was then my height
725
Of happiness! Yet well,
5577
if here would end
726
The misery. I deserved it, and would
5578
bear
727
My own deservings. But this will not serve:
5579
728
All that I eat or drink, or shall beget,
729
Is propagated
5580
curse. O voice, once heard
730
Delightfully, ‘Increase and multiply,
731
Now death to hear! For what can I increase
732
Or multiply, but curses on my head?
733
Who of all ages to succeed,
5581
but feeling
734
The evil on him brought by me, will curse
735
My head? ‘Ill fare our ancestor impure,
736
For this we may thank Adam!’ But his thanks
737
Shall be the execration.
5582
So, besides
738
739
740
On me, as on their natural center, light
5587
741
Heavy, though in their place.
5588
O fleeting joys
742
Of Paradise, dear bought with lasting woes!
743
Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay
744
To mould me man? Did I solicit Thee
745
From darkness to promote
5589
me, or here place
746
In this delicious
5590
garden? As my will
747
Concurred
5591
not to my being, it were but right
748
And equal to reduce me to my dust,
749
Desirous to resign
5592
and render back
750
All I received, unable to perform
751
Thy terms too hard, by which I was to hold
752
The good I sought not. To the loss of that,
753
Sufficient penalty: why hast Thou added
754
The sense of endless woes? Inexplicable
755
Thy Justice seems. Yet to say truth, too late
756
I thus contest. Then should have been refused
757
Those terms whatever, when they were proposed.
758
759
Then cavil
5595
the conditions? And though God
760
761
Prove disobedient, and reproved, retort,
762
‘Wherefore did’st thou beget me? I sought it not.
763
Would’st thou admit
5598
for his contempt of thee
764
That proud excuse? Yet him not thy election
5599
765
But natural necessity begot.
5600
766
God made thee of choice His own, and of His own
767
To serve Him: thy reward was of His grace,
768
Thy punishment then justly is at His will.
769
“Be it so, for I submit: His doom
5601
is fair,
770
That dust I am, and shall to dust return.
771
O welcome hour whenever! Why delays
772
His hand to execute what His decree
773
774
Why am I mocked with death, and lengthened out
775
To deathless pain? How gladly would I meet
776
Mortality, my sentence, and be earth
777
Insensible!
5605
How glad would lay me down
778
As in my mother’s lap! There I should rest,
779
And sleep secure.
5606
His dreadful voice no more
780
Would thunder in my ears. No fear of worse
781
To me, and to my offspring, would torment me
782
With cruel expectation.
“Yet one doubt
783
Pursues me still, lest all
5607
I cannot die,
784
Lest that pure breath of life, the spirit of man
785
Which God inspired, cannot together perish
786
With this corporeal clod.
5608
Then in the grave,
787
Or in some other dismal place, who knows