The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems (120 page)

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

BOOK: The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems
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788

      

But I shall die a living death? O thought

789

      

Horrid, if true! Yet why? It was but breath

790

      

Of life that sinned. What dies but what had life

791

      

And sin? The body properly had neither.

792

      

All of me then shall die: let this appease
5609

793

      

The doubt, since human reach no further knows.

794

      

For though the Lord of all be infinite,

795

      

Is His wrath also? Be it, man is not so,

796

      

But mortal doomed.
5610
How can He exercise

797

      

Wrath without end on man, whom death must end?

798

      

Can He make deathless death? That were to make

799

      

Strange contradiction, which to God Himself

800

      

Impossible is held,
5611
as argument
5612

801

      

Of weakness, not of power. Will He draw out,

802

      

For anger’s sake, finite to infinite,

803

      

In punished man, to satisfy His rigor,
5613

804

      

Satisfied never? That were to extend

805

      

His sentence beyond dust and Nature’s law,

806

      

By which all causes else,
5614
according still

807

      

To the reception
5615
of their matter, act,
5616

808

      

Not to th’ extent of their own sphere.

 

      

“But say

809

      

That death be not one stroke, as I supposed,

810

      

Bereaving
5617
sense, but endless misery

811

      

From this day onward, which I feel begun

812

      

From in
5618
me, and without
5619
me—and so last

813

      

To perpetuity. Aye me, that fear

814

      

Comes thundering back with dreadful revolution
5620

815

      

On my defenceless head. Both Death and I

816

      

Am found eternal, and incorporate
5621
both,

817

      

Nor I on my part single.
5622
In me all

818

      

Posterity stands cursed: fair patrimony

819

      

That I must leave ye, sons. O were I able

820

      

To waste
5623
it all myself, and leave ye none!

821

      

So disinherited, how would you bless

822

      

Me, now your curse! Ah, why should all mankind,

823

      

For one man’s fault, thus guiltless be condemned—

824

      

If guiltless? But from me what can proceed,

825

      

But all corrupt, both mind and will depraved
5624

826

      

Not to do only, but to will the same

827

      

With
5625
me? How can they then acquitted stand

828

      

In sight of God? Him after all disputes,

829

      

Forced
5626
I absolve. All my evasions vain,

830

      

And reasonings, though through mazes, lead me still

831

      

But to my own conviction: first and last

832

      

On me, me only, as the source and spring

833

      

Of all corruption, all the blame lights
5627
due.

834

      

So might the wrath. Fond
5628
wish! Could’st thou
5629
support

835

      

That burden, heavier than the earth to bear,

836

      

Than all the world much heavier, though divided
5630

837

      

With that bad woman?
5631
Thus what thou desir’st,

838

      

And what thou fear’st, alike destroys all hope

839

      

Of refuge, and concludes thee miserable

840

      

Beyond all past example and future.

841

      

To Satan only like
5632
both crime and doom.
5633

842

      

O Conscience! Into what abyss of fears

843

      

And horrors hast thou
5634
driv’n me, out of which

844

      

I find no way, from deep to deeper plunged!

845

      

   
Thus Adam to himself lamented loud

846

      

Through the still night—not now, as ere
5635
man fell,

847

      

Wholesome, and cool, and mild, but with black air

848

      

Accompanied, with damps,
5636
and dreadful gloom,

849

      

Which to his
5637
evil conscience represented
5638

850

      

All things with double terror. On the ground

851

      

Outstretched he lay, on the cold ground, and oft

852

      

Cursed his creation, Death as oft accused

853

      

Of tardy execution, since denounced
5639

854

      

The day of his offence. “Why comes not Death,

855

      

Said he, “with one thrice-acceptable
5640
stroke

856

      

To end me? Shall truth fail to keep her word,

857

      

Justice Divine not hasten to be just?

858

      

But Death comes not at call, Justice Divine

859

      

Mends
5641
not her slowest pace for prayers or cries.

860

      

O woods, O fountains, hillocks, dales, and bow’rs!

861

      

With other echo late
5642
I taught your shades

862

      

To answer, and resound
5643
far other song!

863

      

   
Whom thus afflicted when sad Eve beheld,

864

      

Desolate where she sat, approaching nigh

865

      

Soft words to his fierce passion she assayed,
5644

866

      

But her with stern regard he thus repelled:

867

      

   
“Out of my sight, thou serpent! That name best

868

      

Befits
5645
thee, with him leagued,
5646
thyself as false

869

      

And hateful.
5647
Nothing wants,
5648
but that thy shape,

870

      

Like his, and color serpentine, may show

871

      

Thy inward fraud, to warn all creatures from thee

872

      

Henceforth, lest that too Heav’nly form, pretended
5649

873

      

To hellish falsehood, snare them! But
5650
for thee

874

      

I had
5651
persisted
5652
happy, had not thy pride

875

      

And wand’ring
5653
vanity, when least was safe,

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