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
Of other women, by the birth I bore—
In such a season born, when scarce a shed
Could be obtained to shelter him or me
From the bleak
6711
air. A stable was our warmth,
A manger his, yet soon enforced to fly
Thence into Egypt, till the murd’rous king
6712
Were dead, who sought his life and, missing,
6713
filled
With infant blood the streets of Bethlehem.
From Egypt home returned, in Nazareth
Hath been our dwelling many years, his life
Private, unactive, calm, contemplative,
Little suspicious to any king. But now,
Full grown to man, acknowledged, as I hear,
By John the Baptist, and in public shown,
Son owned
6714
from Heav’n by his Father’s voice,
I looked for some great change. To honor? No,
But trouble, as old Simeon
6715
plain foretold,
That to the fall and rising he should be
Of many in Israel, and to a sign
Spoken against—that through my very soul
A sword shall pierce, this my favored lot,
My exaltation to afflictions high!
Afflicted I may be, it seems, and blest!
I will not argue that, nor will repine.
6716
“But where delays he now? Some great intent
Conceals him. When twelve years he scarce had seen,
I lost him, but so found as well I saw
He could not lose himself, but went about
His Father’s business. What he meant I mused,
6717
Since understand: much more his absence now
Thus long to some great purpose he obscures.
6718
But I to wait with patience am inured,
My heart hath been a storehouse long of things
And sayings laid up, portending strange events.”
Thus Mary, pondering oft, and oft to mind
Recalling what remarkably
6719
had passed
Since first her salutation
6720
heard, with thoughts
Meekly composed awaited the fulfilling,
6721
The while her son, tracing
6722
the desert wild,
Sole,
6723
but with holiest meditations fed,
Into himself descended, and at once
All his great work to come before him set—
How to begin, how to accomplish best
His end
6724
of being on earth, and mission high.
For Satan, with sly preface
6725
to return,
Had left him vacant,
6726
and with speed was gone
Up to the middle region of thick air,
Where all his Potentates in council sat.
There, without sign of boast, or sign of joy,
Solicitous and blank,
6727
he thus began:
“Princes, Heav’n’s ancient Sons, Ethereal Thrones—
Daemonian Spirits now, from the element
Each of his reign allotted, rightlier called,
Powers of fire, air, water, and earth beneath
(So may we hold our place and these mild seats
Without new trouble!)—such an enemy
Is ris’n to invade us, who no less
Threat’ns than our expulsion down to Hell.
I, as I undertook, and with the vote
Consenting in full frequence
6728
was empowered,
Have found him, viewed him, tasted
6729
him, but find
Far other labor to be undergone
Than when I dealt with Adam, first of men,
Though Adam by his wife’s allurement
6730
fell,
However to this man inferior far—
If he be man by mother’s side, at least,
With more than human gifts from Heav’n adorned,
Perfections absolute, graces divine,
And amplitude of mind to greatest deeds.
Therefore I am returned, lest confidence
Of my success with Eve in Paradise
Deceive ye to persuasion over-sure
Of like
6731
succeeding here. I summon all
Rather to be in readiness with hand
Or counsel to assist, lest I, who erst
Thought none my equal, now be overmatched.”
So spoke the old serpent, doubting, and from all
With clamor was assured their utmost aid
At his command, when from amidst them rose
Belial, the dissolutest Spirit that fell,
The sensualest, and after Asmodai
6732
The fleshliest incubus,
6733
and thus advised:
“Set women in his eye and in his walk,
Among daughters of men the fairest found.
Many are in each region passing
6734
fair
As the noon sky, more like to goddesses
Than mortal creatures, graceful and discreet,
6735
Expert in amorous arts, enchanting tongues
Persuasive, virgin majesty with mild
And sweet allayed,
6736
yet terrible
6737
to approach,
Skilled to retire, and in retiring draw
Hearts after them tangled in amorous nets.
Such object hath the power to soft’n and tame
Severest temper,
6738
smooth the rugged’st brow,
Enerve
6739
and with voluptuous hope dissolve,
6740
Draw out with credulous desire, and lead
At will the manliest, resolutest breast,
As the magnetic
6741
hardest iron draws.
Women, when nothing else, beguiled the heart
Of wisest Solomon, and made him build
And made him bow to the gods of his wives.”
To whom quick answer Satan thus returned:
“Belial, in much uneven
6742
scale thou weigh’st
All others by thyself. Because of old
Thou thyself doat’st on
6743
womankind, admiring
Their shape, their color,
6744
and attractive grace,
None are, thou think’st, but taken with such toys.
6745
Before the Flood, thou with thy lusty crew,
False titled sons of God, roaming the earth,
Cast wanton eyes on the daughters of men,
And coupled with them, and begot a race.
Have we not seen, or by relation
6746
heard,
In courts and regal chambers how thou lurk’st,
In wood or grove, by mossy fountain-side,
In valley or green meadow, to waylay
Some beauty rare? Callisto,
6747
Clymene,
6748
Daphne,
6749
or Semele,
6750
Antiopa,
6751
Or Amymone,
6752
Syrinx
6753
—many more
Too long. Then lay’st thy scapes
6754
on names adored,
Apollo, Neptune, Jupiter, or Pan,
Satyr, or Faun, or Silvan!
6755
But these haunts
6756
Delight not all. Among the sons of men
How many have with a smile made small account
Of beauty and her lures, easily scorned
All her assaults, on worthier things intent?
“Remember that Pellean
6757
conqueror,
A youth, how all the beauties of the East
He slightly
6758
viewed, and slightly overpassed.
In his prime youth, the fair Iberian maid.
6761
“For Solomon he lived at ease, and full
Of honor, wealth, high fare,
6762
aimed not beyond
Higher design
6763
than to enjoy his state,
6764
Thence to the bait of women lay exposed.
“But he whom we attempt is wiser far
Than Solomon, of more exalted mind,
Made and set wholly on the accomplishment
Of greatest things. What woman will you find,
Though of this age the wonder and the fame,
On whom his leisure
6765
will vouchsafe an eye
Of fond
6766
desire? Or should she, confident
As sitting queen adored on beauty’s throne,
Descend with all her winning charms begirt
6767
To enamor, as the zone
6768
of Venus once
Wrought that effect on Jove (so fables tell),
6769
How would one look from his majestic brow
6770
Discount’nance
6771
her despised, and put to rout
All her array, her female pride deject,
6772
Or turn to reverent awe? For beauty stands
In th’ admiration only of weak minds
Led captive. Cease to admire, and all her plumes
6773
Fall flat and shrink into a trivial toy,
6774
At every sudden slighting
6775
quite abashed.
6776
“Therefore with manlier objects we must try
His constancy—with such as have more show
Of worth, of honor, glory, and popular praise
(Rocks whereon greatest men have oftest wrecked),
Or that which only seems to satisfy
Lawful desires of nature, not beyond.
And now I know he hungers,
6777
where no food
Is to be found, in the wide wilderness.