The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems (144 page)

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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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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.

“How he surnamed of Africa
6759
dismissed,
6760

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.

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