The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems (163 page)

His fiery virtue
⁸⁰⁶⁹
roused 1690

From under ashes into sudden flame,

And as an ev’ning dragon
⁸⁰⁷⁰
came,

Assailant on the perchèd roosts

And nests, in order ranged

Of tame villatic
⁸⁰⁷¹
fowl, but as an eagle

His cloudless thunder bolted
⁸⁰⁷²
on their heads.

So virtue giv’n for lost,

Depressed,
⁸⁰⁷³
and overthrown (as seemed),

Like that self-begotten bird
⁸⁰⁷⁴

In th’ Arabian woods embossed,
⁸⁰⁷⁵
1700

That no second knows nor third,

And lay erewhile a holocaust,
⁸⁰⁷⁶

From out her ashy womb now teemed—
⁸⁰⁷⁷

Revives, reflourishes, then
⁸⁰⁷⁸
vigorous most

When most unactive deemed.

And though her body die, her fame survives

(A secular
⁸⁰⁷⁹
bird) ages of lives.

MAN. Come, come, no time for lamentation now,

Nor much more cause. Samson hath quit
⁸⁰⁸⁰
himself

Like Samson, and heroically hath finished

A life heroic, on his enemies

Fully revenged, hath left them years of mourning,

And lamentation to the sons of Caphtor
⁸⁰⁸¹

Through all Philistian bounds.
⁸⁰⁸²
To Israel

Honor hath left, and freedom. Let but them

Find courage to lay hold
⁸⁰⁸³
on this occasion—

To himself and father’s house
⁸⁰⁸⁴
eternal fame.

And which is best and happiest yet, all this

With God not parted from him, as was feared,

But favoring and assisting to the end. 1720

Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail

Or knock the breast, no weakness, no contempt,

Dispraise, or blame, nothing but well and fair,

And what may quiet us in a death so noble.

Let us go find the body where it lies

Soaked in his enemies’ blood, and from the stream

With lavers
⁸⁰⁸⁵
pure, and cleansing herbs, wash off

The clotted gore.
⁸⁰⁸⁶
I with what speed the while

(Gaza is not in plight
⁸⁰⁸⁷
to say us nay)

Will send for all my kindred, all my friends 1730

To fetch him hence and solemnly attend

With silent obsequy
⁸⁰⁸⁸
and funeral train
⁸⁰⁸⁹

Home to his father’s house. There will I build him

A monument, and plant it round with shade

Of laurel ever green, and branching palm,

With all his trophies hung, and acts enrolled
⁸⁰⁹⁰

In copious legend
⁸⁰⁹¹
or sweet lyric song.

Thither shall all the valiant youth resort,
⁸⁰⁹²

And from his memory inflame their breasts

To matchless valor, and adventures high. 1740

The virgins also shall on feastful days

Visit his tomb with flowers, only bewailing

His lot unfortunate in nuptial choice,

From whence captivity and loss of eyes.

CHOR. All is best, though we oft doubt,

What th’ unsearchable
⁸⁰⁹³
dispose
⁸⁰⁹⁴

Of highest wisdom brings about,

And ever best found in the close.

Oft He seems to hide His face,

But unexpectedly returns—1750

And to His faithful champion hath in place

Bore witness gloriously. Whence Gaza mourns

And all that band
⁸⁰⁹⁵
them to resist

His uncontrollable
⁸⁰⁹⁶
intent,
⁸⁰⁹⁷

His servants He with new acquist
⁸⁰⁹⁸

Of true experience from this great event

With peace and consolation hath dismissed,
⁸⁰⁹⁹

And calm of mind, all passion spent.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING

This cannot be more than a brief, more or less representative glimpse of what Carrithers and Hardy (below, at p. 15) call “the prodigious landscape of relevant scholarship.” All of the listed books contain useful citations to a much wider portion of the landscape.

EDITIONS OF MILTON

Bush, Douglas, ed.
The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton
. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1965 [poetically the most sensitive edition].

Flannagan, Roy, ed.
The Riverside Milton.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998 [the most capacious edition—1,213 pages, many double-columned—bristling with information: early biographies; poems English and Latin; much prose].

Shawcross, John T., ed.
The Complete English Poetry of John Milton.
New York: Doubleday Anchor, 1963 [handy, inexpensive, far-ranging].

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Fallon, Robert Thomas.
Milton in Government.
University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1993.

Hill, Christopher.
The Century of Revolution, 1603–1714.
London: Nelson, 1961. 2nd ed., Sphere paperback, 1972.

——.
Milton and the English Revolution.
New York: Viking, 1977.

——.
The Experience of Defeat: Milton and Some Contemporaries.
New York: Viking, 1984.

——.
The English Bible and the Seventeenth-Century Revolution.
London: Allan Lane, 1993. Penguin, 1994.

LANGUAGE

The Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles.
10 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1933.

LITERARY CRITICISM

COLLECTIONS

Barker, Arthur E., ed.
Milton: Modern Essays in Criticism.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965.

Danielson, Dennis, ed.
The Cambridge Companion to Milton.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

Patrides, C. A., and Joseph Wittreich.
The Apocalypse in English Renaissance Thought and Literature.
Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984.

INDIVIDUAL STUDIES

Carrithers, Gale H., and James D. Hardy Jr.
Milton and the Hermeneutic Journey.
Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1994.

Ferry, Anne D.
Milton’s Epic Voice: The Narrator in
Paradise Lost. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1963.

Lewis, C. S. “A Note on
Comus.
” In C. S. Lewis,
Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1966.

——.
A Preface to
Paradise Lost. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1942. Rev. ed., 1960.

Marotti, Arthur F.
Manuscript, Print, and the English Renaissance Lyric.
Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995.

Martz, Louis I.
Poet of Exile: A Study of Milton’s Poetry.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1980.

Nicolson, Marjorie Hope.
John Milton: A Reader’s Guide to His Poetry.
New York: Farrar, 1963.

Rumrich, John Peter.
Matter of Glory: A New Preface to
Paradise Lost. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1987.

Steadman, John M.
The Wall of Paradise: Essays on Milton’s Poetics.
Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1985.

Stein, Arnold.
The Art of Presence: The Poet and
Paradise Lost. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977.

ASK YOUR BOOKSELLER FOR THESE BANTAM CLASSICS

BEOWULF AND OTHER ENGLISH POEMS
, 978-0-553-21347-8

THE BHAGAVAD-GITA: KRISHNA’S COUNSEL IN TIME OF WAR
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THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
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THE FEDERALIST PAPERS
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GREEK DRAMA
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JO’S BOYS
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LITTLE WOMEN
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WINESBURG, OHIO
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THE COMPLETE PLAYS
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EMMA
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MANSFIELD PARK
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NORTHANGER ABBEY
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PERSUASION
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PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
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SENSE AND SENSIBILITY
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PETER PAN
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BRADBURY CLASSIC STORIES
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THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES
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JANE EYRE
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VILLETTE
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WUTHERING HEIGHTS
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THE SECRET GARDEN
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THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS
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MY ÁNTONIA
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O PIONEERS!
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THE CANTERBURY TALES
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STORIES
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THE AWAKENING
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THE WOMAN IN WHITE
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HEART OF DARKNESS
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LORD JIM
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THE DEERSLAYER
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THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS
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MAGGIE: A GIRL OF THE STREETS AND OTHER SHORT FICTION
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THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE
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THE INFERNO
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PARADISO
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PURGATORIO
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THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES
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MOLL FLANDERS
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ROBINSON CRUSOE
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BLEAK HOUSE
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A CHRISTMAS CAROL
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DAVID COPPERFIELD
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GREAT EXPECTATIONS
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HARD TIMES
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