The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems (4 page)

Who did the solid earth ordain

To rise above the wat’ry plain,

For His, etc.

Who by His all-commanding might

Did fill the new-made world with light,

For His, etc.

And caused the golden-tressèd sun

All the day long his course to run,

For His, etc.

The hornèd moon to shine by night,

Amongst her spangled sisters bright,

For His, etc.

He with His thunder-clasping hand

Smote the first-born of Egypt land,

For His, etc.

And in despite of Pharaoh fell,
³⁷

He brought from thence His Israel,
³⁸

For His, etc.

The ruddy waves He cleft in twain,

Of the Erythraean main,
³⁹

For His, etc.

The floods stood still like walls of glass

While the Hebrew bands did pass,

For His, etc.

But full soon they did devour

The tawny
⁴⁰
king with all his power,

For His, etc.

His chosen people He did bless

In the wasteful
⁴¹
wilderness,

For His, etc.

In bloody battle He brought down

Kings of prowess and renown,

For His, etc.

He foiled bold Seon and his host,

That ruled the Amorrean
⁴²
coast,

For His, etc.

And large-limbed Og
⁴³
He did subdue,

With all his over-hardy
⁴⁴
crew,

For His, etc.

And to His servant Israel
⁴⁵

He gave their land, therein to dwell,

For His, etc.

He hath with a piteous eye

Beheld us in our misery,

For His, etc.

And freed us from the slavery

Of the invading enemy,

For His, etc.

All living creatures He doth feed,

And with full hand supplies their need,

For His, etc.

Let us therefore warble
⁴⁶
forth

His mighty majesty and worth,

For His, etc.

That His mansion hath on high,

Above the reach of mortal eye,

For His mercies aye endure,

Ever faithful, ever sure.

ON THE DEATH OF A FAIR INFANT DYING OF A COUGH

1625–26? 1628?

I

O fairest flower no sooner blown
⁴⁷
but blasted,
⁴⁸

Soft silken primrose fading timelessly,

Summer’s chief honor if thou hadst outlasted

Bleak winter’s force, that made thy blossom dry,

For he being amorous on that lovely dye

That did thy cheek envermeil,
⁴⁹
thought to kiss,

But killed, alas, and then bewailed his fatal bliss.

II

For since grim Aquilo,
⁵⁰
his
⁵¹
charioteer,

By boisterous
⁵²
rape th’ Athenian damsel
⁵³
got,

He thought it touched
⁵⁴
his deity full near

If likewise he some fair one wedded not,
⁵⁵

Thereby to wipe away the infamous
⁵⁶
blot

Of long-uncoupled bed and childless eld,
⁵⁷

Which ’mongst the wanton
⁵⁸
gods a foul reproach was held.

III

So mounting up in icy-pearlèd car
⁵⁹

Through middle empire of the freezing air

He wandered long, till thee he spied from far.

There ended was his quest, there ceased his care:

Down he descended from his snow-soft chair,

But all unwares with his cold-kind embrace

Unhoused thy virgin soul from her fair biding
⁶⁰
place.

IV

Yet art thou not inglorious
⁶¹
in thy fate,

For so Apollo, with unweeting
⁶²
hand,

Whilom
⁶³
did slay his dearly lovèd mate,
⁶⁴

Young Hyacinth, born on Eurotas’ strand,
⁶⁵

Young Hyacinth, the pride of Spartan land,

But then transformed him to a purple flower:

Alack, that so to change thee winter had no power.

V

Yet can I not persuade me thou art dead

Or that thy corpse corrupts in earth’s dark womb,

Or that thy beauties lie in wormy bed,

Hid from the world in a low-delved
⁶⁶
tomb.

Could Heav’n, for pity, thee so strictly doom?

Oh no! for something in thy face did shine

Above mortality that showed thou wast divine.

VI

Resolve
⁶⁷
me, then, O soul most surely blest

(If so it be that thou these plaints
⁶⁸
dost hear)!

Tell me, bright spirit, where’er thou hoverest,

Whether above that high, first-moving sphere

Or in the Elysian fields (if such there were),

Oh say me true if thou were mortal wight
⁶⁹

And why from us so quickly thou didst take thy flight.

VII

Were thou some star which from the ruined roof

Of shaked Olympus by mischance didst fall?

Which careful Jove in Nature’s true behoof
⁷⁰

Took up, and in fit
⁷¹
place did reinstall?

Or did, of late, earth’s sons besiege the wall

Of shiny Heav’n, and thou some goddess fled

Amongst us here below to hide thy nectared head?

VIII

Or were thou that just maid who once before

Forsook the hated earth,
⁷²
O tell me sooth,

And cam’st again to visit us once more?

Or wert thou Mercy, that sweet smiling youth?

Or that crowned matron, sage white-robèd Truth?

Or any other of that heav’nly brood

Let down in cloudy throne to do the world some good?

IX

Or wert thou of the golden-wingèd host,

Who having clad thyself in human weed
⁷³

To earth from thy prefixèd seat didst post,
⁷⁴

And after short abode fly back with speed,

As if to show what creatures Heav’n doth breed,

Thereby to set the hearts of men on fire

To scorn the sordid
⁷⁵
world, and unto Heav’n aspire?

X

But oh, why didst thou not stay here below

To bless us with thy Heav’n-loved innocence?

To slake his wrath, whom sin hath made our foe?

To turn swift-rushing black perdition hence,

Or drive away the slaughtering pestilence?

To stand ’twixt us and our deservèd smart?
⁷⁶

But thou canst best perform that office where thou art.

XI

Then thou, the mother of so sweet a child,

Her false-imagin’d loss cease to lament,

And wisely learn to curb thy sorrows wild.

Think what a present thou to God has sent,

And render Him with patience what he lent.

This if thou do, He will an offspring give

That till the world’s last end shall make thy name to live.

AT A VACATION EXERCISE IN THE COLLEGE, PART LATIN, PART ENGLISH