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
711
Shakes pestilence and war. Each at the head
712
Levelled his deadly aim. Their fatal
2265
hands
713
No second stroke intend. And such a frown
714
Each cast at th’ other as when two black clouds,
715
With Heav’n’s artillery fraught,
2266
come rattling on
716
Over the Caspian,
2267
then stand front to front,
717
Hov’ring a space,
2268
till winds the signal blow
718
To join
2269
their dark encounter in mid-air.
719
So frowned the mighty combatants, that Hell
720
Grew darker at their frown. So matched they stood,
721
For never but once more was either like
722
To meet so great a foe.
2270
And now great deeds
723
Had been achieved, whereof all Hell had rung,
724
Had not the snaky sorceress, that sat
725
Fast by
2271
Hell-gate and kept the fatal key,
726
Ris’n, and with hideous outcry rushed between.
727
“O father, what intends thy hand,” she cried,
728
“Against thy only son? What fury, O son,
729
730
Against thy father’s head? And know’st for whom?
731
For Him who sits above, and laughs the while
732
At thee, ordained His drudge to execute
733
Whate’er His wrath, which He calls justice, bids—
734
His wrath, which one day will destroy ye both!
735
She spoke, and at her words the hellish pest
2274
736
737
“So strange thy outcry, and thy words so strange
738
739
Prevented, spares
2279
to tell thee yet by deeds
740
What it intends, till first I know of thee
741
What thing thou art, thus double-formed, and why,
742
In this infernal vale first met, thou call’st
743
Me father, and that phantasm call’st my son?
744
I know thee not, nor ever saw till now
745
Sight more detestable than him and thee.
746
T’ whom thus the portress
2280
of Hell-gate replied:
747
“Hast thou forgot me, then? and do I seem
748
Now in thine eye so foul?—once deemed so fair
749
In Heav’n when at th’ assembly, and in sight
750
Of all the Seraphim with thee combined
751
In bold conspiracy against Heav’n’s King,
752
All on a sudden miserable pain
753
Surprised thee, dim thine eyes, and dizzy swum
754
In darkness, while thy head flames
2281
thick and fast
755
Threw forth, till on the left side op’ning wide,
756
Likest to thee in shape and count’nance bright,
757
Then shining heavenly fair, a goddess armed,
758
Out of thy head I sprung. Amazement seized
759
All th’ host of Heav’n. Back they recoiled, afraid
760
At first, and called me Sin, and for a sign
761
Portentous
2282
held me. But, familiar grown,
762
I pleased, and with attractive graces won
763
The most averse—thee chiefly, who full oft
764
Thyself in me thy perfect image viewing,
765
Becam’st enamored, and such joy thou took’st
766
With me in secret that my womb conceived
767
A growing burden. Meanwhile war arose,
768
And fields were fought in Heav’n, wherein remained
769
(For what could else?) to our Almighty foe
770
Clear victory, to our part loss and rout
2283
771
Through all the Empyrean.
2284
Down they fell,
772
Driv’n headlong from the pitch
2285
of Heaven, do
773
Into this deep, and in the general fall
774
I also, at which time this powerful key
775
Into my hands was giv’n, with charge to keep
776
These gates forever shut, which none can pass
777
Without my op’ning. Pensive
2286
here I sat
778
Alone, but long I sat not, till my womb,
779
Pregnant by thee, and now excessive grown,
780
781
At last this odious
2290
offspring whom thou seest,
782
Thine own begotten, breaking violent way,
2291
783
Tore through my entrails that,
2292
with fear and pain
784
Distorted, all my nether shape thus grew
785
Transformed. But he my inbred enemy
786
Forth issued, brandishing
2293
his fatal dart,
787
Made to destroy. I fled, and cried out ‘Death!
788
Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sighed
789
From all her caves, and back resounded ‘Death!
790
I fled, but he pursued (though more, it seems,
791
Inflamed with lust than rage), and swifter far,
792
Me overtook, his mother, all dismayed,
2294
793
And in embraces forcible and foul
794
Engend’ring
2295
with me, of that rape begot
795
These yelling monsters, that with ceaseless cry
796
Surround me, as thou saw’st—hourly conceived
797
And hourly born, with sorrow infinite
798
To me, for when they list
2296
into the womb
799
That bred them they return, and howl, and gnaw
800
My bowels, their repast.
2297
Then bursting forth