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
978
From your dominion won,
2385
th’ Ethereal King
979
Possesses lately, thither to arrive
980
981
Directed, no mean
2388
recompense it brings
982
983
All usurpation
2391
thence expelled, reduce
984
To her original darkness, and your sway
985
(Which is my present journey), and once more
986
Erect the standard
2392
there of ancient Night.
987
Yours be th’ advantage all, mine the revenge!
988
Thus Satan; and him thus the Anarch
2393
old,
989
With falt’ring speech and visage incomposed,
2394
990
Answered: “I know thee, stranger, who thou art—
991
That mighty leading Angel, who of late
992
Made head
2395
against Heav’n’s King, though overthrown.
993
I saw and heard, for such a numerous host
994
Fled not in silence through the frighted deep,
995
With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout,
2396
996
Confusion worse confounded.
2397
And Heav’n-gates
997
Poured out by millions her victorious bands,
998
Pursuing. I upon my frontiers here
999
Keep residence; if all I can
2398
will serve
1000
That little which is left so
2399
to def
1001
1002
Weakening the scepter of old Night. First Hell,
1003
Your dungeon, stretching far and wide beneath;
1004
Now lately Heav’n and earth, another world
1005
Hung o’er my realm, linked in a golden chain
1006
To that side Heav’n from whence your legions fell!
1007
If that way be your walk, you have not far;
1008
So much the nearer danger. Go, and speed;
2402
1009
Havoc, and spoil, and ruin, are my gain.
1010
He ceased, and Satan stayed not to reply,
1011
But glad that now his sea should find a shore,
1012
With fresh alacrity and force renewed
1013
Springs upward like a pyramid of fire,
1014
Into the wild expanse, and through the shock
2403
1015
Of fighting elements, on all sides round
1016
1017
And more endangered than when Argo
2406
passed
1018
Through Bosphorus betwixt the jostling rocks,
1019
Or when Ulysses on the larboard
2407
shunned
1020
Charybdis, and by th’ other whirlpool steered.
1021
So he
2408
with difficulty and labor hard
1022
Moved on, with difficulty and labor he.
2409
1023
But he once passed,
2410
soon after, when man fell,
1024
Strange alteration! Sin and Death amain
2411
1025
Following his track (such was the will of Heav’n)
1026
Paved after him a broad and beaten way
1027
Over the dark abyss, whose boiling gulf
1028
Tamely endured a bridge of wondrous length,
1029
From Hell continued, reaching th’ utmost orb
2412
1030
Of this frail world, by which the Spirits perverse
2413
1031
With easy intercourse pass to and fro
1032
To tempt or punish mortals, except whom
1033
God and good Angels guard by special grace.
1034
But now at last the sacred influence
2414
1035
Of light appears, and from the walls of Heav’n
1036
Shoots far into the bosom of dim Night
1037
A glimmering dawn. Here Nature first begins
1038
1039
As from her outmost works, a broken foe,
1040
With tumult less and with less hostile din,
1041
That Satan with less toil, and now with ease,
1042
1043
And like a weather-beaten vessel holds
1044
1045
Or in the emptier waste, resembling air,
1046
Weighs
2421
his spread wings, at leisure to behold
1047
Far off th’ empyreal Heav’n, extended wide
1048
In circuit, undetermined
2422
square or round,
1049
With opal towers and battlements adorned
1050
Of living sapphire, once his native seat,
1051
And fast by,
2423
hanging in a golden chain,
1052
This pendant world, in bigness as a star
1053
Of smallest magnitude close by the moon.
1054
Thither, full fraught
2424
with mischievous revenge,
1055
Accursed, and in a cursèd hour, he hies.
2425
The End of the Second Book
BOOK III
THE ARGUMENT
God sitting on His throne sees Satan flying towards this world, then newly created; shews him to the Son who sat at His right hand; foretells the success of Satan in perverting mankind; clears His own justice and wisdom from all imputation, having created man free and able enough to have withstood his tempter; yet declares His purpose of grace towards him, in regard he fell not of his own malice, as did Satan, but by him seduced.