The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems (45 page)

1

   
Hail holy light, offspring of Heav’n first-born,

2

Or of the Eternal Coeternal beam

3

May I express thee unblamed? since God is light,

4

And never but in unapproachèd light

5

Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee

6

Bright effluence
²⁴²⁶
of bright essence increate.
²⁴²⁷

7

Or hear’st
²⁴²⁸
thou rather pure ethereal stream,

8

Whose fountain who shall tell? Before the sun,

9

Before the Heav’ns thou wert, and at the voice

10

Of God, as with a mantle, didst invest
²⁴²⁹

11

The rising world of waters dark and deep,

12

Won from the void and formless infinite.

13

Thee I re-visit now with bolder wing,

14

Escaped the Stygian
²⁴³⁰
pool, though long detained

15

In that obscure sojourn,
²⁴³¹
while in my flight

16

Through utter and through middle darkness borne,

17

With other notes than to the Orphean
²⁴³²
lyre
²⁴³³

18

I sung of Chaos and eternal Night,

19

Taught by the Heav’nly Muse to venture down

20

The dark descent, and up to re-ascend,

21

Though hard and rare.
²⁴³⁴
Thee I re-visit safe,

22

And feel thy sov’reign vital lamp,
²⁴³⁵
but thou

23

Re-visit’st not these eyes, that roll in vain

24

To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn,

25

So thick a drop serene
²⁴³⁶
hath quenched
²⁴³⁷
their orbs,

26

Or dim suffusion
²⁴³⁸
veiled.
²⁴³⁹
Yet not the more

27

Cease I to wander where the Muses haunt,

28

Clear spring, or shady grove, or sunny hill,

29

Smit
²⁴⁴⁰
with the love of sacred song. But chief

30

Thee, Sion,
²⁴⁴¹
and the flow’ry brooks beneath

31

That wash thy hallowed feet, and warbling flow,

32

Nightly I visit, nor sometimes forget

33

Those other two, equaled with
²⁴⁴²
me in fate

34

(So were I equaled with them in renown)

35

Blind Thamyris,
²⁴⁴³
and blind Maeonides,
²⁴⁴⁴

36

And Tiresias,
²⁴⁴⁵
and Phineus,
²⁴⁴⁶
prophets old.

37

Then feed
²⁴⁴⁷
on thoughts, that voluntary move

38

Harmonious numbers,
²⁴⁴⁸
as the wakeful bird
²⁴⁴⁹

39

Sings darkling,
²⁴⁵⁰
and in shadiest covert
²⁴⁵¹
hid

40

Tunes her nocturnal note. Thus with the year

41

Seasons return, but not to me returns

42

Day, or the sweet approach of ev’n or morn,

43

Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer’s rose,

44

Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine,

45

But cloud instead, and ever-during
²⁴⁵²
dark

46

Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men

47

Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair

48

Presented with a universal blank

49

Of Nature’s works to me expunged
²⁴⁵³
and razed,
²⁴⁵⁴

50

And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.

51

So much the rather thou, celestial light,

52

Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers

53

Irradiate.
²⁴⁵⁵
There plant
²⁴⁵⁶
eyes, all mist from thence

54

Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell

55

Of things invisible to mortal sight.

56

   
Now had the Almighty Father from above,

57

From the pure empyrean where He sits

58

High throned above all height, bent down His eye,

59

His own works and their works at once to view.

60

About Him all the Sanctities of Heav’n

61

Stood thick as stars, and from His sight received

62

Beatitude
²⁴⁵⁷
past utterance.
²⁴⁵⁸
On His right

63

The radiant image of His glory sat,

64

His only Son. On earth He first beheld

65

Our two first parents, yet
²⁴⁵⁹
the only two

66

Of mankind in the happy garden placed,

67

Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love,

68

Uninterrupted joy, unrivaled love,

69

In blissful solitude. He then surveyed

70

Hell and the gulf between, and Satan there

71

Coasting the wall of Heav’n on this side Night

72

In the dun
²⁴⁶⁰
air sublime,
²⁴⁶¹
and ready now

73

To stoop with wearied wings and willing feet

74

On the bare outside of this world, that seemed

75

Firm land embosomed,
²⁴⁶²
without firmament,
²⁴⁶³

76

Uncertain which, in ocean or in air.

77

Him God beholding, from His prospect
²⁴⁶⁴
high,

78

Wherein past, present, future, He beholds,

79

Thus to His only Son foreseeing spoke:

8

“Only-begotten Son, seest thou what rage

81

Transports
²⁴⁶⁵
our adversary? whom no bounds

82

Prescribed, no bars of Hell, nor all the chains

83

Heaped on him there, nor yet the main abyss

84

Wide interrupt,
²⁴⁶⁶
can hold, so bent he seems

85

On desperate revenge, that shall redound

86

Upon his own rebellious head. And now,

87

Through all restraint broke
²⁴⁶⁷
loose, he wings his way

88

Not far off Heav’n, in the precincts
²⁴⁶⁸
of light,

89

Directly towards the new created world,

90

And man there placed, with purpose to assay
²⁴⁶⁹