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
274 | | |
275 | | Found out for mankind under wrath, O thou |
276 | | My sole complacence! |
277 | | To me are all my works, nor man the least, |
278 | | Though last created, that for him I spare |
279 | | Thee from my bosom and right hand, to save, |
280 | | By losing thee a while, the whole race lost. |
281 | | Thou, therefore, whom thou only canst redeem, |
282 | | Their nature also to thy nature join, |
283 | | And be thyself man among men on earth, |
284 | | Made flesh, when time shall be, of virgin seed, |
285 | | By wondrous birth. Be thou in Adam’s room |
286 | | The head of all mankind, though Adam’s son. |
287 | | As in him perish all men, so in thee, |
288 | | As from a second root, shall be restored |
289 | | As many as are restored, without thee none. |
290 | | His crime makes guilty all his sons: thy merit, |
291 | | |
292 | | Their own both righteous and unrighteous deeds, |
293 | | And live in thee transplanted, and from thee |
294 | | Receive new life. So man, as is most just, |
295 | | Shall satisfy for man, be judged and die, |
296 | | And dying rise, and rising with him raise |
297 | | His brethren, ransomed with his own dear life. |
298 | | So Heav’nly love shall outdo hellish hate, |
299 | | Giving to death, and dying to redeem, |
300 | | So dearly |
301 | | So easily destroyed, and still destroys |
302 | | In those who, when they may, accept not grace. |
303 | | Nor shalt thou, by descending to assume |
304 | | Man’s nature, lessen or degrade thine own. |
305 | | Because thou hast, though throned in highest bliss |
306 | | Equal to God, and equally enjoying |
307 | | |
308 | | A world from utter loss, and hast been found |
309 | | By merit more than birthright Son of God, |
310 | | Found worthiest to be so by being good, |
311 | | Far more than great or high—because in thee |
312 | | Love hath abounded more than glory abounds. |
313 | | Therefore thy humiliation shall exalt |
314 | | With thee thy manhood also to this throne. |
315 | | Here shalt thou sit incarnate, |
316 | | Both God and man, Son both of God and man, |
317 | | Anointed universal King. All power |
318 | | I give thee: reign forever, and assume |
319 | | Thy merits. |
320 | | Thrones, Princedoms, Powers, Dominions, I reduce. |
321 | | All knees to thee shall bow, of them that bide |
322 | | In Heav’n, or earth, or under earth in Hell. |
323 | | When thou, attended gloriously from Heav’n |
324 | | Shalt in the sky appear, and from thee send |
325 | | The summoning Arch-Angels to proclaim |
326 | | Thy dread tribunal, forthwith from all winds |
327 | | The living, and forthwith the cited |
328 | | Of all past ages, to the general doom |
329 | | Shall hasten. Such a peal |
330 | | Then all thy Saints assembled, thou shalt judge |
331 | | Bad men and Angels. They, arraigned, |
332 | | Beneath thy sentence. Hell, her numbers full, |
333 | | Thenceforth shall be forever shut. Meanwhile |
334 | | The world shall burn, and from her ashes spring |
335 | | New Heav’n and earth, wherein the just shall dwell |
336 | | And after all their tribulations long |
337 | | See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds, |
338 | | With joy and peace triumphing, and fair truth. |
339 | | Then thou thy regal scepter shalt lay by, |
340 | | For regal scepter then no more shall need: |
341 | | God shall be all in all. But all ye gods, |
342 | | Adore him, who to compass |
343 | | Adore the Son, and honor him as me. |
344 | | |
345 | | The multitude of Angels, with a shout |
346 | | Loud as from numbers without number, sweet |
347 | | As from blest voices, uttering joy, Heav’n rung |
348 | | |
349 | | The eternal regions. Lowly reverent |
350 | | Towards either throne they bow, and to the ground |
351 | | With solemn adoration down they cast |
352 | | Their crowns inwove with amarant |
353 | | Immortal amarant, a flower which once |
354 | | In Paradise, fast by the Tree of Life, |
355 | | Began to bloom, but soon for man’s offence |
356 | | To Heav’n removed, where first it grew, there grows, |
357 | | And flow’rs aloft, shading the Fount of Life, |
358 | | And where the river of bliss through midst of Heav’n |
359 | | Rolls o’er Elysian flow’rs her amber stream. |
360 | | With these that never fade the Spirits elect |
361 | | Bind their resplendent locks inwreathed with beams, |
362 | | Now in loose garlands thick thrown off, the bright |
363 | | Pavement, |
364 | | Impurpled with celestial roses smiled. |
365 | | Then, crowned again, their golden harps they took, |
366 | | Harps ever tuned, that glittering by their side |