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
620
To whom thus Belial, in like gamesome mood:
621
“‘Leader! the terms we sent were terms of weight,
622
Of hard contents, and full of force urged home,
623
Such as we might perceive amused
4004
them all,
624
And stumbled
4005
many. Who receives them right
625
Had need from head to foot well understand.
4006
626
Not understood, this gift they have besides,
627
They show us when our foes walk not upright.
628
“So they among themselves in pleasant vein
629
Stood scoffing, heightened
4007
in their thoughts beyond
630
All doubt of victory. Eternal Might
631
To match with their inventions they presumed
632
So easy, and of His thunder made a scorn,
633
And all His host derided, while they stood
634
A while in trouble. But they
4008
stood not long.
635
Rage prompted them at length, and found them arms
636
Against such hellish mischief fit t’ oppose.
637
Forthwith (behold the excellence, the power,
638
Which God hath in His mighty Angels placed!
639
Their arms away they threw, and to the hills
640
(For earth hath this variety from Heav’n,
641
Of pleasure situate
4009
in hill and dale)
642
Light
4010
as the lightning glimpse they ran, they flew.
643
From their foundations loos’ning to and fro,
644
They plucked the seated hills, with all their load,
645
Rocks, waters, woods, and by the shaggy tops
646
Up-lifting bore them in their hands. Amaze,
647
Be sure, and terror, seized the rebel host,
648
When coming towards them so dread they saw
4011
649
The bottom of the mountains upward turned,
650
Till on those cursed engines’ triple-row
651
They saw them whelmed,
4012
and all their confidence
652
Under the weight of mountains buried deep,
653
Themselves invaded
4013
next, and on their heads
654
655
Came shadowing, and oppressed
4016
whole legions armed.
656
Their armor helped their harm, crushed in and bruised
657
Into their substance pent,
4017
which wrought them pain
658
Implacable,
4018
and many a dolorous groan,
659
Long struggling underneath, ere they could wind
660
Out of such prison, though Spirits of purest light,
661
Purest at first, now gross by sinning grown.
662
The rest, in imitation, to like arms
663
Betook them, and the neighboring hills uptore.
664
So hills amid the air encountered hills,
665
666
That under ground they fought in dismal shade.
667
Infernal noise! War seemed a civil game
668
To this uproar. Horrid confusion heaped
669
Upon confusion rose.
“And now all Heav’n
670
Had gone to wrack,
4021
with ruin overspread,
671
Had not th’Almighty Father, where He sits
672
Shrined in His sanctuary of Heav’n secure,
673
Consulting on the sum of things, foreseen
674
This tumult, and permitted all, advised,
4022
675
That His great purpose He might so fulfil,
676
To honor His anointed Son avenged
677
Upon his enemies, and to declare
678
All power on him transferred. Whence to His Son,
679
The assessor
4023
of His throne, He thus began:
680
“‘Effulgence
4024
of my glory, Son belov’d,
681
Son, in whose face invisible is beheld
682
Visibly, what by Deity I am,
683
And in whose hand what by decree I do,
684
Second Omnipotence! Two days are past,
685
Two days, as we compute the days of Heav’n,
686
Since Michael and his Powers went forth to tame
687
These disobedient. Sore hath been their fight,
688
As likeliest was, when two such foes met armed,
689
For to themselves I left them, and thou know’st
690
Equal in their creation they were formed,
691
Save what sin hath impaired, which yet hath wrought
692
Insensibly, for I suspend their doom.
4025
693
Whence in perpetual fight they needs must last
4026
694
Endless, and no solution will be found.
695
War wearied hath performed what war can do,
696
And to disordered rage let loose the reins
697
With mountains, as with weapons, armed, which makes
698
Wild work in Heav’n, and dangerous to the main.
4027
699
Two days are therefore past, the third is thine,
700
For thee I have ordained it, and thus far
701
Have suffered
4028
that the glory may be thine
702
Of ending this great war, since none but thou
703
Can end it. Into thee such virtue and grace
704
Immense I have transfused,
4029
that all may know
705
In Heav’n and Hell thy power above compare
706
707
To manifest thee worthiest to be heir
708
Of all things, to be heir, and to be King
709
By sacred unction,
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thy deservèd right.