The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems (88 page)

362

And drink the liquid light, firm to retain

363

Her gathered beams, great palace
⁴²⁴⁴
now of light.

364

Hither, as to their fountain, other stars

365

Repairing,
⁴²⁴⁵
in their golden urns draw light,

366

And hence the morning-planet
⁴²⁴⁶
gilds her horns.
⁴²⁴⁷

367

By tincture
⁴²⁴⁸
or reflection they augment

368

Their small peculiar,
⁴²⁴⁹
though from human sight

369

So far remote, with diminution seen.
⁴²⁵⁰

370

First in his east the glorious lamp was seen,

371

Regent
⁴²⁵¹
of day, and all th’ horizon round

372

Invested
⁴²⁵²
with bright rays, jocund
⁴²⁵³
to run

373

His longitude
⁴²⁵⁴
through Heav’n’s high road. The gray

374

Dawn and the Pleiades before him danced,

375

Shedding sweet influence.
⁴²⁵⁵
Less bright the moon,

376

But opposite in levelled
⁴²⁵⁶
west was set,

377

His
⁴²⁵⁷
mirror, with full face borrowing her light

378

From him, for other light she needed none

379

In that aspect,
⁴²⁵⁸
and still that distance keeps

380

Till night, then in the east her turn she shines,

381

Revolved on Heav’n’s great axle, and her reign

382

With thousand lesser lights dividual
⁴²⁵⁹
holds,

383

With thousand thousand stars, that then appeared

384

Spangling
⁴²⁶⁰
the hemisphere. Then first adorned

385

With their bright luminaries that set and rose,

386

Glad ev’ning and glad morn crowned the fourth day.

387

   
“And God said: ‘Let the waters generate

388

Reptile with spawn abundant, living soul,

389

And let fowl fly above the earth, with wings

390

Displayed on the open firmament of Heav’n.

391

And God created the great whales, and each

392

Soul living, each that crept, which plenteously

393

The waters generated by their kinds,

394

And every bird of wing after his kind,

395

And saw that it was good, and blessed them, saying:

396

‘Be fruitful, multiply, and in the seas,

397

And lakes, and running streams, the waters fill,

398

And let the fowl be multiplied on th’ earth.

399

Forthwith the sounds
⁴²⁶¹
and seas, each creek and bay,

400

With fry
⁴²⁶²
innumerable swarm, and shoals

401

Of fish that with their fins, and shining scales,

402

Glide under the green wave, in sculls
⁴²⁶³
that oft

403

Bank
⁴²⁶⁴
the mid sea, part single, or with mate,

404

Graze the sea-weed their pasture, and through groves

405

Of coral stray, or sporting
⁴²⁶⁵
with quick glance,

406

Show to the sun their waved coats dropped
⁴²⁶⁶
with gold,

407

Or in their pearly shells at ease, attend
⁴²⁶⁷

408

Moist nutriment, or under rocks their food

409

In jointed armour watch.
⁴²⁶⁸
On smooth
⁴²⁶⁹
the seal

410

And bended
⁴²⁷⁰
dolphins play, part huge of bulk,

411

Wallowing
⁴²⁷¹
unwieldy,
⁴²⁷²
enormous in their gait

412

Tempest
⁴²⁷³
the ocean. There Leviathan,

413

Hugest of living creatures, on the deep

414

Stretched like a promontory sleeps or swims,

415

And seems a moving land, and at his gills

416

Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out, a sea.

417

Meanwhile the tepid
⁴²⁷⁴
caves, and fens,
⁴²⁷⁵
and shores

418

Their brood as numerous hatch, from th’ egg that soon

419

Bursting with kindly
⁴²⁷⁶
rupture forth disclosed

420

Their callow
⁴²⁷⁷
young, but feathered soon and fledge
⁴²⁷⁸

421

They summed
⁴²⁷⁹
their pens
⁴²⁸⁰
and, soaring the air sublime,
⁴²⁸¹

422

With clang
⁴²⁸²
despised
⁴²⁸³
the ground, under a cloud

423

In prospect.
⁴²⁸⁴
There the eagle and the stork

424

On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build.

425

Part loosely wing the region,
⁴²⁸⁵
part more wise

426

In common, ranged
⁴²⁸⁶
in figure,
⁴²⁸⁷
wedge
⁴²⁸⁸
their way,

427

Intelligent
⁴²⁸⁹
of seasons, and set forth

428

Their airy caravan, high over seas

429

Flying, and over lands, with mutual
⁴²⁹⁰
wing

430

Easing their flight. So steers the prudent crane

431

Her annual voyage, borne on winds. The air

432

Floats
⁴²⁹¹
as they pass, fanned with unnumbered plumes.

433

From branch to branch the smaller birds with song

434

Solaced
⁴²⁹²
the woods, and spread their painted wings

435

Till ev’n,
⁴²⁹³
nor then the solemn
⁴²⁹⁴
nightingale

436

Ceased warbling, but all night tuned her soft lays.
⁴²⁹⁵

437

Others, on silver lakes and rivers, bathed

438

Their downy breast; the swan with archèd neck,

439

Between her white wings mantling
⁴²⁹⁶
proudly, rows

440

Her state with oary feet; yet oft they quit

441

The dank
⁴²⁹⁷
and, rising on stiff pennons, tow’r
⁴²⁹⁸

442

The mid aereal sky. Others on ground

443

Walked firm, the crested cock whose clarion
⁴²⁹⁹
sounds

444

The silent hours, and th’ other
⁴³⁰⁰
whose gay train

445

Adorns him, colored with the florid hue

446

Of rainbows and starry eyes. The waters thus