To whom th’ Arch-Enemy,Īnd thence in Heav’n call’d Satan, with bold words Breaking the horrid silence thus began. O how unlike the place from whence they fell! There the companions of his fall, o’rewhelm’d With Floods and Whirlwinds of tempestuous fire, He soon discerns, and weltring by his side One next himself in power, and next in crime, Long after known in PALESTINE, and nam’d BEELZEBUB. With ever-burning Sulphur unconsum’d: Such place Eternal Justice had prepar’d For those rebellious, here their Prison ordain’d In utter darkness, and their portion set As far remov’d from God and light of Heav’n As from the Center thrice to th’ utmost Pole. Serv’d only to discover sights of woe, Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace And rest can never dwell, hope never comes That comes to all but torture without end Still urges, and a fiery Deluge, fed The dismal Situation waste and wilde, A Dungeon horrible, on all sides roundĪs one great Furnace flam’d, yet from those flames No light, but rather darkness visible Lay vanquisht, rowling in the fiery Gulfe Confounded though immortal: But his doom Reserv’d him to more wrath for now the thought Both of lost happiness and lasting pain Torments him round he throws his baleful eyes That witness’d huge affliction and dismay Mixt with obdurate pride and stedfast hate: At once as far as Angels kenn he views Nine times the Space that measures Day and Night To mortal men, he with his horrid crew To bottomless perdition, there to dwell In Adamantine Chains and penal Fire, Him the Almighty Power Hurld headlong flaming from th’ Ethereal Skie With hideous ruine and combustion down To set himself in Glory above his Peers, He trusted to have equal’d the most High, If he oppos’d and with ambitious aimĪgainst the Throne and Monarchy of God Rais’d impious War in Heav’n and Battel proud With vain attempt. Say first, for Heav’n hides nothing from thy view Nor the deep Tract of Hell, say first what cause Mov’d our Grand Parents in that happy State, Favour’d of Heav’n so highly, to fall off From their Creator, and transgress his Will For one restraint, Lords of the World besides? Who first seduc’d them to that fowl revolt? Th’ infernal Serpent he it was, whose guile Stird up with Envy and Revenge, deceiv’d The Mother of Mankinde, what time his Pride Had cast him out from Heav’n, with all his Host Of Rebel Angels, by whose aid aspiring And chiefly Thou O Spirit, that dost prefer Before all Temples th’ upright heart and pure, Instruct me, for Thou know’st Thou from the first Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread Dove-like satst brooding on the vast Abyss And mad’st it pregnant: What in me is dark Illumine, what is low raise and support That to the highth of this great Argument I may assert th’ Eternal Providence,Īnd justifie the wayes of God to men. Invoke thy aid to my adventrous Song, That with no middle flight intends to soar Above th’ AONIAN Mount, while it pursues Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhime. That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed, In the Beginning how the Heav’ns and Earth Rose out of CHAOS: Or if SION Hillĭelight thee more, and SILOA’S Brook that flow’d Fast by the Oracle of God I thence Of Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast Brought Death into the World, and all our woe, With loss of EDEN, till one greater Man Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat, Sing Heav’nly Muse, that on the secret top Of OREB, or of SINAI, didst inspire
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