First seen, or some renowned metropolis
With glistering spires and pinnacles adorned,
Which now the rising sun gilds with his beams.
Such wonder seized, though after Heaven seen552,
The spirit malign, but much more envy seized
At sight of all this world beheld so fair.
Round he surveys, and well might, where he stood
So high above the circling556 canopy
Of night’s extended shade; from eastern point
Of Libra to the fleecy star that bears
Andromeda far off Atlantic seas
Beyond th’ horizon; then from pole to pole
He views in breadth, and without longer pause
Down right into the world’s first region562 throws
His flight563 precipitant, and winds with ease
Through the pure marble air his oblique way
Amongst innumerable stars, that shone
Stars distant, but nigh hand seemed other worlds,
Or other worlds they seemed, or567 happy isles,
Like those Hesperian gardens568 famed of old,
Fortunate fields, and groves and flow’ry vales,
Thrice happy isles, but who dwelt happy there
He stayed not to inquire: above571 them all
The golden sun in splendor likest Heaven
Allured his eye: thither his course he bends573
Through the calm firmament; but up or down
By center, or eccentric, hard to tell,
Or longitude, where the great luminary
Aloof577 the vulgar constellations thick,
That from his lordly eye keep distance due,
Dispenses light from far; they as they move
Their starry dance in numbers580 that compute
Days, months, and years, towards his all-cheering lamp
Turn swift their various motions, or are turned
By his magnetic beam583, that gently warms
The universe, and to each inward part
With gentle penetration, though unseen,
Shoots invisible virtue586 even to the deep:
So wondrously was set his station587 bright.
There lands588 the fiend, a spot like which perhaps
Astronomer in the sun’s lucent orb
Through his glazed optic tube yet never saw.
The place he found beyond expression bright,
Compared with aught on Earth, metal592 or stone;
Not all parts like, but all alike informed
With radiant light, as glowing iron with fire;
If metal, part seemed gold, part silver clear;
If stone, carbuncle596 most or chrysolite,
Ruby or topaz, to the twelve that shone597
In Aaron’s breastplate597, and a stone598 besides
Imagined rather oft than elsewhere seen,
That stone, or like to that which here below
Philosophers601 in vain so long have sought,
In vain, though by their powerful art they bind602
Volatile Hermes, and call up unbound602
In various shapes old Proteus from the sea,602
Drained through a limbec to his native form602.
What wonder then if fields and regions here
Breathe forth elixir pure, and rivers run607
Potable gold607, when with one virtuous608 touch
Th’ arch-chemic609 sun so far from us remote
Produces with terrestrial humor610 mixed
Here in the dark so many precious things
Of color glorious and effect612 so rare?
Here matter new to gaze the Devil met
Undazzled, far and wide his eye commands,
For sight no obstacle found here, nor shade,
But all sunshine, as when his beams at noon
Culminate from th’ equator617, as they now
Shot upward still direct, whence no way round618
Shadow from body opaque can fall618, and the air,
Nowhere so clear, sharpened his visual ray620
To objects distant far620, whereby he soon
Saw within ken622 a glorious angel stand,
The same623 whom John saw also in the sun:
His back was turned, but not his brightness hid;
Of beaming sunny rays, a golden tiar625
Circled his head, nor less his locks behind
Illustrious627 on his shoulders fledge with wings
Lay waving round; on some great charge employed
He seemed, or fixed in cogitation deep.
Glad was the spirit impure as now in hope
To find who might direct his wand’ring flight
To Paradise the happy seat of man,
His journey’s end and our beginning woe.
But first he casts634 to change his proper shape,
Which else might work him danger or delay:
And now a stripling Cherub he appears,
Not of the prime637, yet such as in his face
Youth smiled celestial, and to every limb
Suitable grace diffused, so well he feigned;
Under a coronet his flowing hair
In curls on either cheek played, wings he wore
Of many a colored plume sprinkled with gold,
His habit fit for speed succinct643, and held
Before his decent644 steps a silver wand.
He drew not nigh unheard, the angel bright,
Ere he drew nigh, his radiant visage turned,
Admonished by his ear, and straight was known
Th’ Archangel Uriel648, one of the sev’n
Who in God’s presence, nearest to his throne
Stand ready at command, and are his eyes650
That run through all the heav’ns, or down to th’ Earth650
Bear his swift errands over moist and dry,650
O’er sea and land650: him Satan thus accosts.
“Uriel, for thou of those sev’n spirits that stand
In sight of God’s high throne, gloriously bright,
The first art wont his great authentic656 will
Interpreter through highest Heav’n to bring,
Where all his sons thy embassy attend658;
And here art likeliest by supreme decree
Like honor to obtain, and as his eye
To visit oft this new creation round;
Unspeakable desire to see, and know
All these his wondrous works, but chiefly man,
His chief delight and favor664, him for whom
All these his works so wondrous he ordained,
Hath brought me from the choirs of Cherubim
Alone thus wand’ring. Brightest Seraph tell
In which of all these shining orbs hath man
His fixèd seat, or fixèd seat hath none,
But670 all these shining orbs his choice to dwell;
That I may find him, and with secret gaze,
Or open admiration him behold
On whom the great Creator hath bestowed
Worlds, and on whom hath all these graces poured;
That both in him and all things, as is meet,
The Universal Maker we may praise;
Who justly hath driv’n out his rebel foes
To deepest Hell, and to repair that loss
Created this new happy race of men
To serve him better: wise are all his ways.”
So spake the false dissembler unperceived;
For neither man nor angel can discern
Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks
Invisible, except to God alone,
By his permissive will, through Heav’n and Earth:
And oft though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps
At wisdom’s gate, and to simplicity
Resigns her charge, while goodness thinks no ill
Where no ill seems: which now for once beguiled
Uriel, though Regent of the Sun, and held
The sharpest sighted spirit of all in Heav’n;
Who to the fraudulent impostor foul
In his uprightness answer thus returned.
“Fair angel, thy desire which tends to know
The works of God, thereby to glorify
The great Work-Master, leads to no excess
That reaches blame, but rather merits praise
The more it seems excess, that led thee hither
From thy empyreal mansion thus alone,
To witness with thine eyes what some perhaps
Contented with report hear only in Heav’n:
For wonderful indeed are all his works,
Pleasant to know, and worthiest to be all
Had in remembrance always with delight;
But what created mind can comprehend
Their number, or the wisdom infinite
That brought them forth, but hid their causes deep.
I saw when at his word the formless mass,
This world’s material mold709, came to a heap:
Confusion heard his voice, and wild uproar
Stood ruled, stood vast infinitude confined;
Till at his second bidding darkness fled,
Light shone, and order from disorder sprung:
Swift to their several quarters hasted then
The715 cumbrous elements, earth, flood, air, fire,
And this ethereal quintessence of heav’n
Flew upward, spirited with717 various forms,
That rolled orbicular718, and turned to stars
Numberless, as thou seest, and how they move;
Each had his place appointed, each his course,
The721 rest in circuit walls this universe.
Look downward on that globe whose hither side
With light from hence, though but reflected, shines;
That place is Earth the seat of man, that light
His day, which else as th’ other hemisphere
Night would invade, but there the neighboring moon
(So call that opposite fair star) her aid
Timely interposes, and her monthly round
Still ending, still renewing, through mid-heav’n;
With borrowed light her countenance triform730
Hence731 fills and empties to enlighten th’ Earth,
And in her pale dominion checks the night.
That spot to which I point is Paradise,
Adam’s abode, those lofty shades his bow’r.
Thy way thou canst not miss, me mine requires.”
Thus said, he turned, and Satan bowing low,
As to superior spirits is wont in Heav’n,
Where honor due and reverence none neglects,
Took leave, and toward the coast of Earth beneath,
Down from th’ ecliptic740, sped with hoped success,
Throws his steep flight in many an airy wheel,
Nor stayed, till on Niphates742’ top he lights.
1–55. This passage of transition from Hell and Chaos to Heaven, known as “the invocation to light,” is at once the most speculative and intimate of the poem’s four invocations (at the openings of Books 1, 3, 7, and 9). The meaning of the light addressed has often been debated. Some identify holy light with physical light, the first of created things (Kelley 91–94), while others think that light here symbolizes some aspect of the Godhead, usually the Son (Hunter et al., 149–56). In the second case, however, Milton in lines 1–8 would be uncertain whether the Son was created in time, whereas elsewhere in the poem (3.384, 5.603), as in his prose (CD 1.5), he is definite on the Son’s created-ness. See 6n.
2. Or the beam coeternal with the Father (and therefore not first-born).
3. express: describe, invoke; unblamed: without being judged blasphemous or improper; God is light: quoted from 1 John 1.5.
3–6. Since … increate: These lines expand on the likelihood that light, being the dwelling of God, is eternal.
4. unapproachèd light: See 1 Tim. 6.16. Even angels shade their eyes with their wings when approaching the dazzling Father (ll. 375–82).
6. effluence: flowing out; essence: deity, the divine essence of the Father; increate: uncreated, without origin.
7. hear’st thou rather: do you prefer to be called; ethereal: composed of ether, the lightest and most subtle element, ubiquitous in the heavens; see 7.244n.
8. Whose fountain who shall tell: whose beginning is unknown and unknowable; see Job 38.19.
10. invest: clothe, wrap; see Ps. 104.2.
12. void and formless infinite: Chaos is void of form, not matter; on its infinity, see 7.168–71n.
14. Stygian pool: classical synecdoche for Hell; long detained: for Book 1 and nearly all of Book 2.
15. sojourn: place of temporary stay.
16. utter … middle darkness: Utter darkness is Hell; middle darkness is Chaos.
17. other notes: Orpheus sang before Pluto in order to secure his wife’s release from death. Milton’s song is not Orphean because he has not sought to charm or bargain with the ruler of Hell. Milton might also be deflating the obscure, pseudomystical night worship found in a poem (“Hymn to Night”) often ascribed to Orpheus.
19. Heav’nly Muse: See 1.6, 7.1, 9.21.
20–21. up … rare: another echo of the Sybil’s advice to Aeneas in Aen. 6.126–29; see 2.432–33n.
23–24. roll … ray: Milton told his Athenian correspondent Leonard Philaras that “upon the eyes turning” he saw in the mist of his blindness “a minute quantity of light as if through a crack” (MLM 780).
25. drop serene: an English translation of the Latin gutta serena, a medical term for complete blindness whose cause is not visible to the physician’s eye. It was thought to result from normally airy spirits and humors congealing into obstructing tumors in the optical nerves. A main cause of the congealing was the body’s inability to rid itself of vapors produced by digestion. See Banister, sec. 9, chap. 1. quenched: put out the sight of; in Milton’s case, the spirits necessary for sight could not, because of the tumors, pass through his eyes. orbs: eyeballs.
26. dim suffusion: translates the Latin suffusio nigra or obscura, another medical term for blindness.
27. where the Muses haunt: Mount Helicon, here a symbol of classical literature itself.
30. Sion: the biblical equivalent of Helicon, and a symbol of Hebrew poetry. See PR 4.346–47 on the preference for Hebrew poetry.
34. “Would that I were their equal in fame.”
35. Thamyris: A Thracian poet mentioned in Homer, Il. 2.594–600. After he boasted that he could outsing the Muses, they blinded him and deprived him of the ability to sing. Maeonides: Homer; his father’s name was Maeon.
36. Tiresias: the blind Theban sage, best known from Oedipus Rex. Among the explanations for his blindness is the anger of Athena, whom he spied bathing. Phineus: Thracian king blinded for revealing the gods’ will in accurate prophecies.
37. voluntary move: of themselves utter (without a further act of volition). The idea is that these thoughts need not be turned into poetry because they are poetry and naturally arrange themselves in harmonious verse.
38. numbers: verse; wakeful bird: the nightingale, who appears often in Milton’s early poetry and also in PL (4.602–3, 7.435–36).
39. darkling: in the dark. The word, become poetic diction, appears in Keats’s “Ode on a Nightingale,” Arnold’s “Dover Beach,” and Hardy’s “The Darkling Thrush.”
47. book of knowledge: the book of Nature. “There are two books from whence I collect my divinity; besides that written one of God [the Bible], another of his servant Nature, that universal and public manuscript that lies expansed unto the eyes of all” (Browne, 1.16)—but not to the blind eyes of Milton.
48. blank: a white or blank page.
49. expunged and razed: “The Romans expunged writing on wax tablets by covering it with little pricks, or razed it by shaving the tables clean” (Leonard).
56–417. The dialogue between Father and Son is
comparable to the “Parliament in Heaven” scene found in medieval mystery and morality plays (Lewalski 1985, 118–21). The four “daughters of God” (Mercy, Truth, Righteousness, and Peace) debated the fate of sinful man, with Truth and Righteousness opposing Mercy and Peace. After a thorough search to find a substitute for man, the Son’s offer to redeem mankind resolved the debate in favor of Mercy and Peace.
60. sanctities: angels.
62. on his right: as in Heb. 1.2–3.
71. this side Night: the side of Chaos (the realm of Night) closest to Heaven.
72. dun air sublime: Satan is sublime (aloft) in the dun (dusky) air between Chaos and our world.
74. this world: not Earth but all creation.
74–76. seemed … air: Viewed from the outside, the universe appeared to be a solid sphere with no sky, surrounded by either air or water.
81. Transports: both “drives” and “bears.”
83. main abyss: Chaos.
84. Wide interrupt: widely breached. Editors usually construe interrupt as a past participle rather than as a noun made from a verb; it indicates the interval between Hell and the realms of light.
90. assay: test.
93. glozing: falsely flattering.
99. As Satan admits at 4.63–68. See also 5.525–43; CD 1.3.
108. reason also is choice: “For reason is but choosing” (Areop in MLM 944). Cp. Aristotle, Ethics 3.2.
119. had … unforeknown: because foreknowledge, “since it exists only in the mind of the foreknower, has no effect on its object” (CD 1.3 in MLM 1175). Leonard’s description of the passage as inconsistent with Christian Doctrine and symptomatic of a breakdown in Milton’s theodicy is confused.
120. impulse: instigation.
129. The first sort: the rebel angels; suggestion: temptation; see 5.702.
135. fragrance: synesthesia; God’s words smell rather than resound.
140. Substantially: In CD 1.5, Milton argues that the Father transferred “divine substance,” but not “the whole essence,” to the Son.
141. visibly: See 6.681–82.
143. uttering: making exterior, bringing out (as in the utter—exterior—darkness of line 16).
152. circumvented: entrapped.
153–54. See Abraham’s plea for the Sodomites (Gen. 18.25).
166. blasphemed: defamed.
168. Cp. Matt. 3.17.
170. My Word: In the New Testament “word” (Gk. logos, Lat. verbum) is a title of the Son (Rev. 19.13); effectual might: the means by which the Father exercises power, as at the Creation; see John 1.1–3.
174. This line might seem to state the Calvinist position that people cannot contribute to their salvation, but see lines 187–90, 302.