The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics)

  Save what the glimmering of these livid flames

  Casts pale and dreadful? Thither let us tend

  From off the tossing of these fiery waves,

  185 There rest, if any rest can harbour there,

  And reassembling our afflicted powers,

  Consult how we may henceforth most offend

  Our Enemy, our own loss how repair,

  How overcome this dire calamity,

  190 What reinforcement we may gain from hope,

  If not what resolution from despair.

  Thus Satan talking to his nearest mate

  With head uplift above the wave, and eyes

  That sparkling blazed; his other parts besides

  195 Prone on the flood, extended long and large

  Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as huge

  As whom the fables name of monstrous size,

  Titanian, or Earth-born, that warred on Jove,

  Briareos or Typhon, whom the den

  200 By ancient Tarsus held, or that sea-beast

  Leviathan, which God of all his works

  Created hugest that swim th’ Océan stream:

  Him haply slumb’ring on the Norway foam

  The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff,

  205 Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell,

  With fixèd anchor in his scaly rind

  Moors by his side under the lee, while night

  Invests the sea, and wishèd morn delays:

  So stretched out huge in length the Arch–Fiend lay

  210 Chained on the burning lake, nor ever thence

  Had ris’n or heaved his head, but that the will

  And high permission of all–ruling Heaven

  Left him at large to his own dark designs,

  That with reiterated crimes he might

  215 Heap on himself damnation, while he sought

  Evil to others, and enraged might see

  How all his malice served but to bring forth

  Infinite goodness, grace and mercy shown

  On man by him seduced, but on himself

  220 Treble confusion, wrath and vengeance poured.

  Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool

  His mighty stature; on each hand the flames

  Driv’n backward slope their pointing spires, and rolled

  In billows, leave i’ th’ midst a horrid vale.

  225 Then with expanded wings he steers his flight

  Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air

  That felt unusual weight, till on dry land

  He lights, if it were land that ever burned

  With solid, as the lake with liquid fire,

  230 And such appeared in hue; as when the force

  Of subterranean wind transports a hill

  Torn from Pelorus, or the shattered side

  Of thund’ring Etna, whose combustible

  And fuelled entrails thence conceiving fire,

  235 Sublimed with mineral fury, aid the winds,

  And leave a singèd bottom all involved

  With stench and smoke: such resting found the sole

  Of unblest feet. Him followed his next mate,

  Both glorying to have ’scaped the Stygian flood

  240 As gods, and by their own recovered strength,

  Not by the sufferance of supernal power.

  Is this the region, this the soil, the clime,

  Said then the lost Archangel, this the seat

  That we must change for Heav’n, this mournful gloom

  245 For that celestial light? Be it so, since he

  Who now is sov’reign can dispose and bid

  What shall be right: farthest from him is best

  Whom reason hath equalled, force hath made supreme

  Above his equals. Farewell happy fields

  250 Where joy for ever dwells: hail horrors, hail

  Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell

  Receive thy new possessor: one who brings

  A mind not to be changed by place or time.

  The mind is its own place, and in itself

  255 Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.

  What matter where, if I be still the same,

  And what I should be, all but less than he

  Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least

  We shall be free; th’ Almighty hath not built

  260 Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:

  Here we may reign secure, and in my choice

  To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:

  Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n.

  But wherefore let we then our faithful friends,

  265 Th’ associates and copartners of our loss

  Lie thus astonished on th’ oblivious pool,

  And call them not to share with us their part

  In this unhappy mansion; or once more

  With rallied arms to try what may be yet

  270 Regained in Heav’n, or what more lost in Hell?

  So Satan spake, and him Beëlzebub

  Thus answered. Leader of those armies bright,

  Which but th’ Omnipotent none could have foiled,

  If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge

  275 Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft

  In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge

  Of battle when it raged, in all assaults

  Their surest signal, they will soon resume

  New courage and revive, though now they lie

  280 Grovelling and prostrate on yon lake of fire,

  As we erewhile, astounded and amazed,

  No wonder, fall’n such a pernicious heighth.

  He scarce had ceased when the superior fiend

  Was moving toward the shore; his ponderous shield

  285 Ethereal temper, massy, large and round,

  Behind him cast; the broad circumference

  Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb

  Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views

  At evening from the top of Fesole,

  290 Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands,

  Rivers or mountains in her spotty globe.

  His spear, to equal which the tallest pine

  Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast

  Of some great ammiral, were but a wand,

  295 He walked with to support uneasy steps

  Over the burning marl, not like those steps

  On Heaven’s azure; and the torrid clime

  Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with fire;

  Nathless he so endured, till on the beach

  300 Of that inflamèd sea, he stood and called

  His legions, angel forms, who lay entranced

  Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks

  In Vallombrosa, where th’ Etrurian shades

  High overarched embow’r; or scattered sedge

  305 Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion armed

  Hath vexed the Red Sea coast, whose waves o’erthrew

  Busiris and his Memphian chivalry,

  While with perfidious hatred they pursued

  The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld

  310 From the safe shore their floating carcasses

  And broken chariot wheels. So thick bestrown

  Abject and lost lay these, covering the flood,

  Under amazement of their hideous change.

  He called so loud, that all the hollow deep

  315 Of Hell resounded. Princes, Potentates,

  Warriors, the flow’r of Heav’n, once yours, now lost,

  If such astonishment as this can seize

  Eternal Spirits: or have ye chos’n this place

  After the toil of battle to repose

  320 Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find

  To slumber here, as in the vales of Heav’n?

  Or in this abject posture have ye sworn

  To adore the Conqueror? who now beholds

&nb
sp; Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood

  325 With scattered arms and ensigns, till anon

  His swift pursuers from Heav’n gates discern

  Th’ advantage, and descending tread us down

  Thus drooping, or with linkèd thunderbolts

  Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf.

  330 Awake, arise, or be for ever fall’n.

  They heard, and were abashed, and up they sprung

  Upon the wing, as when men wont to watch

  On duty, sleeping found by whom they dread,

  Rouse and bestir themselves ere well awake.

  335 Nor did they not perceive the evil plight

  In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel;

  Yet to their General’s voice they soon obeyed

  Innumerable. As when the potent rod

  Of Amram’s son in Egypt’s evil day

  340 Waved round the coast, up called a pitchy cloud

  Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind,

  That o’er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung

  Like night, and darkened all the land of Nile:

  So numberless were those bad angels seen

  345 Hovering on wing under the cope of Hell

  ’Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding fires;

  Till, as a signal giv’n, th’ uplifted spear

  Of their great Sultan waving to direct

  Their course, in even balance down they light

  350 On the firm brimstone, and fill all the plain;

  A multitude, like which the populous North

  Poured never from her frozen loins, to pass

  Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous sons

  Came like a deluge on the South, and spread

  355 Beneath Gibraltar to the Libyan sands.

  Forthwith from every squadron and each band

  The heads and leaders thither haste where stood

  Their great Commander; godlike shapes and forms

  Excelling human, Princely dignities,

  360 And Powers that erst in Heaven sat on thrones;

  Though of their names in Heav’nly records now

  Be no memorial, blotted out and razed

  By their rebellion, from the Books of Life.

  Nor had they yet among the sons of Eve

  365 Got them new names, till wand’ring o’er the earth,

  Through God’s high sufferance for the trial of man,

  By falsities and lies the greatest part

  Of mankind they corrupted to forsake

  God their Creator, and th’ invisible

  370 Glory of him that made them to transform

  Oft to the image of a brute, adorned

  With gay religions full of pomp and gold,

  And devils to adore for deities:

  Then were they known to men by various names,

  375 And various idols through the heathen world.

  Say, Muse, their names then known, who first, who last,

  Roused from the slumber on that fiery couch,

  At their great Emperor’s call, as next in worth

  Came singly where he stood on the bare strand,

  380 While the promiscuous crowd stood yet aloof?

  The chief were those who from the pit of Hell

  Roaming to seek their prey on earth, durst fix

  Their seats, long after, next the seat of God,

  Their altars by his altar, gods adored

  385 Among the nations round, and durst abide

  Jehovah thund’ring out of Sion, throned

  Between the Cherubim; yea, often placed

  Within his sanctuary itself their shrines,

  Abominations; and with cursèd things

  390 His holy rites, and solemn feasts profaned,

  And with their darkness durst affront his light.

  First Moloch, horrid king besmeared with blood

  Of human sacrifice, and parents’ tears,

  Though for the noise of drums and timbrels loud

  395 Their children’s cries unheard, that passed through fire

  To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite

  Worshipped in Rabba and her wat’ry plain,

  In Argob and in Basan, to the stream

  Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such

  400 Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart

  Of Solomon he led by fraud to build

  His temple right against the temple of God

  On that opprobrious hill, and made his grove

  The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence,

  405 And black Gehenna called, the type of Hell.

  Next Chemos, th’ óbscene dread of Moab’s sons,

  From Aroer to Nebo, and the wild

  Of southmost Abarim; in Hesebon

  And Horonaim, Seon’s realm, beyond

  410 The flow’ry dale of Sibma clad with vines,

  And Elealè to th’ Asphaltic pool.

  Peor his other name, when he enticed

  Israel in Sittim on their march from Nile

  To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe.

  415 Yet thence his lustful orgies he enlarged

  Even to that hill of scandal, by the grove

  Of Moloch homicide, lust hard by hate;

  Till good Josiah drove them thence to Hell.

  With these came they, who from the bord’ring flood

  420 Of old Euphrates to the brook that parts

  Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names

  Of Baälim and Ashtaroth, those male,

  These feminine. For Spirits when they please

  Can either sex assume, or both; so soft

  425 And uncompounded is their essence pure;

  Not tied or manacled with joint or limb,

  Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones,

  Like cumbrous flesh; but in what shape they choose

  Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure,

  430 Can execute their airy purposes,

  And works of love or enmity fulfil.

  For these the race of Israel oft forsook

  Their Living Strength, and unfrequented left

  His righteous altar, bowing lowly down

  435 To bestial gods; for which their heads as low

  Bowed down in battle, sunk before the spear

  Of déspicable foes. With these in troop

  Came Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians called

  Astarte, queen of Heav’n, with crescent horns;

  440 To whose bright image nightly by the moon

  Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs,

  In Sion also not unsung, where stood

  Her temple on th’ offensive mountain, built

  By that uxorious king whose heart though large,

  445 Beguiled by fair idolatresses, fell

  To idols foul. Thammuz came next behind,

  Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured

  The Syrian damsels to lament his fate

  In amorous ditties all a summer’s day,

  450 While smooth Adonis from his native rock

  Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood

  Of Thammuz yearly wounded: the love-tale

  Infected Sion’s daughters with like heat,

  Whose wanton passions in the sacred porch

  455 Ezekiel saw, when by the vision led

  His eye surveyed the dark idolatries

  Of alienated Judah. Next came one

  Who mourned in earnest, when the captive ark

  Maimed his brute image, head and hands lopped off

  460 In his own temple, on the grunsel edge,

  Where he fell flat, and shamed his worshippers:

  Dagon his name, sea-monster, upward man

  And downward fish: yet had his temple high

  Reared in Azotus, dreaded through the coast

  465 Of Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon

  And Accaron and Gaza’s frontier bounds.

  Him followed Rimmon, whose delightful se
at

  Was fair Damascus, on the fertile banks

  Of Abbana and Pharphar, lucid streams.

  470 He also against the house of God was bold:

  A leper once he lost and gained a king,

  Ahaz his sottish conqueror, whom he drew

  God’s altar to disparage and displace

  For one of Syrian mode, whereon to burn

  475 His odious off’rings, and adore the gods

  Whom he had vanquished. After these appeared

  A crew who under names of old renown,

  Osiris, Isis, Orus and their train

  With monstrous shapes and sorceries abused

  480 Fanatic Egypt and her priests, to seek

  Their wand’ring gods disguised in brutish forms

  Rather than human. Nor did Israel ’scape

  Th’ infection when their borrowed gold composed

  The calf in Oreb: and the rebel king

  485 Doubled that sin in Bethel and in Dan,

  Lik’ning his Maker to the grazèd ox,

  Jehovah, who in one night when he passed

  From Egypt marching, equalled with one stroke

  Both her first-born and all her bleating gods.

  490 Belial came last, than whom a Spirit more lewd

  Fell not from Heaven, or more gross to love

  Vice for itself: to him no temple stood

  Or altar smoked; yet who more oft than he

  In temples and at altars, when the priest

  495 Turns atheist, as did Eli’s sons, who filled

  With lust and violence the house of God.

  In courts and palaces he also reigns

  And in luxurious cities, where the noise

  Of riot ascends above their loftiest tow’rs,

  500 And injury and outrage: and when night

  Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons

  Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.

  Witness the streets of Sodom, and that night

  In Gibeah, when the hospitable door

  505 Exposed a matron to avoid worse rape.

  These were the prime in order and in might;

  The rest were long to tell, though far renowned,

  Th’ Ionian gods, of Javan’s issue held

  Gods, yet confessed later than Heav’n and Earth

  510 Their boasted parents; Titan Heav’n’s first-born

  With his enormous brood, and birthright seized

  By younger Saturn, he from mightier Jove

  His own and Rhea’s son like measure found;

  So Jove usurping reigned: these first in Crete

  515 And Ida known, thence on the snowy top

  Of cold Olympus ruled the middle air

  Their highest heav’n; or on the Delphian cliff,

  Or in Dodona, and through all the bounds

  Of Doric land; or who with Saturn old

  520 Fled over Adria to th’ Hesperian fields,