The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics)

  264. *expanse from Latin expansum, which correctly translates the Hebrew word rendered as ‘firmament’ in A.V.

  liquid clear, bright, transparent (OED 2).

  266–7. convéx… round vault… universe.

  269. world universe.

  271. Crystálline ocean not the crystalline sphere of iii 482, but the jasper sea of iii 518–19, that flows about the foot of the stair leading to Heaven. See iii 518n.

  273. distemper disturb the due proportion of elements (OED 1), and so reduce them to their raw ‘contraries’ (see ii 898n).

  277. embryon embryo. Earth is both the Great Mother about to conceive (281), and the foetus enveloped (involved) in protective waters. Magna Mater was a title of Cybele, mother of the gods (cp. v 338).

  279. Main uninterrupted.

  280. Prolific humour generative liquid. Earth’s seas now act as penetrating seed as well as nursing fluid. Cp. i 21–2n.

  281. Fermented (from Latin fervere, ‘to boil’) has alchemical overtones (OED 1b), as in: ‘Ferments… Seminal sparks hidden in matter… put into motion, and by the variety of that motion producing the variety of bodies’ (1677).

  282. genial generative.

  288. tumid swollen.

  291. *precipitance headlong fall (OED 1).

  292. conglobing gathering into spheres. At lines 239–40 the entire universe ‘conglobed’. As above, so below. Cp. Marvell, ‘On a Drop of Dew’, 5–8.

  293. crystal wall anticipating the parting of the Red Sea. See xii 197: ‘two crystal walls’.

  ridge direct surge forward in waves.

  296. of armies thou hast heard Raphael again chooses a simile to fit Adam’s understanding. Cp. vi 73–6.

  299. rapture force of movement (OED 2) and joy.

  302. serpent error wand’ring All three words evoke the Fall for the fallen reader, but Adam and Eve hear only the innocent meaning. Thus error implies ‘moral trangression’ (OED 5) but means ‘winding course’ (OED 1). Serpent might be nothing more than a present participle (from Latin serpere, ‘to creep’). See Stein (66), Ricks (110), Fish (130–41).

  308. congregated echoing the Junius-Tremellius version of Gen. 1. 10: congregationem vero aquarum vocavit maria.

  321. swelling] smelling Ed I, Ed II. Bentley’s emendation has been widely accepted.

  322. and] Ed II; add Ed I.

  humble low-growing.

  323. implicit entangled (OED 1).

  325. gemmed put forth blossoms (OED 1a), from Latin gemmare, but suggesting also ‘adorned with gems’.

  331–3. not yet rained… mist Gen. 2. 5–6.

  332. till the ground Cp. Gen. 2. 5: ‘there was not a man to till the ground’. ‘Till’ might include any kind of cultivation (OED 4). Ploughing was unknown before the Fall.

  338. recorded bore witness to (OED 10).

  348. altern *in turns (OED 4).

  351. vicissitude reciprocal succession (OED 4).

  356. of ethereal mould fashioned from ether, which is naturally luminous (iii 7, vii 244).

  357. every magnitude every class of brightness into which the stars are ranked by astronomers.

  360. cloudy shrine the ‘cloudy tabernacle’ of line 248.

  362–4. liquid light… fountain Cp. Lucretius, De Rerum Nat. V281: liquidi fons luminis, aetherius sol (‘the ethereal sun, fountain of liquid light’). Liquid includes ‘clear, bright, transparent’ (OED 2).

  364. other stars Raphael’s first hint that our sun might be one of many stars. He will develop the idea in viii 148–58.

  366. his] Ed I; her Ed II. ‘His’ points to ‘Lucifer’, ‘her’ to ‘Venus’. Fowler prefers ‘her’ since ‘his’ introduces an ‘inappropriate association’ with Satan. But book vii is full of such prolepses (see eg. 302, 412, 427–31, 494–8). Raphael had explicitly named the morning planet as ‘Lucifer’ at vii 131 (cp. v 760, x 425). He never names ‘Venus’. Lucifer has horns in accordance with Galileo’s observations.

  367. tincture active principle emanating from afar (OED 6b), with overtones of the alchemical ‘universal tincture’, the elixir (OED 6a). See iii 600–612 for the sun’s alchemical powers. The context (fountain, urns) also evokes the etymology, from Latin tingere, ‘to dip’.

  368. small peculiar own small light. Kepler and Boyle shared M.’s belief that stars and planets shone with their own light as well as with the reflected light of the sun (Marjara 66–7). See further viii 150n.

  370. First in his east the Flannagan emends to ‘First in the east his’, but the Ed I and Ed II phrasing suggests the freshness of Creation. The new sun does not just arise ‘in the east’: it defines the east by arising there for the first time.

  372. jocund to run Cp. Ps. 19. 4–5: ‘he set a tabernacle for the sun. Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race’.

  374–5. Pleiades… sweet influence Cp. Job 38. 31: ‘Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades?’

  379. In that aspéct i.e. when full.

  382. dividual *shared (OED 3).

  388. Reptile creeping animal (OED 1), translating Junius-Tremellius, reptilia animantia (Gen. 1. 20). A.V. has ‘moving creature’.

  403. Bank the mid sea The fish are so numerous as to form living banks – shelving elevations in the sea where fish gather.

  406–10. Show… play Fowler notes that waved, coats, dropped, and bended are heraldic terms. Cp. the ‘mantling’ swan (439) and ‘rampant’ lion (466) and contrast the haughty impreses of vi 84 and ix 34–7.

  406. waved both ‘glimpsed through the waves’ and ‘striped with “wavy” heraldic markings’ (OED 1c).

  dropped spotted.

  407. attend watch for.

  409. smooth a stretch of calm water (OED 1c, nautical term).

  410. bended suggesting the dolphin’s curved shape as it leaps, but playing also on the heraldic term ‘bendy’ (i.e. divided into diagonal lines).

  411. M.’s eighteenth-century editors noted how the scansion (‘Wállowing / unwíeld/y, enór/mous in/ their gáit’) is numerically unwieldy.

  412. Leviathan Cp. the Satanic Leviathan of i 200–208. It is surprising to re-encounter the simile ‘amidst the joyful numbering of God’s created’ (Fish 150), but this Leviathan is not treacherous, for he resembles a moving land, not an ‘island’ (i 205).

  419. kindly natural.

  420. callow unfledged.

  fledge fledged.

  421. summed their pens brought their feathers to full growth.

  422. clang harsh cry (Latin clangor).

  despised looked down upon.

  422–3. under… prospect The ground seemed to be under a cloud (of birds).

  425. loosely separately.

  region sky.

  426. wedge *fly in a wedge formation (OED 4c).

  427. Intelligent of seasons There are no seasons until x 651–707, when God sends his angels to tilt the earth on its axis. Do the prudent (430) birds sense the imminent Fall? Cp. Jer. 8. 7: ‘the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord’.

  429. mutual wing Birds flying in formation were thought to support each other with their wings (Svendsen 158).

  432. Floats undulates.

  434. Solaced *made cheerful.

  439. mantling forming a mantle.

  439–40. rows / Her state The swan is monarch, royal barge, and rowers all in one.

  441. dank pool, mere (OED 2).

  tow’r soar aloft into (OED 5).

  444. other peacock.

  451. soul] foul Ed I and Ed II. Bentley’s emendation has been widely accepted (‘fowl’ were created on the previous day).

  452. Cattle domestic livestock (not just bovine animals).

  454. teemed gave birth to (OED 1).

  456. *full-grown No hyphen in Ed I or Ed II.

  457. wons dwells.

  461. Those…
these wild beasts… cattle. Future carnivores are already distinguished from their prey. The former rise in pairs (459), the latter in flocks or herds (461–2).

  rare spread out at wide intervals (OED 3a).

  466. brinded tawny with streaks (OED).

  ounce lynx.

  467. libbard leopard.

  470. mould earth and pattern by which something is shaped.

  471. Behemoth a huge biblical beast (Job 40. 15), identified with the elephant. A marginal note in the Geneva Bible also identifies him with the Devil (Hughes).

  474. river horse translating the Greek ‘hippopotamus’.

  475. creeps *creeps along (OED 5a).

  476. worm any creeping animal, including serpents.

  482. Minims smallest forms of animal life (OED 4).

  483. involved coiled.

  484. wings Cp. Isa. 30. 6: ‘fiery flying serpent’.

  485. parsimonious emmet thrifty ant. M. in REW celebrates the ant as an example ‘of a frugal and self-governing democratie or Commonwealth; safer and more thriving in the joint providence and counsel of many industrious equals, then under the single domination of one imperious Lord’ (YP.7.427). Cp. i 768–75, where the monarchical beehive is associated with Hell.

  486. large heart capacious intellect. See i 444n. Cp. also Virgil’s description of bees as having ingentis animos angusto in pectore, ‘huge souls in tiny breasts’ (Georg. iv 83).

  488. popular populous (OED 3) and plebeian (OED 2b).

  489. commonalty common people, with overtones of ‘a self-governing commonwealth, a republic’ (OED 1b).

  493. gav’st them names See viii 342–54 and Gen. 2. 19–20.

  494–8. Needless… call Fish (156) comments: ‘with every other reader I am condemned to see in this praise of the serpent an ominousness that is simply not there’.

  497. hairy mane Cp. the maned sea-serpents that emerge from the sea to devour Laocoon and his sons and so ensure Troy’s fall (Virgil, Aen. ii 203–7).

  *terrific terrifying.

  502. Consummate complete, perfect.

  504. Frequent in throngs.

  505–10. There wanted yet… Govern the rest Cp. Ovid, Met. i 76–7: ‘The nobler Creature, with a mind possest, / Was wanting yet, that should command the rest’ (trans. Sandys, 1632). Ovid also celebrates man’s erect stature (i 84–6).

  505. end completion and purpose.

  508–9. erect / His stature both ‘stand upright’ and ‘elevate his condition’ (OED ‘erect’ 2, ‘stature’ 4), as in ‘Erect my spirite into thy blisse’ (1589). Man’s erect stance is a sign that he was created for Heaven. See viii 259–61, and contrast Mammon, ‘the least erected Spirit’ (i 679).

  509. front brow or face.

  510. *self-knowing Cp. the Platonic and Delphic maxim ‘Know thyself’. See xi 531n.

  511. Magnanimous great-souled, nobly ambitious, lofty of purpose.

  correspond both ‘be in harmony’ and ‘hold communication’.

  528. Express exact, truly depicted (OED 1a), well-framed (OED 1b). Cp. Heb. 1. 3, where the Son is made in ‘the express image’ of God. Cp. also Shakespeare, Hamlet II ii 286f.: ‘What a piece of work is a man… how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god!’

  536. thence both ‘from there’ (the world outside Paradise) and ‘for that cause’ (to subdue the earth).

  537. delicious delightful. See iv 132n.

  544. Thou may’st not ‘Taste’ is understood, the abrupt omission being mimetic of restraint.

  547. Surprise *betray into doing something not intended (OED 4b), overpower the will (OED 1b), catch in the act (OED 3). Cp. the dictionary definition given by Edward Phillips (M.’s nephew): ‘to lead a man into an Error, by causing him to do a thing over hastily’ (1696).

  557. Idea Platonic Form (the sole occurrence of the word in M.’s English poetry).

  559. Symphonious harmonious.

  tuned performed.

  563. stations] Ed I; station Ed II. The singular limits the meaning to ‘appointed place’; the plural plays on ‘station’ as ‘the apparent standing still of a planet’ (OED 5). Cp. vii 98–102, where Adam says the sun will ‘delay’ to hear of its Creation.

  564. pomp triumphal procession (OED 2).

  *jubilant from Latin jubilare, ‘to shout with joy’. There may be overtones of the Hebrew ‘Jubilee’ (see iii 348n), with which jubilare was associated. Cp. vi 884.

  565. Open, ye everlasting gates Cp. Ps. 24. 7: ‘Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in’. Cp. also Fletcher, CV (1610) iv 15: ‘Tosse up your heads ye everlasting gates, / And let the Prince of glorie enter in’.

  575. blazing portals Fowler identifies these with the signs of Capricorn and Cancer, but the Messiah has now left our universe. Raphael likens Heaven’s road to our Milky Way in a simile (577–9). Thus M. overgoes Ovid, Met. i 168–71, where the Milky Way is the gods’ highway to Jove’s hall.

  578. pavement stars Cp. iv 976: ‘the road of Heav’n star-paved’.

  580. zone *belt of the sky (OED 5).

  588–90. (for… Omnipresence] Ed I and Ed II have two opening brackets (before for and such). Most editors remove the first, and so identify the Father as Author and end. Fowler removes the second and cites Heb. 12. 2 (‘author and finisher’) as evidence that the Son is Author and end. All editors assume that there can be only one opening bracket, but it is just possible that M. is breaking the rules of punctuation to suggest God’s omnipresence and to imply that both Father and Son are Author and end.

  596. dulcimer the bagpipe of Dan. 3. 5, rendered as ‘dulcimer’ in A.V.

  597. fret bar on the finger-board of a stringed instrument.

  598. Tempered brought into harmony.

  599. Choral or unison in parts or in unison.

  605. Giant angels The allusion to the Giants’ revolt against Jove implies that the Greek myth is a garbled memory of the angels’ rebellion. Cp. i 50, 199–200, 230–37, vi 643–66.

  619. hyaline transliterating the Greek word for ‘glassy’, used in Rev. 4. 6 (‘a sea of glass like unto crystal’). Cp. ‘sea of jasper’ (iii 518–19) and ‘crystálline ocean’ (vii 271).

  620. immense immeasurable.

  621. Numerous both ‘of great number’ and ‘that can be numbered’ (OED 4). Cp. Ps. 147. 4: ‘He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names’.

  622. destined habitation See iii 667–70 and v 500 for further hints that men might colonize other worlds. At iii 566–72 and viii 146–8 M. conjectures that other worlds might already be inhabited.

  623. seasons Cp. Acts 1. 7: ‘it is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power’.

  624. nether Ocean the earth’s seas, or ‘waters below the firmament’, as distinct from the ‘clear hyaline’, or ‘waters above the firmament’.

  631–2. thrice happy if they know / Their happiness Cp. Virgil on the happiness of simple peasants: ‘O, happy, if he knew his happy state’ (Georg. ii 457, trans. Dryden). Elsewhere M. implies that Adam and Eve lost their happiness by knowing it. See viii 282, ix 1072, xi 89 and esp. iv 774–5: ‘O yet happiest if ye seek / No happier state, and know to know no more’.

  632. persevere including the theological sense: ‘continuance in a state of grace until it is succeeded by a state of glory’ (OED ‘perseverance’ 2).

  634. hallelujahs Hebrew, ‘praise the Lord’.

  636. face of things echoing v 43: ‘Shadowy sets off the face of things’.

  BOOK VIII

  1–4. The… replied These lines were added in Ed II, when M. divided the original book vii into the present books vii and viii. Ed I vii 641 reads: ‘To whom thus Adam gratefully replied’.

  2. charming spellbinding.

  3. still stood fixed So in Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica i 512–16, Orpheus holds his audience spellbound while he sings of Creation. Cp. a
lso Homer, Od. xiii 1–2.

  7. Historian including ‘storyteller’ (OED 2).

  9. condescension consent (OED 4), courteous disregard of rank (OED 1). ‘A beautiful word, which we have spoiled’ (Lewis 79).

  14. solution explanation (OED 1b).

  15–38. When I behold… fails Cp. Eve’s question about the stars (iv 657–8). Adam is now dissatisfied with the answer he had given Eve (iv 660–88).

  15. this goodly frame the universe (echoing Shakespeare, Hamlet II ii 310).

  17–18. spot… atom Astronomers since antiquity had been aware that the earth was a mere speck in the universe.

  19. numbered numerous and reckoned by number. Cp. Ps. 147. 4: ‘He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names’.

  22. officiate minister, supply (OED 4a).

  23. opacous dark.

  punctual point-like (OED 3a), but the modern sense existed and prepares for the idea that the earth has timely motions (128–40).

  25. admire marvel.

  30. For aught appears so far as can be seen.

  32. sedentary *motionless (OED 3b), slothful (OED 2b).

  33. compass circular course (OED 11a).

  36. sumless incalculable.

  45. visit inspect (OED 9).

  46. nursery nursery-garden and the activity of tending it.

  51. *auditress The OED cites ‘auditor’ from the fourteenth century.

  52–8. Her husband… joined The emphasis on Eve’s choice (preferred, chose) softens, but does not remove, the hierarchical implication from I Cor. 14. 35: ‘if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church’.

  61. pomp procession, train. The Graces attended Venus.

  still continually.

  65. facile affable, courteous (OED 4).

  67. Book of God a traditional metaphor for the heavens.

  74. scanned discussed minutely (OED 3a), with a play on Latin scandere, ‘to climb’.